Wednesday
Editor in chief: jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
aluations
:
Student evaluations are a mixed blessing. Professors, especial
ly at a public university, need to be accountable to the cus
tomers they are serving. Students should have some say in the
methods and efficacy of the teaching professionals responsi
ble for their education.
On the other hand, most University students are 18- to 22-year
old recent high-school graduates who often have little experience
with higher education. With some safeguards and better access, the
Emerald editorial board believes evaluations could become a valu
able resource for students as well as a useful tool for promotion or
rebuke of professors.
To begin with, all of the categories on the Scantron forms need to be
available to students. Revealing four answers doesn’t give students all
the information they need, nor does it give them an impetus to answer
the other questions accurately. In addition, evaluations need to be easi
ly available to students in an understandable format. For the Emerald’s
recent article on evaluations, reporters had to spend a lot of time trying
to get access to evaluations from each department, and the raw data
from some departments had to be explained by a statistics professor.
The University has capable statistics professors and a great computer
science department; all of the evaluation information could easily be
distilled into a clear, readable format and posted online. Then evalua
tions could be used side-by-side with Duckhunt while students are reg
istering for classes.
One major concern we’ve experienced regarding evaluations is a gen
eral lack of discretion between categories and a somewhat immature ap
proach to evaluating professors. If a professor was an easy grader or gave
easy tests, we know of many students who simply mark every category
with an “A.” If the professor was difficult, every mark is an “F.” If evalua
tions were easily accessible and understandable so students could see the
usefulness of taking a little more time filling them out, the data could be
come more relevant and accurate.
Our concern about the lack of discretion used by students on evalua
tions has another pitfall: If evaluations are used by departments to assess
a professor’s ability and determine promotions or disciplinary ac
tions, professors may be led to “dumb-down” their coursework
and inflate grades, in order to get an “A” in every category.
To remedy this problem, we would like to see only the hand
written and signed evaluations used to promote or rebuke pro
fessors. Departments could still use the Scantrons to get a sense
of professors’ ability, but handwritten comments are generally
more thoughtful and easier to decode in terms of students’ mo
tives. And if you can’t sign your name to a criticism, you must
not believe in it a whole lot.
There are of course, special situations: What if a student believes a
professor in his or her major teaches poorly, but the student will have to
take more classes from that professor? For this, we believe students
should have the option to sign their name but have the department with
hold it from the professor. This way the department can assess the situa
tion and the student is protected from possible retaliation.
Really bad professors require more than just an end-of-term evaluation,
however. As we’ve said in the past, students are paying to learn and need
to be more involved in their education. Students should go talk to a pro
fessor whose teaching style is ineffective or who acts inappropriately in
class. Yes, this can be difficult, but the effort needs to be made. If the pro- -
fessor is equally inappropriate in office hours, then take complaints to the
department head. Stewing about a bad professor all term and then writ
ing a flaming evaluation doesn’t help students who paid for that term.
We all need to take an active approach to learning.
Professors should also take an active approach to improving their
classes. A lew editorial boar d members have had classes where the professor offered a midterm
evaluation, asking questions about the teaching style and the assignments, and then made changes
to be more effective for the rest of the term. This is a fantastic approach, and we would like to see
more of it.
evaluations evaluated
University of Oregon
1. How accessible do you find student evaluations to be?
How useful do you find evaluations to bfi?
2 How accurately do you think students till out evaluations? .mzmmM
How much time do you think students spend ftUtng out evaluations.
, Tn what extent do you think Scantron evaluations should decide a prolesso
rank the idea of evaluations?
Overall, compared to other issues of this size at the University, we think the idea of evaluations is
an “A. ” But overall, compared to how good they could be at the University, we think evaluations
rate a “C.” They need work, so let’s improve them and let them reach their full potential.
Thiseditorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses can be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Giovanni Salimena Emerald
Letter to the editor
A man loses his right to life
when he rapes
I’ve got something to say to Joe Bosnar
(‘“Dead Men Don’t Rape’ sign hinders co
operation, support,” ODE, May 22): Don’t
get so defensive.
Perhaps the girl’s intention was not to
accuse and condemn all men for rape,
but to express a belief that a man can’t
rape again if he isn’t allowed to live. I’m
sure that if you had asked her what her
sign meant, she would have told you.
Dead men don’t rape. The point
seems obvious to me. If a rapist is al
lowed to live, he will rape again, and
again and again.
You wrote that her sign “apparently
had only one goal: to blame all men and
make all men look like rapists.” You said
the sign made you uncomfortable and an
gry. What do you think the girl felt when
she was raped?
I know you aren’t saying that her pain
is unjustified. But the way you jumped to
conclusions about her sign is scary. I sug
gest you do more research the next time
you write on such a sensitive topic.
In my estimation, a man loses his right
to life when he rapes. I personally com
mend the girl with the sign for being
brave and carrying her sign despite the
naive criticisms of people like Bosnar.
“Take Back the Night” is not about
you, sir. It’s about countless women
who have been raped and abused by
countless men. Don’t presume to tell a
rape victim what she can and can not
say to express her pain.
Christine Macfarlane
sophomore
pre-med