University Affairs, said faculty 
members’ portfolios also include 
their teaching evaluation scores. 
These portfolios are reviewed by 
executive committees that make 
recommendations to the dean 
for 
performance-based 
salary 

increases.

What the surveys themselves 

look like can differ, sometimes 
significantly, but each starts with 
four University-wide questions, 
commonly known as Q1 through 
Q4. These questions have been the 
focus of current debate because 
they are constant in surveys across 
campus.

Q1 asks students to rate “Overall, 

this was an excellent course.” Q2 
is “Overall, the instructor was 
an excellent teacher.” Q3 asks 
students to evaluate the statement, 
“I learned a great deal from this 
course.” Q4 asks, “I had a strong 
desire to take this course.”

Typically, 
departments 

form the rest of the evaluation 
questionnaire, but professors have 
the ability to add questions as well. 
After including Q1-Q4, faculty 
have the option to choose from 
a catalogue of about 1,300 other 

questions — some are broad while 
others are dedicated to specific 
courses.

Student 
governments 
and 

various departments and schools 
have sent in requests to include 
questions in the catalogue over the 
years. The questions date back to 
1996, and are sorted into different 
categories, 
such 
as 
“student 

development” 
or 
“instructor 

effectiveness,” according to the 
Office of the Registrar.

Political Science Prof. Mika 

LaVaque-Manty, 
who 
has 

conducted research on course 
evaluations for a University task 
force on learning analytics, said 
he’s found that many professors 
don’t deviate from the standard 
survey their department creates.

Szymanksi 
said 
many 

professors pay most attention to 
the first four questions because 
they’re administered across the 
University, making it easy to draw 
comparisons.

“Using the other questions may 

help you design your course better, 
but it’s not going to tell you very 
much about student satisfaction 
overall with your course, relative 
to the other courses that they’re 
taking,” Szymanksi said.

In a November interview with 

The Michigan Daily, University 

Provost 
Martha 
Pollack 
said 

she 
believers 
the 
current 

course evaluation questions are 
satisfactory, 
but 
acknowledged 

that they haven’t been revised for 
some time.

“It’s a good instrument,” she 

said. “We’ve used it for many years, 
but it hasn’t been changed in a 
lot of years. It’s really important 
that we get that right, and so I 
appointed people with expertise in 
educational assessment and so on 
to look at the questions.”

Seeking a purpose

For some involved in the current 

redesign process, the focus isn’t only 
on the questions themselves, but on 
the climate the evaluations foster.

Central Student Government 

president Cooper Charlton, an LSA 
senior, said he thought issues with 
the evaluation system stem from 
flaws in University culture.

“It’s the climate we have on 

campus,” he said. “Students need 
to come to the table willing to 
give constructive criticism … and 
faculty should look at the course 
evaluations as a way for them to 
grow. I think systemically we 
need to work together to build 
a culture where not only course 
evaluations, but higher education 
in general, has a more high-impact 
and collaborative atmosphere.”

SACUA 
Chair 
Silke-Maria 

Weineck, a professor of comparative 
literature, said it could be beneficial 
to include more questions that 
emphasize the two-way dynamic 
between teacher and student.

“I would like the questions to 

also have collaborative aspects 
to bring out the fact that students 
are such an important part of each 
class … (and) make sure that it’s a 
shared enterprise to teach a class,” 
Weineck said.

In 
particular, 
she 
cited 

questions 
about 
a 
student’s 

responsibility in the classroom. 
Other universities, such as the 
University of Washington, use 
student-centric questions in their 
evaluations to assess how much 
effort a student put into the class 
and his or her interest in the 
course material, for example.

Out of the 1,300 total questions 

in 
the 
University’s 
question 

catalog, there are six — added 
in 1996 — that ask students to 
reflect 
on 
their 
participation 

and effort. From these “student 
responsibility” questions, none 
are administered across the entire 

University.

English Prof. David Porter, 

chair of the English Department, 
wrote in an e-mail interview 
that he questions whether the 
release of course evaluations 
would succeed in fulfilling what 
he described as their intended 
purpose — improving course and 
teaching quality.

“Speaking 
from 
personal 

experience, growing into one’s full 
potential as a classroom teacher is 
an ongoing process spanning years 
and even decades, and requiring 
patience, perseverance, and a great 
deal of trial and error,” Porter wrote. 
“To release course evaluation data 
to a broader audience than that for 
which it is intended would not, in 
my view, be helpful in our long-term 
efforts to provide the highest level 
of instruction for students in our 
English courses that we possibly 
can.”

LaVaque-Manty, who supports 

the release of the evaluations, 
said he thought it would be best 
if it didn’t happen in a bubble — if 
faculty provided resources beyond 
evaluations to help students make 
informed decisions about which 
classes they take.

