The role of student government in faculty evaluation

✍ Scribed by Raoul A. Arreola

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 387 KB
• Volume: 1987
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-0633
• DOI: 10.1002/tl.37219873107

✦ Synopsis

During the last dozen or so years that I have spent designing or operating faculty evaluation systems around the country, student governments have rarely played a serious role. However, a number of major student-rating systems had their beginnings as student government efforts. The fact that student governments have not continued to play major roles in the faculty evaluation efforts of colleges and universities, in spite of the fact that these governments were instrumental, in many cases, in getting student-rating programs started, leads to the question that is the focus of this chapter: What ought to be the role of student governments today in a comprehensive faculty evaluation program?

Historical Perspective

Student ratings were developed many years ago, often at the instigation of student governments and other student groups, primarily to provide students with a guide as to which faculty's courses to take and which to.avoid. In a sense, this application of student ratings represented the essence of faculty evaluation, since it meant that students could "vote L M. Aleamoni (ed.). Techniques @ Edunling and Improving Imhrcrion.