Cornell Empire State Poll to give insight on state residents and their views

By Linda Myers

How safe is New York state according to the people who live here? What do New Yorkers believe are the most pressing problems facing the state today? And how does the state stack up as a place to find good jobs with benefits and room for advancement?

The answers to those and a range of other questions can make an enormous difference in everything from state policies to federal grants. But while many other states have long had reliable, nonpartisan annual survey data on their residents, New York state hasn't ... until now.

This June the results of the first ever Cornell Empire State Poll will be released. The new poll is a joint initiative between the Survey Research Institute (SRI) at Cornell and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, with assistance from the Department of Communication and other Cornell research departments.

Yasamin DiCiccio Miller, director of the SRI, says that the 2003 Cornell Empire State Poll is the first concerted effort of its kind within the state to collect long-term, annual benchmark data on New York state residents' characteristics, demographics, experiences, attitudes, and behaviors toward their workplace, local community, state economy, state government and media, and gauge their views on political and social issues. The inaugural poll this year specifically addresses key topical issues that include New York state safety and security, employment, views on affirmative action and workplace satisfaction, she reports. A representative sample of 800 residents from across New York state are being interviewed for the poll via telephone from mid-April through mid-May, with findings available in June. The names of those who participate as well as their individual responses will remain confidential.

"With the creation of the Cornell Empire State Poll, New York state finally joins the ranks of 33 other states that conduct annual surveys of their residents to better understand statewide trends and public sentiments," said DiCiccio Miller. "The SRI is excited and thrilled to be at the forefront of this effort. We hope that by providing an annual set of core data on New York state, the Empire State Poll becomes a key resource for state policy-makers, researchers and media alike."

SRI was established at Cornell in 1996 under an earlier name, the Computer Assisted Survey Team (CAST). Since then it has increasingly grown in breadth and depth in terms of the survey research it conducts, with capabilities for extensive telephone, mail and Web survey data collection. The name change to the Survey Research Institute was made this year to better reflect the full range of survey research services and capabilities it offers to its clients and the research community. With a state-of-the-art data collection and analysis facility in the heart of Cornell's campus, SRI has been well-situated to conduct several major national and state studies on such subjects as the health and safety issues of New York City firefighters, major trends in the telecommunication industry, rising tuition at universities, how people cope with aging and careers, and topical issues such as support for civil liberties and the war in Iraq.

The SRI has more than 60 highly trained paid staff members and a facility on campus equipped with sophisticated computer-assisted telephone interviewing stations. The facility also is an important learning environment for Cornell students, who undergo extensive training before making their first phone call and receive ongoing training on survey and research protocols. All calls are monitored to ensure that people being surveyed understand the questions and their responses are recorded correctly.

Faculty members involved in the initiative are: Ronald Seeber, associate professor in ILR; Lou Jean Fleron, senior extension associate; and James Shanahan, associate professor of communication. For further information, contact: DiCiccio Miller at 255-0148 or yd17@cornell.edu; Erik Nisbet at 255-0375 or ecn1@cornell.edu; or visit this Web site: http:// www.sri.cornell.edu.