One innovative way to help students make sense of survey research has been to create a multifaceted, collaborative assignment that promotes critical thinking, comparative analysis, self-reflection, and statistical literacy. We use a short questionnaire adapted from the Higher Education Research Institute’s Cooperative Institutional Research Program’s Freshman Survey. In our Research Methods course, students begin by administering the brief questionnaire to a small, nonrandom sample of students at our university. They analyze the data descriptively and compare their “results” to the national trends as part of their required course homework. These data are then quantitatively analyzed throughout all homework exercises the next semester during their statistics course. This collaborative effort bridges methods, statistics, and capstone courses, helping students connect the courses and develop a deeper understanding, awareness and appreciation of the utility of preestablished instruments for collecting primary data and for assessing the meaning of secondary data.

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Research consistently shows that students and faculty are generally against expanding access to firearms on campus, and many stakeholders worry about the effects of campus carry laws on student violence, civility, and feelings of safety. We contribute to this literature by investigating how potential changes to campus carry policies affect students' reported commitment to campus activities. Theories explaining fear of crime and social commitment led to hypotheses that predict members of socially disadvantaged groups-specifically women and minority students-would report less favorable attitudes toward gun possession on campus, greater feelings of vulnerability to victimization, and less commitment to the college environment when students or staff may possess guns. Hypotheses received support, and add to the growing literature documenting potential issues that legislators, administrators, and faculty might consider when debating the enactment of campus carry policies.

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