Students might have to wait until May before professors will be required to post their CTEC evaluations.
Northwestern’s General Faculty Committee will vote Feb. 1 on a proposal that would force all professors to post their CTECs online, Committee Chairman Thomas Bauman said. Students and faculty representatives on the CTEC Advisory Committee drafted the legislation in November. But the faculty committee has not yet received the written proposal, Bauman said.
“It is a slow process because faculty members meet rarely and often put things off,” said Stephen Fisher, associate provost for undergraduate education and a member of the CTEC Advisory Committee.
Once the General Faculty Committee votes, the proposal could be passed to the Faculty Senate, which would vote in April or May. The Faculty Senate could then make posting CTECs mandatory, Bauman said.
Faculty agreed to the original CTEC legislation in 1977 under the condition that professors could withhold their evaluations. The last major change to the CTEC system was enacted Fall Quarter 2004, when NU denied CTEC access to students who didn’t fill out evaluations the previous quarter. The change caused a 45 percent increase in the number of students who filled out the forms, said Nedra Hardy, director of the CTEC program.
Hardy estimated that between 5 and 7 percent of professors opt to withhold their evaluations.
Students have pushed versions of this proposal for several years. Associated Student Government candidates, including Academic Vice President Jason Downs and his predecessor, Daily columnist Prajwal Ciryam, have campaigned on the issue.
“Students need complete information about what their options are,” Downs said. “It’s not fair to students when information is not available to them. If it’s mandatory for students, it seems a little unfair that it’s not mandatory for teachers also.”
In lieu of a Faculty Senate mandate, members of the CTEC Advisory Committee could ask individual schools to vote on the proposal. Meetings between the committee and the schools could begin Winter Quarter, but official plans haven’t been set, Fisher said.
Downs said he would like to see the legislation passed by the end of this quarter. Like the CTEC Advisory Committee, ASG members also plan to lobby the deans in favor of the proposal.
“At this point, there’s not a lot of grunt work,” Downs said. “It’s a matter of convincing people and seeing this implemented.”
The faculty committee has not been contacted by ASG, but the proposal should not have trouble moving through the faculty committee and senate, said Bauman of the CTEC committee.
“It’s not really controversial because 95 percent (of professors) have CTECs posted,” Bauman said. “It’s a rather small number of courses that would be impacted. This is not being forced on faculty against their will. The general consensus is positive.”
Reach Margaret Matray at [email protected].
