The only drawback is that it is very time-consuming. Bill Hochman added that when the History Department had an active student council it randomly assigned between ten and twelve students to each council member for interviews. They asked questions that were determined by the history faculty, and reported on their findings. By using students as the intermediaries they eliminated the bias that might come from departmental peers interviewing students. Course Evaluations Mark Smith, who currently serves on the FEC, said that one of the difficulties with course evaluations is the quantity.
Candidates often submit hundreds of evaluations which are very difficult to process.
It would be helpful if department chairs could summarize the evaluations. He cited the Psychology Department evaluation which has possibly circumvented this problem by creating an evaluation in tow parts, one summative and one formative. Kristi Erdal turned in her course evaluations for her three-year review. Joan Ericson commented that she did not turn in her course evaluations in her review file, and was not advised to do so. Myrow said that he did not think that professors felt pressured to include evaluations when reviewed.