A fall semester survey at The Ohio State University revealed that students believe The Sundial Humor Magazine is the most popular student organization on campus.
The survey was conducted on the Oval by Chris Ritter, an overachieving third-year in strategic communication eager for extra credit in his research methods class.
“I failed my first exam in my research methods class,” said Ritter. “So I did a quick survey on the Oval for extra credit.”
In the survey, Ritter asked students what student organization they thought was most popular on campus. He said he expected to hear responses like Buckeyethon, Ohio Union Activities Board or 8th Floor Improv Comedy Group. But the responses were almost unanimous, leading Ritter to conclude The Sundial is, without question, the most popular student organization.
“All but five of the 15 students that actually took their headphones out of their ears and answered my question said The Sundial,” said Ritter.
The other five respondents said football, Rent-A-Fence Co., Wexner, slacklining and “We Stand with Jon Waters” supporters.
Rachel Palmer, a second-year studying professional golf management, was one of the exasperated respondents.
“Have I ever heard of The Sundial? Have I ever NOT heard of The Sundial?” said Palmer. “I can’t believe how much I hear about it, like, 24/365.”
The Sundial is one of campus’s oldest organizations; in fact, more than 90 percent of members are over 65 years old. The magazine has been published since 1911 but has since shed its print edition. Today The Sundial only exists in the cloud. According to its mission statement, The Sundial aims to bring grins and giggles to campus “through large-print written comedy,” to improve the computer literacy of its members, and “foster a supportive community for elderly, nontraditional students.”
Ritter’s instructor, however, fears his survey may have been confounded by his survey location.
“Chris approached his respondents near the actual sundial on campus, beside Thompson Library,” said Professor Margaret Hendricks.
Student respondents in the past have not been known to reply to survey questions with the first physical object in sight, says Hendricks, but if they had headphones in they may not have heard the question correctly.
The editor-in-chief of The Sundial, Ivy Decker, said she is excited about the attention the magazine has received,
“We need support to help care for our rapidly aging writers and alumni,” said Decker.
Ritter said does not expect to get the maximum extra credit points because of the confounding variable and the small sample size, but his work will be published in another popular publication, The Fake Lantern.
-Travis Filicky, Staff Member