Vol. 108, Iss. 22 | Tuesday, December 4, 2018
The Flat Hat
FACULTY
Evaluations help influence tenure, class development Departments use results as metric of performance NIA KITCHIN FLAT HAT MANAGING EDITOR
Student course evaluations opened Friday, Nov. 23 for students to fill out online through Blackboard, and will close after the last day of classes, Friday, Dec. 7. At the College of William and Mary, these evaluations are used to assess teaching effectiveness and are utilized in decisions about professorial advancement. However, the ability of students to accurately and fairly evaluate the quality of their professors has consistently been called into question. How are student course evaluations used? Student evaluations are used by department chairs and promotion committees in decisions about tenure, merit and promotion. They are also used by faculty as a way to gain feedback from students about their perceived performance during the semester. Each department has the freedom to create their own questions for the evaluation; the only requirement is that they include a question about teaching effectiveness. According to Planning Analyst Carol MacVaugh there are over 600 different questions across all departments. Departments have complete autonomy to alter the questions for their courses, however most questions in circulation were inherited from the old paper system and continue to be used today. Some programs have noticed that different classes within their department necessitate different methods of evaluation. Art and art history department chair Sibel Zandi-Sayek said that her department decided to split the student evaluations depending on whether they were part of studio art or art history. Likewise, Associate chair of educational policy in the modern languages department Alexander Prokhorov said that his department decided to split evaluations between content courses and language courses. “Every department program does its own thing,” Dean of Undergraduate Studies Janice Zeman said. “That’s one of the wonderful things about William and Mary is that we have a lot of department and program autonomy. Of course that makes for a much more complicated, complex system because everybody is its own little fiefdom. But it does allow departments and programs to tailor their questions to ask exactly what it is they are trying to get at.” The results are used in official evaluations and promotions of faculty and included on tenure dossier. A professor’s student evaluations are used as one of two metrics of teaching during pre-tenure review, tenure review and promotion. Professors are also reviewed on their merit every year, and student evaluations may also be used in these reviews. “There are many different layers in the tenure process, so at each layer those teaching evaluations are considered,” Zeman said. However, the entire evaluation is not always included. According to Zandi-Sayek, for the art and art history department, the only answers reported are those in response to the teaching effectiveness question, which is the singular standard question across all departments. The other quantitative questions serve to help the student slowly recall what they learned over the course of the semester and encourage them to think about the class statistically. She said that when assessing the effectiveness of these scores, the faculty committees pays specific attention to the progression of the professor’s rating in order to evaluate their growth and trajectory over time. Despite this sometimes narrow application of evaluations, professors themselves review their own course evaluations in much more depth. The qualitative portion of the questions provide professors with more comprehensive student feedback. Zandi-Sayek said that she would like to move away from numerical evaluations toward more qualitative feedback because of how much her department values these questions. “Students are generously sharing their comments and we take these very seriously,” Zandi-Sayek said. “They really give you a good sense of what is going on in that classroom.” According to Zeman, if a professor receives consistently negative evaluations from a significant number of students in their class it might trigger action. After noticing these red flags, the professor may be See EVALUATIONS page 4
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‘THIS IS HOW THEY TREAT EVERYONE WHO THEY DON’T THINK FITS INTO THEIR PERFECT LITTLE BOX OF DISORDERS’ While seeking accommodations for health concerns through Student Accessibility Services, some students report unfair treatment. Others seek to draw attention to understaffed, under-resourced office. EMMA FORD // FLAT HAT STAFF WRITER
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uring the spring 2018 semester, Hannah, a senior who has asked that her last name be withheld from publication in order to protect the confidentiality of her accommodations, entered the Student Accessibility Office to discuss her living conditions for the following year. Hannah had been diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia, a condition that causes her to fall asleep and become excessively drowsy throughout the day. Before receiving medication, she described how she would often fall asleep while driving, in class, in the movies and at other events she would attend. At the College of William and Mary, students like Hannah who may need support due to mental health, wellness or accessibility concerns and any other experiences that may put at risk their academic and personal wellbeing can seek support through Student Accessibility Services or Care and Support Services, both under the umbrella of the Dean of Students Office. According to Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Accessibility Service Lesley Henderson, the mission of SAS is to assist students with diagnosed conditions, striving to create a barrier-free environment for those students. “Student Accessibility Services strives to foster student independence, to encourage self-determination, — Director of Student to emphasize empowerment and Accessibility Services Lesley accommodation over limitation, Henderson and to create a comprehensive, accessible environment to ensure that our community values persons with disability based on contribution instead of deficit,” Henderson said in a written statement. Care and Support Services, according to Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Care and Support Services Rachel McDonald, hopes to empower students and assist them during difficult times. McDonald said that the mission of Care and Support Services is to “provide advocacy, outreach, and support services.” ‘Basically, she gaslighted me’ In preparation for her meeting with SAS, Hannah acquired doctor notes and a polysomnography, a sleep study that confirmed that she would be best accommodated through living in a single room her senior year. In the notes written by her doctor, it was explained that such accommodations would allow Hannah to use her sound machine, as well as control room temperature and overall room environment freely and without any inconvenience to a roommate. For her meeting, Hannah sat down with Henderson to
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We hope any student who believes they have been ‘gaslighted’ or otherwise ‘mistreated’ will engage in direct conversation with us.
discuss the accommodations she needed as recommended by her doctor. “Basically, she gaslighted me,” Hannah said. “That was my main feeling. She kind of was making me feel like I made it up like [idiopathic hypersomnia] wasn’t something people could actually struggle with, and that was really disheartening because before I was diagnosed I had been told a lot that I needed to just stop being lazy and trying to sleep all the time.” After being diagnosed, Hannah hoped her diagnosis would help change people’s perspectives and allow them to better understand why she was having issues staying awake, but quickly discovered that many people could not understand why she could not control her situation. “Accessibility is in the name,” Hannah said. “I thought they were supposed to be an advocate for anyone who needed accommodations or accessibility. They were supposed to be supportive and understanding and they were supposed to hear you out, and try to see where you are coming from and try to empathize with what you’re going through. And that really was not how I felt, at least with [Henderson].” After her initial meeting with SAS, Hannah said she was unsure about following up with the office, because she did not believe anyone would take her seriously. After speaking with her friends, she heard that other students shared similar experiences. “At first I thought that this was just me overreacting or this was just like a one-time occurrence or something, and then, I started hearing these horror stories from some of my friends whose experience were much worse than mine,” Hannah said. “And so I was like wow, this is not just a me thing, this is a student accessibility thing. This is how they treat everyone who they don’t think fits into their perfect little box of disorders.” In April 2018, Melissa Hudson ’19 attempted to take her own life, but was stopped by her girlfriend and another friend. As a preventative measure, Hudson’s girlfriend filed a CARE report under the Office of Care and Support Services and Hudson was called into the Dean of Students Office the following day. Hudson was called into Care and Support Services while she was at a COLL 300 symposium. The Dean of Students Office left a message for Hudson stating that she had to come into the office immediately, but did not explain the reasoning behind the request. In response, Hudson returned the phone call and informed them that she was unable to come as she was in the middle of the symposium. According to Hudson, she was informed that if she did not come in immediately, a police escort would be sent and she would be forcefully removed by campus police from the symposium. In the office, Hudson said she wanted to convince the woman she met with that she was not a danger to herself and others, but felt that decisions had already been made about her next steps without See ACCESSIBILITY page 3
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