Now, as I’m basically retired, I am compelled to bring this university issue to your attention: teacher evaluations. Currently, as it stands at Mississippi State University, students fill out evaluations for each class. As you probably experienced this past week, a student or proctor hands out the paper evaluations for the instructor and the students voluntarily choose to fill them out and return them.
When I spoke to former SA President Shelby Balius (who has been working with moving the teacher evaluation process online for several years), she said the process of answering evaluations online would be piloted this semester, and new SA President Michael Hogan said in our last interview he plans to continue working with teacher evaluations once those results come back.
Moving evaluations online – like many programs in the SEC have done, including Ole Miss – should save money and could hopefully increase response rates. So kudos to the SA and everyone at MSU who has worked to make this change, including the Teaching Evaluations Committee.
There is another important issue to look at, however, as the university continues to improve: who can see the results.
According to Academic Operating Policy and Procedure 13.15, “All procedures and processes for statistical reporting shall be developed and reviewed by the Teaching Evaluation Committee. The Teaching Evaluation Committee will consult with the Student Association. The faculty member shall receive a copy of the statistical report and all comments for every evaluated class and section the individual teaches. Department heads, deans or directors and the provost shall be provided only with statistical results.”
Basically, students can’t see the statistical results of our instructors’ teaching performances, and only faculty members receive the comments. In this, we differ from other universities who do allow for students to view at least part of part of the evaluation results.
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville, states, “Teaching evaluations are subject to the ‘Tennessee Open Records Law,’ which says records of state agencies are open to inspection by any citizen of the state. … Also, departments may not hold up the request to view evaluations though they do have the right to charge individuals for copies and are allowed to make those copies within a reasonable time period.”
Students should have the right to see what type of teacher they will have when choosing classes. In many ways, we are customers who deserve to know what we’re paying to experience. (That being said, I have yet to have a professor who has not been great.)
If the university is confident in their teachers, why would they not want to show the students how happy other students are with specific courses? Students can already get information similar to this through websites such as Rate My Teacher. But releasing evaluations would have the collective benefit of a large statistical sample, rather than a few people who felt passionately about one teacher.
 The honors college, at one point, had special evaluations that were released to the public. I was unable to find them this year, and after speaking with honors council member Peter Crank, he told me that a former student named Mason Hall worked to get those evaluations online. He said he would like to find out what happened and work with the university to revive and revamp it.
In the past, I had used that program to decide on taking honors courses, and it was personally beneficial. Although this school year will end soon, I urge the SA, the Teaching Evaluations Committee, The Reflector (through solid reporting) and the general student body to look at the issue and work to see if releasing teaching evaluation results would be feasible. Transparency can only benefit the greater good of the university as a whole.