In order to reduce community resistance to a multi-ethnic/cross-sectional survey by an 1890 institution and to identify those factors which influenced survey completion, 395 white and 335 black heads of households in 19 middle Georgia county areas were surveyed. Since a suit labeling Fort Valley a "diploma mill" had recently been filed by white citizens and since the performing institution was predominantly black, the sample design was considered crucial and an "informed consent" statement was required by the campus' Human Rights Committee. Strategy employed to avoid community resistance involved: (1) an intensive literature review; (2) use of a stratified cluster sample to permit a representative sample at a minimum cost and eliminate the possibility of creating the impression that only certain residents were chosen; (3) development of a non-threatening title for the study via elimination of words such as "poor", "black people", etc.; (4) preliminary visits to local officials explaining the research project; (5) a pretest to determine whether local or outside interviewers were better received (results indicated outsiders were more successful, but tensions prevented whites from applying). Survey success was attributed primarily to: (1) use of the cluster sampling technique; (2) use of the observational survey; and (3) completing all interviews within one day or less. (JC)