Archived Edition: April 18, 2007 | Back to Current	Sep 10, 2010

Trusting students to bubble responsibly
Editorial Board

At the end of every semester, for every course, we receive two pieces of paper – one white, one blue. Many of us think little of these teacher evaluations and subsequently rush through them to escape class a few minutes early. It’s a common enough gesture and a seemingly harmless one. But in fact – and what the administration has failed to communicate effectively – is that that white piece of paper is no trifling numerical scorecard for our professors; in many cases it’s the key to their tenure.

The College distributes a document to all non-tenured faculty that explicitly states a simple truth of the tenure system: Student Course Survey (SCS) scores are an important source of data in the decision, one the College relies on to analyze trends in a professor’s performance and to consider his or her overall achievement. It is true, the administration does not require a “minimum score” that professors must achieve on the SCSs to be considered for tenure. We agree with this policy, as we believe that over-relying on crudely gathered numbers could unnecessarily doom a challenging-but-brilliant professor who happens to find a crop of unmotivated students in his or her class. We also acknowledge other potential causes for a talented teacher receiving sub-par marks: tired students, naturally resentful students and even otherwise conscientious students whose personalities happen to clash with the professor’s.

However, we still see a fundamental problem with how the College handles these evaluations: professors are told from the outset of their time at Williams that these surveys are important. Students are not.

That’s right, whether you knew it before now or not, you’re the potential gravedigger of your professor’s professional aspirations. Especially in smaller classes, simply by bubbling in a few quick “unsatisfactories,” you could significantly diminish your professor’s tenure ambitions. This may make you giddy with vengeful delight, but before you consign any faculty member to this fate, consider your choices.

We don’t advocate for handing out “excellents” like candy. Students should be informed and be honest. This means understanding that your evaluation carries tremendous weight. If Spiderman taught us anything it’s that “with great power, comes great responsibility.” We have great power in filling out these evaluations and we must in turn accept the attendant responsibility. We believe that Williams students, when cognizant of the consequences, will treat these evaluations with the appropriate gravity.

But the administration also has a responsibility in the matter: to inform students how important these evaluations really are. Thus far the College has failed in this. We have not been regularly briefed on the function the evaluations have in the tenure decision process. If the College wishes to make our input central to this procedure, it has the obligation to inform us of the role we play.

Furthermore, the burden of outlining the evaluations’ importance should not fall on the individual professors. Because the College has not properly advertised the importance of those blue and white sheets of paper, some professors have taken it on themselves to inform students. Such pre-form briefing can come off as trite, a tacit plea for higher marks. When in fact, professors are simply asking their students to do something the administration has never explicitly communicated: to seriously and thoughtfully complete these evaluations.

Have deserving professors been denied tenure because of a few resentful, and admittedly ill-informed, students? Any definitive conclusion would be speculative, but the possibility alone deserves consideration.

Even with better advertising of the white sheet’s importance, how reliable is the numerical grading system? A student may understand the weight of his or her evaluation, and yet make an unjust evaluation. After all, what’s the difference between a four and a five at the end of a long day of classes? Well, to some professors, it’s the difference between tenure and a less-than-satisfying job at some other school. Like Amherst.

Clearly, students do not fully comprehend the significance of course evaluations. At the same time we do not understand the entire tenure decision process. And from the concerns expressed by non-tenured professors in these pages, neither do they. This should not be a process shrouded in mystery.

If Williams is the college of thoughtful, mature, intelligent people that the admissions office advertises, the administration needs to trust this community to deliberate on the selection of its own educators. To make these decisions requires thoroughly understanding the process and our role within it.