Voice of the Reader: Not the majority

Here’s why: the CCC distributed a broad questionnaire to an uncontrolled sample of people targeted through some SIU email addresses and social media with instructions to share widely. If we simply compare CCC survey responses to verifiable numbers of identified target population groups, we know the following: 246 out of 1041 faculty, 75 out of 1347 civil servants, 69 out of 544 AP staff, 240 out of 13,364 students, 68 out of 25,000+ Carbondale residents, and 35 out of 75,000 or so Southern Illinois residents were self-selected respondents of the survey.

These numbers tell another story, like how 24 percent of faculty and 1.8 percent of students are not majorities in their stakeholder populations.

None of the CCC’s targeted population groups had majorities, but SIU stakeholders are not limited to those invited to take their survey. They are also entrepreneurs, industry leaders, trustees, legislators, employers, patients, dependents, organizations, and any person or entity whose fortune rises or falls with SIU’s innovations, successes, or failures. They are diverse and they form a tapestry of concern, cautious optimism, support, ambivalence, excitement, indifference, rejection, and bewilderment--the natural reactions to major change.

A majority of the CCC survey respondents are unhappy and we hear their voices, but they are not the majority — not even close.

Cherie Watson

Carbondale