Essay: Conestoga College Elections Awareness Study.

Possible content:

i.Purpose and scope

ii.Background information if needed

iii.Organization (points to be covered)

Possible content:

• Survey

Presentation of analysis of key facts about what survey says about current state

Specific information presented with an indication of where in the survey the facts came from

• Organized and concise
• Secondary Research

Presentation of insights from secondary research related to the topic or what the survey says about current state

• Organized and concise

Possible content:

• What is significant from the analysis?
• Are there strengths, weaknesses or opportunities based on analysis?

Explain what the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities may be.

Possible content:

• Are there any recommendation based on the conclusions

Explain what these are; relate to facts and conclusions

An institute of advanced and technological learning, Conestoga College is a public college situated in Ontario, Canada. The college is one of the largest colleges around the globe with more the 11,000 full time students and three times more part time students. The college also have 3500 student apprentices. In order to ensure proper functioning of the college the students have the right to elect their representatives for different positions. In this document a detailed discussion on the awareness among the students of Conestoga about the election and election process is made.    

Schools, colleges, societies, business organizations and other forms of organizations conduct elections to maintain democracy in these establishments. Apart from that the responsibilities are assigned to the representatives of the student to ensure proper functioning of the college. A detailed discussion on students’ awareness about election, its importance, the process of election and other important aspects shall be covered (Bracken, 2017).

The purpose of the research here is to find out important facts about the students’ involvement in the activities and services of Conestoga Students Inc. The research is focussed to find out the level of awareness among the students of Conestoga College about the students’ election and activities in general.  

In order to assess the awareness among the students about the students’ election in the college it was important to conduct a detailed study on the subject. The findings of the study made certain assertions very clear. The study was conducted on the students from different courses, different semesters, and different background. There was no pattern to select any particular types of students at the expense of others.

Questions were asked to 88 students from different courses in the college.  The findings from the answers are shown below.

Most students have no idea about the activities of the college:

The findings of the survey showed that overwhelming majority of the students are not even aware of the activities and services provided by Conestoga Students Inc. (CSI). In fact only one of out of every five students on an average are aware of the activities and services of CSI as per the study (Helmers, 2013).

On an average only one out of two students are aware of students’ election but an overwhelming majority out of the 88 students questioned in the study were unable to name the current student representatives of CSI. In fact almost 75% of the students were unable to give the name of the current president of CSI. In addition 90% of the student questioned do not know the name of any other representative of CSI (MD et al., 2016).

Organization

Interest to vote in students’ election:

A very poor reflection of the students’ attitude towards the students’ election is the fact that 61 out of 88 students showed no interest in voting in the election. Also majority of the students never voted in any CSI election (Notzer & Abramovitz, 2010).  

No assistance sought from CSI:

Out of the 88 students questioned in the study an overwhelming majority of 65% students have never sought any advice from CSI.   

Mostly have no knowledge about the students’ representatives.

Along with the college activities hardly any students have the knowledge of different services of college to which they have the right. As a result most students are also unaware of their biggest right to vote in the election of the students’ union in the college (Poli, 2016).        

Students are mostly unaware of students’ election:

It is quite surprising to find out from the study that there was hardly any students who were aware different activities in Conestoga as a results they were also not quite aware of their rights to elect their representatives in the college.

Students are barely interested in students’ election in the college:

The students are barely interested in the voting process of the college. It is mainly due to the lack of knowledge of the students to understand the voting rights and other rights to receive different services from the college.

Very small number of students have been benefitted from the services of the College:

The financial reports of the college for last five years have been evaluated to check the amount of money spent by the college on the welfare activities for the benefits of the student. To the utter surprise of the researchers it was quite clear to see that despite number of initiatives by taken by Conestoga to enhance the satisfaction of the students (Notzer & Abramovitz, 2010).        

The diagram below will help in understanding the level of awareness about different activities of CSI and student elections in CSI.

The pie chart below shows the proportion of total students aware of CSI activities and the proportion of total students are unaware of CSI activities.