“I wish faculty were more 

diligent 
in 
filling 
out 
better 

descriptions of their courses for the 
course guide,” he said. “I wish in 
LSA they participated in the syllabi 
project, which is making their 
syllabi available for courses … there 
are other data tools in development 
that tell us who’s taking this class, 
what have they taken before, what 
do they go onto take, this would be 
really valuable information. I think 
all of this stuff should be available 
to students.”

Finding a structure

Even if evaluations are released 

or redesigned, faculty and students 
over the past months have identified 
several structural barriers to using 
the data — namely, low response 
rates and bias — that may need to be 
addressed.

In Winter 2015, LSA’s course 

evaluation response rate was at 
approximately 48 percent — the 
lowest in the period from 2008-
2015 according to the Office of the 
Registrar.

Response rates have been on the 

decline for several years, especially 
following the University’s switch 
to electronic evaluations in 2008, 
when response rates have remained 
on average by 15 to 20 percentage 

points lower than with paper 
evaluations.

Acknowledging the importance 

of considering response rates, 
Pollack 
said 
she 
thought 
a 

committee of faculty and students 
should look at the issue after an 
evaluation instrument is finalized. 
The committee’s work is expected 
to conclude in April.

“I think it’s absolutely right to be 

concerned about response rates,” 
she said. “When we use it internally, 
we’re always very cautious to look 
at response rates and what the 
response rates are and what they 
signify.”

Charlton said he thought the 

low response rates might stem 
from the lack of accessibility of 
the evaluations, and the problem 
might self-correct if they are 
released.

“Students don’t think course 

evaluations will help them because 
faculty don’t feel comfortable 
releasing them, so students don’t 
fill them out,” he said. “And when 
students do fill them out, they feel 
obligated to treat them as a joke. 
So we acknowledge that they’re 
low, but the reason they’re low 
is because in reality, they don’t 
provide any value to students.”

Several 
universities 
offer 

incentives for students to submit 
evaluations, many of which are 
tied to access to evaluation data. 
Northwestern University, which 
does 
release 
evaluation 
data, 

has a policy where students who 
don’t fill out evaluations cannot 
gain access to evaluations for the 
upcoming quarter.

In an e-mail interview, Alison 

Phillips, Northwestern’s senior 
assistant registrar, said the policy 
was implemented as an incentive 
to keep response rates at high.

Northwestern’s 
course 

evaluation response rates average 
between 65 and 70 percent, 
noticeably higher than LSA’s 48 
percent.

CSG Communications Director 

Alexandra 
George, 
a 
Public 

Policy junior, said there is a need 
not just for course evaluations 
to be released, but also for a 
better understanding of how and 
where the results will appear, 
which is where an approach like 
Northwestern’s might be helpful.

“I feel that if we were to actually 

release this course evaluation 
data, people would see that it can 
be used,” she said. “If you used it 

to help you pick your classes, why 
would you not pay it forward?”

Other schools, like Michigan 

State 
University, 
withhold 

students’ grades for one week 
if they fail to fill out evaluation 
surveys at the end of the grading 
period.

MSU’s course evaluations are 

not openly published, but MSU 
sophomore Meghan Shelton said 
she believes the policy has had 
a negative impact on quality of 
responses, though it may help 
with quantity.

“I feel like students fill them out 

as fast as they can just to get it over 
with so they can get their grades,” 
Shelton said.

LaVaque-Manty said if the 

University were to adopt such a 
policy, it would be important to 
think of the negative impacts.

“It changes the nature of the 

instrument,” 
LaVaque-Manty 

said. “You would fill it out possibly 
angrily as another task that might 
color your judgment.”

Along with a low pool of data, 

at an Oct. 12 SACUA meeting that 
preceded the Faculty Senate vote 
to delay the release of evaluations, 
faculty also questioned whether 
sexism or racism leads to bias in 
student responses.

LaVaque-Manty said based on 

his research, individual bias due 
to gender and race is evident in 
classrooms, both in open-ended 
comments 
and 
quantitative 

measurements.

However, he also stressed that 

those biases tend to disappear 
from the overall quantitative 
data, except for some instances of 
gender bias appearing when data 
is analyzed at the departmental 
level.

George thinks that overall, 

there is no way to anticipate what 
the impact of releasing course 
evaluation data might be — 
whether that means good or bad 
outcomes. However, she said she 
thinks the outcomes will disprove 
faculty expectations of student 
behavior.

“Right 
now 
when 
I 
fill 

(evaluations) out, I think, ‘Where 
is this going? If I never see it, then 
who’s really looking at this?’ ” 
George said. “I know it’s easy to 
think cynically and to think that 
students would just take advantage 
of it, but I truly believe that if this 
were to be utilized, then everyone 
on campus would use this as a tool.”

