SOUTHEAST STUDENTS FAVOR CLINTON ACCORD9ING TO POLL

The Democratic presidential ticket of Bill Clinton and Al Gore topped President George Bush and Dan Quayle in a poll of students at Southeast Missouri State University last week.

However, Bill Webster, Republican candidate for Missouri governor was a winner over his Democratic challenger Mel Carnahan.

The survey of 337 students, conducted by the university's political science department, showed Clinton capturing 47.8 percent of the votes and Bush with 31.4 percent. Independent H. Ross Perot collected 5.9 percent of the vote; 0.9 percent voted for other and 13.9 percent were undecided.

Webster collected 39.5 percent of the vote and Carnahan had 27.9 percent; 0.3 percent voted for other and 32.3 percent were undecided.

Glynn Geary, graduate assistant with the political science department, said, "We started with just a simple survey of who will you vote for. Then we decided to take a look at issues."

Geary said 15 issues were identified as important in the presidential campaign. Students were asked to select the issues most important to them.

The top issue for students was unemployment with 88.8 percent of those surveyed listing it as very important or important. Education came in second with 87.5 percent listing it as very important or important.

Other issues, in order of importance according to the survey, were deficit, environment, health care, welfare, war on drugs, civil rights, city violence, racism, trade, ethics, family values, foreign policy and term limits.

Geary said, statistically speaking, the survey was biased because of the large number of young voters polled. But he said it represents a good cross-section of the university population.