Family Feud host, Louie Anderson, won’t be announcing what surveyed MSU students said.

But the information students are being asked to provide will help develop what perception many of them have about the Red Cedar Watershed.

The survey is being conducted by the MSU-WATER research project and is being overseen by Michael Kaplowitz, an assistant professor of environment wildlife policy, and Scott Witter, acting chairperson of the Department of Resource Development.

Kaplowitz said it is a scientific sample of students, which will show how they perceive the campus watershed.

The survey is part of the social assessment component of the project, which will ultimately develop a management plan for the watershed.

“They are in three groups - one group received a post card, one group is receiving the e-mail as their first request and the third is receiving the e-mail and then a post card reminding them,” he said.

To improve responses, replies submitted by Dec. 1 are eligible for one of eight $100 gift certificates for the MSU Bookstore.

“It is still too early to tell about the overall response rate, in fact, it is critical that we have input from everyone,” Kaplowitz said.

The survey includes questions about whether they believe there are problems with the river, what those problems are and what can be done about it.

Resource development graduate student Kelly Kolakowski worked on the survey with Kaplowitz and Witter. She said while she has no real interaction with students on campus, she has heard some of their concerns.

“The general opinion is that most of them consider the river to be in a little bit of trouble environmental-wise,” she said. “I think most of us recognize the river could be cleaner.”

Kolakowski said students need to realize the survey is an important issue to be investigated.

But some students already know the water around campus has had some damage done to it environmentally.

Animal science sophomore Kristen Daddow said she wouldn’t swim in the Red Cedar River.

“But I have seen wildlife in it, which means it can’t be too dirty,” she said.

Daddow said she has seen students toss cigarette butts in the river and has spoken to students who do so.

“Animals live there and there were ducks there and I have seen them eat them,” she said. “I know it can’t be good for them.”

Business sophomore Joe Esbrook said the river is not as clean as other rivers he has seen. And while he has never gotten involved with cleaning the river, Esbrook said he does not do anything to pollute it either.

But he said it would be nice if people got involved in cleaning the river.

“I think it would help clean it up a lot, somebody who can make a difference obviously right now,” he said. “What they are doing isn’t working.”