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University of Massachusetts Amherst
SARIS - Student Affairs Research, Information and Systems
Student Legal Services Survey (F98-E)
On Tuesday, October 27, 1998, Project Pulse
conducted a survey for the Student Legal Services Office (SLS). The survey
was designed to gather feedback from undergraduate students regarding the specific
types of legal services the office should provide. Project Pulse interviewers
attempted to contact 971 students who had been randomly selected from the entire
undergraduate population. Interviewers successfully contacted 594 of these
students, and 469 (79%) agreed to be interviewed. The response rate for
the survey was 48.2%, and the sampling error is plus or minus approximately
five percentage points.
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Table 1: Final Disposition
of the Sample
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|||
|
|
N
|
% of Total
|
% of Contacted
|
| Response rate (In & cooperated) |
469
|
48.2
|
79.0
|
| In, declined interview |
125
|
12.8
|
21.0
|
| Not in |
379
|
39.0
|
|
| Totals |
*973
|
100.0
|
100.0
|
| * Excludes 50 sampled students with unobtainable phone numbers. | |||
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Table 2: Demographic
Summary of the Respondents
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|
|
|
%
|
| Female |
46.3
|
| Male |
53.7
|
| White/Caucasian |
79.7
|
| Asian-American |
5.1
|
| Latino/Hispanic/Chicano |
4.0
|
| African-American/Black |
3.8
|
| Native American |
0.7
|
| Cape Verdean |
1.1
|
| Bi-racial/Multi-racial |
2.3
|
| Other |
3.3
|
| Reside off-campus |
26.8
|
|
Average age = 20.0
|
|
First, all students were asked if they had needed legal advice or representation since they had been students at UMass. Seven percent of the respondents (n=32) said that they had indeed needed legal services. Nineteen of these students reported having gone to Student Legal Services (SLS) for help, while seven said that they had gone to an attorney off-campus. Two students reported having sought the assistance of both SLS and an attorney off-campus.
The nineteen students who had sought help at SLS were asked whether they saw a legal assistant or an attorney. Nine students reported having seen both an assistant and an attorney, four saw an assistant, two saw an attorney, and two saw neither. Fifteen of the students who saw a legal assistant or attorney at Student Legal Services reported that the individual with whom they spoke explained the options and legal procedures pertaining to their case “very clearly.” Fourteen of the students who had received assistance from SLS reported being “very satisfied” with the advice or representation they received, while four reported being “somewhat satisfied.”
Next, all respondents were read a list of six potential legal services in random order and were asked to rate how important it is that each service be provided to students. Respondents rated each of the six items using a scale ranging from 1 to 10 where 1 is “not at all important” and 10 is “very important." Figure 1 illustrates the mean importance rating for each item. As shown, Advisory and Self-Help Services (including legal advice in the following areas: criminal, consumer, landlord-tenant relations, civil rights, and University-related problems) received the highest importance rating on average, while Legal Document Preparation received the lowest importance rating. T-tests were run to determine whether differences in women's and men's importance ratings were statistically significant. The mean importance rating of women was significantly higher than the mean importance rating of men for three of the six items - Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (7.47 vs. 6.89, p = .005), Community Legal Education (6.73 vs. 5.95, p = .000), and Policy Advocacy (7.60 vs. 6.78, p = .000).
Figure 1: Mean importance ratings of six potential Legal
Services
Similarly, all of the students were read a list of eleven categories or areas of legal services in random order, and were asked to rate how important it is that SLS provide services in each area. Students used the same rating scale as for the previous battery. Figure 2 illustrates the mean importance rating for each item. As shown, Civil Rights was the area that received the highest mean rating overall (8.75), followed by University Matters (7.89), and Criminal Law (7.82). The mean importance rating of women was significantly higher than the mean importance rating of men for nine of the eleven items (the two exceptions were Consumer Law and Employment).
Figure 2: Mean importance ratings of eleven categories
of Legal Services
