{"id":969,"date":"1990-12-03T16:17:08","date_gmt":"1990-12-04T00:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/?p=969"},"modified":"2016-09-19T16:17:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T23:17:39","slug":"boycott-course-evaluations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/?p=969","title":{"rendered":"Boycott Course Evaluations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cBoycott Course Evaluations\u201d<\/p>\n

Law Street Journal Article (December 3, 1990)<\/p>\n

By Randol Schoenberg<\/p>\n

Thanks to the single-handed volunteer efforts of Phil Albert, second and third year students could register for courses last week with at least a slight idea of what they were getting themselves into. Although the Course Guide suffered from an extremely low response rate, it was able to provide at least some of the information which we all find essential. What type of a class is this? Does the professor call on students? Was the final fair? Were the students\u2019 comments favorable?<\/p>\n

Phil went to a lot of trouble putting together the guide, but he shouldn\u2019t have had to. Every semester we students fill out long course evaluations before taking our finals. We are asked to measure our professors and their courses on an inane numerical scale which is weighted toward positive responses, and if we really feel like it, we are encouraged to add our own comments. What happens to these course evaluations?<\/p>\n

Last month Dean Bice came to speak to the SBA in response to their request that student course evaluation results be made available for course selection purposes. Bice denied the request without discussion, as he has in the past, but felt compelled to explain in person why he will not release the statistics.<\/p>\n

For over fifteen years the faculty has handed out the Scantron course evaluations and used them for performance review. The results are tabulated and shown to each professor individually. Professors also get a list of unidentified scores for all courses so they can see where they sand in relation to others.<\/p>\n

The Dean says that he uses the evaluation statistics for judging part-time faculty, determining merit salary increases, promotion and tenure decisions. He also emphasized the impact of the comments on young faculty members, most of whom come to USC with little teaching experience and suffer from poor evaluations early in their careers. The Dean says that he reviews the comments and may make suggestions to new professors on how to improve their teaching style.<\/p>\n

All that is well and good, but so far there is no reason not to disclose the results to students. But Bice feels\u2014apparently very strongly\u2014that publication of the evaluation results would embarrass some faculty members. For that reason alone he opposes any disclosure of the student course evaluations. He also expressed disapproval of the student Course Guides from last year. \u201cI cringed when I saw it last year,\u201d he said, \u201cI really felt badly about some of the comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bice would rather protect the hurt feelings of bad teachers than let students have reliable information on which to base their course selection decisions. There is no doubt that students want evaluation materials. No one likes to pick a course blindly, and word of mouth often isn\u2019t enough. Bice told the SBA that he felt the course descriptions in the student handbook were enough, but that he would be glad to provide more information so long as it wasn\u2019t \u201can evaluation.\u201d What is wrong with evaluations?<\/p>\n

Bice compared the evaluations to grades. Students would not want their grades publicly disclosed, why should teachers? But students do have to disclose their grades in order to get a job. \u00a0Sure, if we had the power we could band together and all refuse to disclose our grades to employers, but we don\u2019t have that power. Bice and the faculty think they have the power to withhold the information we want.<\/p>\n

The problem is that Bice needs students to complete the evaluations. He uses those evaluations.\u00a0\u00a0 He wants them. If we refuse to fill them out, he is stuck. We have the right to course evaluation statistics. After all, we are the ones who provide all the information. If we want the results, we should have them. And if we aren\u2019t given the results, we should refuse to contribute the evaluations.<\/p>\n

Because of Dean Bice\u2019s adamant refusal to allow the disclosure of the information we provide, the Law Street Journal is calling for a school-wide boycott of course evaluations for this finals period. Unless Bice consents to release the evaluation statistics, he should not have any statistics. Unless he changes his mind, all students should refuse to fill out the course evaluation forms.<\/p>\n

Many students already neglect to fill out the forms before taking their final. It shouldn\u2019t be too hard to leave the sheet empty. But this semester, in order to counteract this boycott, proctors will insist that everyone completes a form. If it becomes impossible to boycott, I urge students to sabotage the forms, either by giving only the lowest number or by filling in more than one oval for each question.<\/p>\n

I also fervently hope that first years will join this boycott. Although no one has a choice of first year professors, next year you will have choices. If you boycott now, you will be more likely to have the information next year when you will really need it.<\/p>\n

This boycott will succeed. The faculty will not give up course evaluations. If they have to, they will disclose the results in order to keep them. Bice says he uses the evaluations for so many things. Does he really want to do without them?<\/p>\n

Here again are the arguments for a full disclosure:<\/p>\n