As the fall semester comes to a close and students prepare to take their final exams, professors are preparing for tests of their own: student evaluations.

Each department of every Syracuse University college asks students to fill out evaluations of their professors at the conclusion of the course.

“We read our evaluations very closely,” said Nancy Wright, a professional writing instructor at SU. “Our department chairs and assistant directors read them as well, and we all take them very seriously. I take them very seriously — they’re important.” 

In the past, paper evaluations were directly handed out to students in class by the professors. But recently, some of the evaluations have moved to the web, and students are asked to fill them out online on their own time.

“I accurately fill out paper evaluations in class, but if I were to be sent a professor evaluation through email, me filling it out would depend on if I had the time or not,” said Charles Price, a sophomore finance and marketing major.

Lindsay Cameron, a junior public relations and writing and rhetorical studies major, said in an email that she takes her evaluations seriously and completely fills them out.

“I want the school to know where professors should improve and where they excel,” she said.

Although Cameron doesn’t think evaluations are exciting, she said she finds them to be valuable because they allow students to be honest.

“In the moment, they seem like such a nuisance,” she said. “But how would the professors improve if we didn’t have these evaluations?”

While the majority of students do believe it is important to evaluate their teachers, some professors believe these evaluations are equally important to everyone’s educational success.

“Most of my students take the evaluations seriously,” said Ben Kuebrich, a doctoral student in composition and cultural rhetoric in an email. “It is a matter of framing the evaluations for the students — letting them know that we look at them closely and that it affects our curriculum and our pedagogy.”

While Kuebrich said for the most part that he receives “pretty good” evaluations, some of the students’ comments do surprise him.

Said Kuebrich: “They help me to see things that I was missing from my perspective teaching the class.”

Published on December 5, 2012 at 2:31 am

Contact: Taylor: tlbaker@syr.edu