Despite complaints among Sacramento State students regarding all the frills the university is lacking, the people of Sacramento and surrounding communities hold Sac State in high esteem.

According to the third Annual Survey of Public Opinion and Life in the Sacramento Region, 84 percent of adults in the Sacramento area think the campus offers an excellent education, and 90 percent say the campus is vital to the region’s prosperity.

Each year the survey looks at several different issues confronting the community, and it also attempts to track existing issues.

Sac State sociology professor Amy Liu conducted the survey from Feb. 7 to March 2, which accounted for 1,003 adults ages 18 and older in the Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties.

Liu included a few questions on the survey in regards to Sac State.

Ultimately, the study helps the university to understand its relationship and importance to the community.

“We are the Sacramento region’s major university and we want increasingly to be an asset to and player in regional development,” said Joseph Sheley, dean of the college of social sciences and interdisciplinary studies. “To do that, we have to connect with the community.”

In order to accomplish that, 30 undergraduate students conducted computer-assisted telephone surveys as part of a research project for Liu’s sociology class.

The 2004 study also encompasses many other issues such as budget, traffic congestion, health care, affordable housing, air pollution, growth and economy. Some of the findings from the survey indicate that democrats are more likely than republicans to think the budget deficit is a big problem for local governments in the region.

According to the survey, Sac State students are divided about how affordable their education is. Ethnic minorities and those with an income of $30,000 and below are less likely to think Sac State provides affordable education.

“Socioeconomic status matters, as one would expect in an era in which funding for universities and fees have been hard hit,” Sheley said.Perceptions of traffic congestion differ by county, and according to the survey, residents of Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer Counties are more likely than residents of Yolo County to regard traffic congestion on major roads as a problem area.

The survey also touched on subject matter concerning support for the war in Iraq and for President George Bush.

Residents in the Sacramento region are just as divided on the war in Iraq this year as they were last year, however, support for President Bush declined over the course of the year.

Sheley says he intends to keep the study going.

“This is very important for current Sacramento State students,” Sheley said. “The results suggest that we have a base of support in the community during a period in which state budgets are fairly difficult for students to attend the CSUs. We need supportive voices.”