The survey was intended to allow students to indicate which activities they want the AAS to support financially, but the results were inconclusive.
The survey asked students their spending priorities for 12 different categories of clubs. Since each student could indicate their priority for each of twelve categories, results were confusing.
For example, service clubs earned the fourth-highest number of "1" priority rankings, but earned the highest number of "2" priority rankings.
Varsity club sports received 78 votes (20 percent) of total 1 priority votes but simultaneously received 59 votes (15 percent) for the twelfth spot.
"The results of the survey, as they are now, are of little, if any, help to the budgetary committee," said AAS treasure Paris Wallace '04.
Wallace believes that the survey will provide little assistance to the AAS. "By voting on groups of clubs, the survey became far too complicated. If you look at the results now, they are virtually incomprehensible. There's nothing in the results of the survey that we can use to help us in making changes," he said.
Last spring, senators decided the most efficient way to determine student interest in club funding was by having students fill out a survey. In a referendum, 77 percent of the student body approved the idea of the survey.
The wording of that referendum indicated that students could vote on their interest in funding specific groups, rather than indicating their interest in funding general categories of groups as was the case in last week's survey.
After the referendum approving the survey, senators decided to change the breakdown of the survey. "Shortly after the referendum, the senate voted to change the method of polling from individual clubs to groups of clubs," said Wallace.
The student body approved the change in polling in another referendum held online last fall.
"Those of us making decisions about the budget really don't know how the student body wants us to spend its money," said Wallace.
"We came up with the idea of the survey so we could get a consensus that would enable us to better do our job," he said.
Senators intend to administer the survey once more to try to obtain more conclusive results before they discuss changing the survey format.
Also on last Thursday's ballot was the run-off election for two class of 2004 senate seats, in which 111 seniors voted. Seniors elected Livia Angiolillo '04 with 68 votes (38 percent of the votes) and Blake Sparrow '04 with 49 votes (28 percent of the votes).