The red portion of the pie chart indicative of the number of students who are absolutely unaware of CSI activities. The unawareness of the students about CSI activities is a huge reason that contributes to the lack of interest in the student about the elections of CSI. 70 out of 88 students question in the research said they have no idea about activities and service of CSI. Thus, it’s a very telling stat which shows the lack of communication between the students and the college administration (Sychterz, Schill & Verspagen, 2014).   

Purpose and Scope

The pie chart below shows the results of response from the students of Conestoga. One of the things that have been observed from the study is the lack of knowledge of the students about various activities and services in the college. The pie chart below shows that only 50% of the students are aware of students’ election whereas other 50% of the students are not aware of the election (Warren, 2017).     

Though its seems fair that at-least 45 out of 88 students are aware of the students’ election in the college but the result showed in the chart below will change the perception about the students’ knowledge about the representatives elected by the students for the student by following the democratic process of election.

Only 22 students out of 88 students know the name of the president of CSI means the remaining 66 students do not know the name of the president. This definitely shows the huge gap between the college activities, services and the students’ knowledge.  

However, leaving the above observations aside the most surprising rather unpleasantly surprising is the complete lack of interest on the part of the students to vote in the students’ election in the college. As can be seen in the pie chart below that the red portion of the chart is significantly larger than the blue portion. Red portion indicates the total portion of student who have no interest in voting in the CSI election (Sychterz, Schill & Verspagen, 2017).     

61 out of 88 students question replied they have never voted in the students’ election whereas only 27 students have voted at-least once in the elections of students’ representative in the college.   

Out of the 88 students only 31 students have voted in the election whereas 57 have stayed away from voting.    

Conclusion: 

It is clear from the above document that there is a huge communication gap between the CSI and the students as a result the students are mostly unaware of different activities and services of the students.  The lack of information is the most telling factor that has contributed in rendering the students’ election in the college almost valueless for majority of the students. Considering the huge students’ base both direct and distance this is a definitely a not positive advertisement for the college and its operations.   

In order to ensure that the students of Conestoga take interest in students’ election and other important activities of CSI the college administration must ensure there is effective communication between the college and the students. This will help the students to have specific knowledge of different services and activities of CSI to actively participate in the affairs of CSI including election. Thus, an effective mechanism between students and the college shall be devised to increase awareness of the students to encourage them to participate in different activities and services of the college.    

References:

Bracken, S. (2017). The importance of language, context, and communication as components of successful partnership. New Directions For Community Colleges, 2007(139), 41-47. doi: 10.1002/cc.291

Helmers, M. (2013). Writing Students: Composition Testimonials and Representations of Students. College Composition And Communication, 46(3), 460. doi: 10.2307/358729

MD, D., Hawsawi, A., Alduraibi, S., Alkhelaif, M., Altartouri, M., & Alhwsawi, E. et al. (2016). Stress-related conditions among female students in Almaarefa Colleges,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. International Journal Of Advanced Research, 4(9), 1097-1101. doi: 10.21474/ijar01/1588

Notzer, N., & Abramovitz, R. (2010). Faculty-development activity to promote effective communication between instructors and students. The Clinical Teacher, 7(2), 121-125. doi: 10.1111/j.1743-498x.2010.00340.x

Poli, D. (2016). Strategies for the Promotion of Effective Communication between Teachers and Students. International Journal Of Science And Research (IJSR), 5(6), 1757-1761. doi: 10.21275/v5i6.nov164651

Sychterz, A., Schill, T., & Verspagen, B. (2014). Monitoring Performance of Low Impact Development Measures Implemented at the Conestoga College South Campus. Journal Of Water Management Modeling, 2(3), 12-21. doi: 10.14796/jwmm.c371

Sychterz, A., Schill, T., & Verspagen, B. (2017). Monitoring Performance of Low Impact Development Measures Implemented at the Conestoga College South Campus. Journal Of Water Management Modeling, 27(17), 21-38. doi: 10.14796/jwmm.c371

Warren, E. (2017). Reaching students: Communication from the community colleges. New Directions For Community Colleges, 2017(63), 61-67. doi: 10.1002/cc.36819886308