Political Science

Go behind the scenes with leading pollster David Paleologos as you learn how to ask the right questions and analyze data that drives the political conversation. Not only will you craft and field a real poll on a topic the class chooses, but you’ll also have the opportunity to contribute questions to national polls conducted by the Center. It’s a unique resume-building experience that’s helped launch alumni directly into careers in the industry.

Established in 2002, the Suffolk University Political Research Center (SUPRC) conducts statewide and national surveys as well as bellwether polls. It examines political races and analyzes voters' opinions on key issues. Suffolk’s presidential polls have predicted outcomes in key battleground states, and its innovative Cityview polls provide valuable insight into major urban areas across the country. Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com ranked the SUPRC at the top of its list of “The Most and Least Accurate Pollsters of 2021-22" for its polling of the 2021-22 Senate, House and gubernatorial races.

Suffolk is consistently ranked among the best colleges for student voting—and your involvement doesn’t have to end there. Suffolk Votes is a non-partisan, university-wide effort to get students registered, educated, and out to vote in local, state, and national elections. Our students organize voter walks to help others find their polling places and staff the polls themselves to keep democracy functioning.

In the fall leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, Suffolk Votes Ambassadors visited more than 50 classrooms, helping to reach over 1,000 students. It’s youth involvement like this, says former Center for Community Engagement director Adam Westbrook, that has helped increase the number of 18-24 year-old registered voters in Massachusetts by 33% from the last midterm election in 2018.

When leaders speak, don’t just listen—join the conversation. In partnership with the GBH Forum Network, Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University, and The Washington Center, our “open classroom” event series brings leading voices in policy, law, media, academia, and other fields to campus to discuss the most pressing issues we face today.

Panelists have explored Politics in the Time of Global Pandemic, and the challenges facing the Biden administration in its first one hundred days and heading into the 2022 midterm election. The latest series, Our Issues. Our Voices. Our Votes., examined complex topics such as gun violence and the proliferation of misinformation.

Suffolk students ask questions of every panelist—including current and former members of Congress, leaders from organizations such as The Brookings Institution, The ACLU, The NAACP, Atlantic Council, and the Rand Corporation, and journalists from Vox, Politico, ProPublica, The Boston Globe, C-SPAN, The New York Times and The Washington Post—and appeared alongside distinguished experts during a series on youth voter engagement.