Communications Design evaluates adjunct faculty every year, every single semester, but they have a much smaller number to deal with. It helps when comments are specific and constructive. But I think most students take them seriously and many write thoughtful comments. Dean Senese says that only about ten percent of Liberal Arts evaluations are returned with student comments. He encourages students to be more vocal.
Comments don t even have to be particularly instructive.
Students should really take them seriously, because if they feel somebody isn t doing the job they paid for, then we will respond to that quickly. All of the instructors interviewed by the UB Post said that they do read and value all students comments. And for those students who worry that an instructor might one day identify them through their handwriting forget it. Instructors assured me that they never know who wrote what. They are interested in content not in punishing expressive students.