Class evaluations could simplify registration

A student run coarse evaluation campaign is asking for discourse on the classes College students are taking.

On Monday a Senate advising counsel will mail class evaluations to all College students. There will also be hundreds of evaluations available in the mail room and in dining halls.

These evaluation forms contain questions concerning issues of common interest: Have you gained valuable insights in this course that will help you throughout your college career? Have the class lectures and discussions been intellectually stimulating? Does the course content match the description of the class in the course catalogue?

The questionnaires also ask how many hours per week students spend on homework for a particular class. If enough of these evaluations are returned, members of the advisory counsel will spend next semester calculating and tabulating the results and will produce a booklet detailing the positive and negative aspects of all the courses in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The process of creating these evaluations has not been without difficulties. College sophomore Erika Hansen who is the head of this project said, "Attempting to create a standardized evaluation is problematic because not all of the courses are the same, they all have different dynamics." Because students in the Conservatory have very different criterion for judging professors and courses, these questionnaires concern only courses in the College.

Hansen has tried to contact department chairs and has found them to be unwilling to distribute these questionnaires in class. "The department heads believe this is a student concern that should not take up class time," said Hansen.

Even with these obstacles Hansen continues to believe in the idea of student evaluations. "These evaluations will give students some idea of what to expect from a class. They will have more information than in the course catalogue and will give students more realistic expectations," she said. "While they may not dramatically change the way students choose courses, these evaluations will be especially helpful to new students who do not know about courses."

Carol Nitchman, Registrar office administrative assistant, also agreed with the goals of the coarse evaluations. "These evaluations will probably simplify the registration process. It will be helpful for students to get other's reactions to a course, then they might not take it." However, as with Hansen, Nitchman was made aware of the obstacles facing the evaluations. "There will be some professors who are very against this," she said.

Last semester, Hansen discussed this project with faculty members and the Dean of the College Clayton Koppes to assure them that the questionnaire will be formulated responsibly.

"Some faculty are concerned that grades students receive in a particular course will impact their ratings of it and cause the ratings to be invalid," said Hansen. "From the information I've received it appears that the evaluations that students fill out at other colleges are fair and objective so we are going ahead with this project."

In order to complete the survey, the Senate counsel must receive evaluations from a certain percentage of students from each class so that the results will be valid. Pending the receipt of a sufficient number of evaluations, the booklet should be out by the end of next semester, in time for registration for Fall semester 1999.