To see to what extent Rice students found standing water a problem on the campus, we conducted an extensive survey. Each survey had twelve questions, and some questions had several parts. Each question had five answer choices: none, very little, some, quite a bit, and very much. Some questions had a place to write in additional responses. At the end of this section is a copy of the survey that we distributed.
We handed out 400 surveys, 50 to each college at either lunch or dinner, by either approaching the tables or handing them out at the end of the pay line. We had a fairly good response and many people were very willing to fill out surveys. We received 45-50 surveys back at every college; some people threw away or walked off with a survey. I had people give me comments afterward such as, "that was a really good survey" or "that was fun." One girl at Jones handed back my pencil broken because she had written her responses with so much enthusiasm. "I'm so glad you're doing something about this!" she exclaimed. "I've been swimming to my classes for four years!" In addition, one person later mentioned to me that since he had filled out the survey, he was noticing standing surface water all over campus.
We did this because some people did not answer a question and we gave 0 points for no answer. Also, we did not receive all 50 back at every college. In order for all the other answers to count equally, we had to divide by the total number of surveys to get an average answer. This score is what is graphed in the charts that follow.
None = 0 points
Very little = 1 point
Some = 2 points
Quite a bit = 3 points
Very much = 4 points
Score = [total (none)*0 + total (very little)*1 + total (some)*2 + total
(quite a bit)*3 + total (very much)*4]
total number of surveys received
The six specific areas for flooding problems that received the highest scores include: between Wiess and Hanszen, between the Rice Memorial Center and Herring Hall, Virgin's Walk, behind Fondren, the Intramural Fields, and east of the track field (Chart 4). Note that Virgin's Walk was a significant problem area for Jones and Brown, and not for other colleges. The area that received the highest scores was the area between Hanszen and Wiess, of particular concern to Hanszen and Wiess, and of no concern to Jones and Brown.
Question 4 was a general question that asked "To what extent do you feel that the Rice campus has a problem with flooding and standing surface water?" Chart 1 shows the number of people who answered each answer choice at each college. Chart 2 shows the score of this general question for each college.
Question 5 asked how much standing water interfered with usual activities in four general areas: use of playing fields, use of campus green space (not playing fields), use of parking areas, and use of sidewalks. Most colleges felt that standing water interfered the most with their use of sidewalks, and least with parking areas (Chart 3).
Some questions on the survey had blank lines to write in a particular area that was problematic. The list that follows shows most of the write-in responses. Question 6 included a question about problematic parking areas, so many of the write-ins included paved areas, such as Hanszen, stadium, and Lot X parking. Major green areas include the Sid Richardson sidewalks, the Hanszen quad, the Baker quads (including by the swing), Jones field, between Sid and Lovett, the area between Wiess and Hanszen (students added this in addition to the specific question in #6), and the Baker front walk. We should note that some very wet areas east and southeast of Cohen House and southeast of O'Connor house did not show up on the surveys as problematic because those areas are rarely used by the students.
Many people also mentioned the fact that they disliked the mosquitoes
that tended to live around the standing water (score 1.9-2.8), or that
the standing water affected the aesthetics of campus (score 2.2-2.9).
Question 12 asked about incorporating native plants in relandscaping, and
the responses, which ranged from 1.74 to 2.24, were in the some range,
but quite surprising nonetheless. From these surveys, we can see
that the students at Rice do perceive the standing water to be a problem
that should be addressed.
|
Problem Areas |
|
|
Hanszen parking lot |
30 |
|
stadium parking lot |
27 |
|
Sid sidewalks |
25 |
|
Hanszen Quad |
22 |
|
Baker quads, including by the swing |
22 |
|
Jones Field |
20 |
|
Lot X parking lot |
16 |
|
Jones parking |
15 |
|
between Sid and Lovett |
15 |
|
area between Wiess and Hanszen |
15 |
|
Library parking lot |
14 |
|
Baker Front Walk |
14 |
|
Will Rice College Quad |
13 |
|
Allen Center Parking lot |
13 |
|
acabowl at Wiess |
13 |
|
Sid parking |
11 |
|
Herring Hall Parking lot |
11 |
|
Sid country club |
10 |
|
mosquitoes |
10 |
|
Lovett quad |
10 |
|
sidewalk beside Allen Center |
9 |
|
inner loop |
9 |
|
backabowl at Wiess |
9 |
|
Wiess parking lot |
8 |
|
Virgin's walk |
8 |
|
quad between Hanszen, Wiess, Baker and Will Rice |
8 |
|
sidewalks to library |
7 |
|
path between Jones and Brown (by Fairy Fountain) |
7 |
|
Laboratory Row parking |
7 |
|
Between Baker and Allen Center |
7 |
|
slippery/wet sidewalks, walking to class |
6 |
|
between Jones North and South |
6 |
|
Wiess |
5 |
|
sidewalk in between baker and will Rice from Lovett |
5 |
|
sidewalk behind Fondren |
5 |
|
path to Lovett from razor |
5 |
|
Lovett basement |
5 |
|
entrance 8 (Stockton) |
5 |
|
Cameron Field |
5 |
|
aesthetics (enjoyment of nature) |
5 |
|
odors |
4 |
|
Jones outer commons |
4 |
|
biking, rollerblading, running |
4 |
|
between Razor and Sewall |
4 |
|
between Baker and Will Rice |
4 |
|
walking to the gym |
3 |
|
sidewalks between Sid and Will Rice |
3 |
|
rugby field |
3 |
|
lacrosse field |
3 |
|
dirt path between Sid and Wiess |
3 |
|
baker basement 6th/7th entrance |
3 |
|
Will Rice College basement |
2 |
|
walking off sidewalks to track |
2 |
|
steamtunneling |
2 |
|
RMC |
2 |
|
powder puff field |
2 |
|
outer loop |
2 |
|
grassy area between Razor and Baker |
2 |
|
getting to class |
2 |
|
Brown parking lot |
2 |
|
between Baker and Wiess |
2 |
|
area behind Will Rice College commons |
2 |
|
walkway between willy's statue and eng. Quad |
1 |
|
walk from grad house |
1 |
|
the outside by bikeracks |
1 |
|
subground hallway to laundry room at Hanszen |
1 |
|
soccer field |
1 |
|
sidewalks near physics amp on loop |
1 |
|
sidewalks from acad. quad to Hanszen |
1 |
|
sidewalk to Abercrombie |
1 |
|
puddle in RMC lot along the loop |
1 |
|
public events |
1 |
|
North lot |
1 |
|
lot R |
1 |
|
laying out |
1 |
|
inner loop by CEG/Eng |
1 |
|
in between Anderson and physics bldg |
1 |
|
Hanszen master's driveway |
1 |
|
getting on the bus |
1 |
|
BNP at Hanszen |
1 |
|
between Duncan and physics labs |
1 |
|
baseball field |
1 |
|
Baker upper 4th Balcony |
1 |
|
allergies (mold) |
1 |
Problem 3: "Hardscaping"