The Drake Faculty Grade Analysis has been accessible to the public since fall 1992 after the Faculty Senate passed a motion on May 6, 1992. Motion 92-21 stated that each college should prepare and make available a complete list of all courses taught in that college during the preceding year, including the number and name of the course, the instructor's name, the distribution of grades for the course by letter grade, and the median grade awarded in the course. Registrar Nancy Geiger said that this kind of report has always been around at Drake. The report is housed at Cowles Library, and students can check out the report for a two-hour loan period at the circulation desk. I don't see it as a registration tool because of the in-depth research you'd have to do.
Some people just look at it at the desk instead of checking it out.
Geiger said the grade analysis is accessible, course and instructor specific and gives numeric analyses. If 40 people enroll in a course and they get all A's, the report will show that. If a student wanted to know who the easy professors are, theoretically speaking, they could find out. It's a confidential way to look up a professor without him knowing. On a personal level, I don't know a dean that does use it for that purpose.