EVALUATIONS
From Page 1A

2-News

2A — Thursday, November 19, 2015
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

THREE THINGS YOU 
SHOULD KNOW TODAY

Senior 
Arts 
Editor 

Catherine 
Sulpizio 

turns the traditional 
Thanksgiving 
menu 

on its head. Check out these 
innovative holiday recipes in 
the Thanksgiving B-Side.

>>SEE B-SIDE, PAGE 1B

2

CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES

Trading 
webinar

WHAT: Citi’s Regional 
Head of Markets will 
lecture on why a career in 
trading is the right choice 
for women.
WHO: Career Center
WHEN: Today from 3:30 
p.m. to 4:15 p.m.
WHERE: Michigan 
Union Ballroom

Peace Corps 
lecture 

WHAT: Returned Peace 
Corps volunteers will 
share their stories.
WHO: School of 
Social Work
WHEN: Today from 
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
WHERE: Social Work 
Building, Room B780

Abdelhamid 
Abaaoud, 

alleged 
ringleader 
of 

the Paris terror attacks, 

was killed Wednesday during 
a raid, The Washington Post 
reported. Two people were 
reported killed and seven were 
arrested during the raid. 
1

TedX gallery 
opening

WHAT: TEDxUofM 
speaker Allen Samuels will 
lead a discussion at the 
opening of the TEDxUofM 
Chroma gallery.
WHO: TEDx Foundation
WHEN: Today from 6 p.m. 
to 9 p.m. 
WHERE: Duderstadt 
Center

Chinese 
police 
are 

said to have killed 17 
people during a raid in 
Xinjiang last week, The 

New York Times reported. 
The operation was connected 
to a September knife attack 
where separatists killed 50 
people. 

3

Deepa Iyer 
lecture

WHAT: Author Deepa 
Iyer will explore issues of 
racial identities through 
the stories of young South 
Asian, Arab and Muslim 
immigrants. 
WHO: Center for South 
Asian Studies 
WHEN: Today at 4 p.m.
WHERE: South Hall, Room 
1225

Jamaal May 
book signing 

WHAT: The Helen Zell 
Visitng Writers Series is 
sponsoring a reading and 
book signing of Detroit 
author Jamaal May. 
WHO: Helen Zell Writers’ 
Program
WHEN: Today from 5:30 
p.m. to 6:50 p.m. 
WHERE: Museum of Art, 
Helmut Stern Auditorium

TUESDAY:

Campus Voices

THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk

FRIDAY:

Photos of the Week

WEDNESDAY:

In Other Ivory Towers

MONDAY:

This Week in History

 
 
 

University law students 
highlight their professor of 
the year. 

“I love @UMichLaw’s strong 
community. This is MLaw’s Prof. 
of the Year @jdmortenson 
lecturing on work-life balance”
 — @UMichStudents

“Congrats to Prof. William Baxteron 
@lingsocam’s Leonard Bloomfield Book 
Award for 2016! @umichling #UmichA-
sian”
 —@umichLSA

LSA praises faculty for their winning 
paper offered by the Linguistic Society 
of America.

Each week, “Twitter Talk” 
is a forum to print tweets 
that are fun, informative, 
breaking or newsworthy, 
with an angle on the 
University, Ann Arbor and 
the state. All tweets have 
been edited for accurate 
spelling and grammar. 

The Stamps School of Art & Design 
promotes jewelry artist Yasushi 
Jona’s new line of corroded rings.

“Didn’t you hear? Ancient is the 
new vintage.”

 - @UM_Stamps

FOLLOW US!

#TMD

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OOPSIE DAISY

SINDUJA KILARU/Daily

LSA junior David Schafer unsuccessfully removes a piece 
from the Jenga game hosted by TedX in the Diag on 
Wednesday.

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International 
coffee hour

WHAT: International 
Center, Rackham Student 
Government, International 
Institute and the School of 
Social Work host a coffee 
hour with pie.
WHO: School of Social 
Work
WHEN: Today from 3 p.m 
to 4 p.m.
WHERE: School of Social 
Work, First Floor

Transgender 
remembrance

WHAT: The Transgen-
der Day of Remembrance 
Ceremony will com-
memorate trans individuals 
killed because of trans-
phobia and cissexism. 
WHO: Spectrum Center
WHEN: Today from 
7 p.m to 9 p.m.
WHERE: The West 
Quad Connector

Hunger 
Games dinner 

WHAT: A student choice, 
Hunger Games themed 
dinner at East Quad.
WHO: Michigan Dining
WHEN: Today from 5 p.m. 
to 8 p.m.
WHERE: East Quad 
Dining Hall

