BYU NewsNet - Viewpoint: Faculty's Dilemma - Role of Student Evaluations

I'd like to compliment The Daily Universe for the careful thought that went into last week's editorial on student ratings. I'd like to expand on a couple of themes in the hopes that students and the administration will understand these issues from the perspective of the faculty.

First of all, I'm sure that most faculty view the Board of Trustees, rather than student "consumers," as the body to whom they answer. However, when it comes to promotion and continuing faculty status decisions [a.k.a., tenure], student evaluations can and do make a difference in the outcome.

Promotion and tenure at this university is becoming an increasingly competitive process, and teaching evaluations are "numbers" that any university committee or administrator can easily examine in order to pass judgment on a candidate. It is far easier to evaluate how popular a professor is than to determine how effective his or her teaching may be.

Now, imagine that you are a newly-minted assistant professor with a young family, car payment, school loans to repay, and a mortgage. You have just completed a hair-raising job search, having gambled that all those years in graduate school and perhaps a post-doctoral appointment or two will land you your dream job. And now you realize that the difference between success and failure for your life's ambitions could hinge on student evaluations.

In this position, you have some options. One is that you can be rigorous with students and course material, gambling that they will respect you for it come evaluation time. Or, you can water down the course material. It is quite obvious which option provides the greatest temptation and I am willing to bet that there are few faculty who have not consciously faced this dilemma.

I am not suggesting that student evaluations be eliminated. They have their place. But to university administrators, you should seek to implement metrics of teaching that evaluate learning rather than popularity; and to students, you should remember who the faculty work for and that unfair evaluations from you can have real consequences. I wish I could remember who to attribute this to, but someone once said something to the effect that "an education is the only thing we're willing to pay for and not get."

Steve Nelson is a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences.