A randomly selected group of students, professors and administrators received an extensive survey last week designed to gauge attitudes toward homosexuals.
Approximately 1,200 surveys were sent out, according to Trevor Burgess '94. Burgess, the co-chair of the Dartmouth Area Gay Lesbian Organization is a member of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Study Committee, which will review data collected by the survey.
Auguste Goldman '94, the chair of the committee, was awarded $9,700 over four years by the Allen and Joan Bildner Endowment to study gay life at the College. The survey represents the first segment of his two-part project.
The second half will track the attitudes of the Class of 1997 when they first enter and when the graduate, Goldman said last spring.
The survey pool was distributed about equally between the four undergraduate classes, the faculty and the administration, Burgess said.
The 37-question survey asks recipients about their general attitude toward gay, lesbian and bisexual students and faculty members and about incidents of verbal and physical abuse directed toward gays and lesbians.
The survey also asks respondents how they would feel if the College offered gay and lesbian studies courses.
Burgess said the survey was not intended to provide support for a gay and lesbian studies courses, but to examine general viewpoints on gay and lesbian issues.
"Information from the survey has no bearing on ... having a gay and lesbian studies class," Burgess said.
But Goldman said in an interview with The Dartmouth last April that similar studies at other schools have resulted in the creation of gay and lesbian studies courses.
Goldman declined to comment until the survey responses have been submitted.
Other topics on the survey address students' personal experiences with friends who are gay, lesbian or bisexual.
Respondents are also asked what their reactions would be if they found out that a person of the same sex was interested in them romantically.
A short section of the survey is exclusively for students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or "questioning."
The questions asks about the students' experiences on campus, and asks them about incidents of harassment and the amount of support they have received from students and administrators.
The surveys were sent during the last week of October and were accompanied by a letter from Dean of Students Lee Pelton. A dollar bill was included with the surveys as "a thank you for filling out the survey and returning it," the letter from Pelton stated.
The survey was preceded by a letter from Pelton mailed to students a week before actual survey, advising them that they were part of the survey group and that returning the survey would help improve the accuracy of survey results.
Students selected to participate in the survey will receive reminder letters this week from the committee and a card they can return to obtain another survey if they lost the original.
The results will be analyzed over the next several months. "I'm looking forward to seeing many of the results," Burgess said.
