To rate or berate on evaluations

The process of students completing teacher evaluations at the end of the semester raises more questions than answers.

Departmental policies make the signing of the written evaluations optional. The reason for this, departments say, is to protect students’ anonymity from instructors who may wish to retaliate by giving students lower grades than they earned.

However, if students want their evaluation to become part of a faculty member’s permanent record, they are required to sign the evaluations.

Some students look forward to filling out evaluations because it allows them the opportunity to heap praise on the teachers they have enjoyed. But some students, under the policy of anonymity, have used the forms to issue negative comments, and in some cases personal attacks, on the instructors they have grown to dislike.

The result, some teachers and students say, is a process that can sometimes become unproductive and destructive — a process from which nobody benefits.

“Some students take the advantage to trash the teacher without signing them,” said senior Chris Riggs, a graphics design major. However, he said he thought most students were honest and don’t resort to doing such things.

“If the criticisms are constructive, I pay attention to them,” says Pat Ackerman, nursing professor. While she said that she has never been personally attacked in a student evaluation, she knows of other faculty who have.

The result, Ackerman said, left those faculty members confused and hurt by the attacks.

“Students have a moral responsibility to give constructive criticism,” said Ackerman, and added, “If it is constructive I really want to hear it.”

She said some of the comments she has gotten have made her rethink the way she teaches, and says it has made her more conscious about the approaches she uses when teaching.

Other faculty members have also found themselves caught off guard by some of the bad comments they have gotten from the written evaluations.

“I really wished they had talked to me beforehand,” said Mackey. She felt the problems could have been worked out earlier instead of having them fester without her knowledge.

Mackey said the English Department places high importance on evaluations and takes them all seriously. She agreed with Ackerman that in that she wishes to hear constructive criticism, but added, “I’m interested in specific comments.”

Mark McGehee, a junior in the Construction Management Program said that students should not use the evaluation process just to whine. He said he had no fear of signing his name to his evaluations, and thinks students have a responsibility to be honest and fair in the evaluations.

“I wouldn’t make a personal attack on [a teacher’s] character,” said McGehee of the written evaluations.

McGehee said that some students are to blame for their own problems in the classes, not the teachers. He said these students need to face up to their own shortcomings instead of blaming someone else.

Senior Rebekah Haase, a French major, said that those who write negative comments and hide behind the shadows of anonymity are missing the point of the evaluation.

“You’ve got to take a stand,” said Haase, “This is a democracy.” She said that there are many ways to express displeasure in the evaluation without being obnoxious or rude.

Positive word choice and phrasing, Haase said, could express everything a student wishes to say without sinking to the depths of name-calling. It is a philosophy she thinks all students should use when dealing with evaluations.