My research and analysis for Pack Poll:
How much pride do you have in being a student at NC State? When State students were asked how much they agreed with the statement “I am proud to be a student at N.C. State,” 94% agreed, up slightly from 90% who said this in the Fall 2011 Pack Poll. The share of N.C. State Students who said they feel this way “strongly” also increased slightly, from 65% in 2011 to 68% in 2012.
Maybe students feel more pride because of the men’s basketball team’s highly praised performance in the NCAA tournament? Overall, 87% of N.C. State students said they were proud of men’s basketball team’s performance, and 65% reported feeling that way “strongly.” The linkage to feeling proud to be a student at State is clear: 99% of those who expressed strong pride in the basketball team were also proud to be a student at State. That figure declined to 90% if pride in the team was not strongly felt, and just 78% among students who said they were neutral regarding the team.
The Right Direction
While students are not satisfied with the direction of the country, fully 67% of them say things at N.C. State are “generally headed in the right direction.” Just 7% thought that N.C. State is on “the wrong track,” while about a quarter (26%) was unsure. Students who said things at N.C. State are headed in the right direction were slightly more likely to say they had or were going to vote in the 2012 Spring NCSU student body elections. Over half (51%) planned on voting if they said State was headed in the right direction, while 43% were going to vote among those who thought the opposite. The belief that things at N.C. State are generally in the right direction was also significantly positively associated with the feeling of pride in being a student at N.C. State.
Class Pride
Freshmen are much more optimistic about the direction of N.C. State than students in any other class. A significantly higher proportion of freshmen at N.C. State say that N.C. State University is generally headed in the right direction. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of N.C. State freshman say that N.C. State is headed in the right direction. Although a sizable majority (69%) of sophomores still agree that N.C. State is on the right track, just 62% of juniors and 64% of seniors feel this way. Underclassmen are also shown to be less likely to see N.C. State to be heading in the wrong direction, with freshman saying that N.C. State is on the wrong track just 4% of the time, while just 6% of sophomores report feeling similarly. More than twice as many juniors (10%) and seniors (9%) feel that N.C. State heading in the wrong direction than their freshman counterparts.
I am proud to be a student at N.C. State…
Strongly Agree Agree Total Freshman 73 21 94 Sophomore 65 29 93 Junior 67 27 95 Senior 68 26 94
Disagree Strongly Disagree Total No Opinion Freshman 1 1 1 5 Sophomore 2 1 2 5 Junior 1 1 2 4 Senior 3 0 3 3 Nearly all students (94%) in each class at N.C. State agreed that they feel proud to be N.C. State students, while nearly no one disagreed. Just 1% of freshman, 2% of sophomores and juniors, and 3% of seniors reported that they do not feel proud to be a student at N.C. State. The vast majority (73%) of freshman express strong pride in being a student at N.C. State. More than two-thirds of juniors (67%) and seniors (68%) also strongly agree with the statement “I am proud to be a student at N.C. State,” while slightly less (65%) sophomores strongly feel this way. Males and females did not differ significantly in their opinions on the direction of N.C. State or in pride in being an N.C. State student.
Anna Massoglia 