Letter to the Editor: Healy off base in last week’s editorial

By Dr. Michael Wood, Chair of Quantitative Sciences Department

In the Department of Quantitative Sciences, we have a passion for data and experiments. That is why Patrick Healy’s editorial,”Circle This Idea” in the Oct. 21, 2022 edition of The Griffin caught my attention. Why is your proposed idea “more statistically sound” than the current FYE analysis? Experiments do not need equal statistics or even more statistics to be valid. What is needed is a statistically significant sample. Eleven out of ten statisticians would agree. My experience of, "our method also has the added benefit of not costing any money or manpower,” rarely happens. Ideas are free, but experiments require time and money. As someone who is successfully funded by the federal government for my research, the people funding an experiment require an in-depth literature search to see if this has already been studied and that there is adequate manpower for the analysis. Moreover, the word data is in quotes; are the data ironic, sarcastic, or imaginary? Data’s feelings are hurt by the “circles” and “rows.” A well-developed proposal would make them feel better.