Teacher evaluations that students fill out at the end of the semester are no longer available for viewing on the Student Association's (SA) Web site. The site hadn't been updated since the evaluations switched from in-class bubble sheets to online surveys, according to SA President Peter Grollitsch.
SA pulled down the evaluations, which were part of their Student Services section, when they became four semesters outdated. Some teachers listed on the site no longer worked at UB.
The surveys are collected by each individual school or college, and, in the past, were edited for content and given to SA to post for student viewing. Grollitsch said his office hasn't received any of the evaluations since they changed to the online form.
"Our understanding was that the schools would put them online," he said. "If we were to get the information, I'd have no problem reviving it."
The end-of-the-year e-mails that hound students to fill out the teacher evaluations will still be sent out because those surveys help give professors and administrators an idea of their performance.
"As faculty read the evaluations, and take the feedback seriously, they address the issues students take up with them and change or improve their teaching," said Patricia Carey, assistant vice provost for faculty affairs.
The information that was previously made public was a summary of the student answers to whether they would recommend the professor and the course to others. Carey said that state budget cuts and other factors have left the school without the personnel to put the survey information online.
"It's definitely been a goal to publish them again online, but we haven't had the opportunity or the manpower," Carey said.
Making do without the SA evaluation site hasn't been a problem for most students, as many have found other Web sites more informative than the one previously provided by SA. Only a fraction of the survey questions were put online and schools edited student responses, presumably to eliminate inappropriate comments.
"With the emergence of other online sites that were more realistic and unedited, it's given a more realistic perspective to students," Carey said.
Ratemyprofessors.com has become popular in recent years as almost a necessary precursor to choosing classes. The site gives students the power to preview a professor based on what past students have said about him or her. It allows students to leave comments and give ratings over a broader range of categories than those once featured on the SA Web site.
"Ratemyprofessors.com is more complete and has more details about the teacher," said Jessica Thies, a junior history major.
Many students were unaware that SA even posted the teacher evaluations in the past.
Dallas Moden, a sophomore business major, said he wouldn't have trusted the school-posted responses had he known about them because students might be afraid to make negative comments about their teachers on a school-sponsored site that the teacher might see. With other online sites, students feel freer to speak their minds.
Others think that regardless of the Web site's affiliation, student evaluations of professors can't be taken too seriously when anyone who might have received a bad grade would present a skewed perspective.
"You have to go through word of mouth and do your homework because ratings don't mean anything," said Liz Mariani, a graduate student in the Department of Global Gender Studies. "If someone finds a professor attractive, they get a good rating."
According to Carey, the College of Arts and Sciences is going through a transition period and a new administrator will be in charge of the surveys this year. The future of the evaluations being made public is unknown.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
