I want to raise two questions. The first has to do with whether or not student evaluations of faculty should be used at all, and the second has to do with what we might offer as either a supplement or a substitute. The use of student evaluations of faculty is widespread, with over 88 percent of all colleges and universities in the country using them. SEFs are used because they are simple to administer, are less costly than other forms of evaluation, and, in my opinion, provide an illusion of objectivity in an era when everyone is being held accountable. Promotion, tenure, and retention decisions can hinge on the scores students give professors.
Teaching is hard work and it can be risky work.
Let us consider the new colleagues who have joined us over the course of the last two or three years. For some, this has been their first introduction to handling four courses at once and to teaching in a university that takes seriously the injunction that students come first. In short, teaching requires us knowingly to take risks. The lesson many learn from such an experience is that they had better improve their scores and they had better do what everybody else is doing. This is a misuse of the SEF, as it discourages innovation.