Each of our faculty members receive an SIR summary only. They never see
the original surveys filled out by students.
I understand your concern and think students would have a definite
problem with the current practice of returning the surveys. They are NOT
the property of the faculty member and should be destroyed after
summaries are completed.
My humble opinion,
Margie

Margie Bennett, Ph.D.
Executive Assistant to the President
Professor of Mathematics
Mount Vernon Nazarene University
800 Martinsburg Road
Mount Vernon, OH 43050
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>>> [log in to unmask] 12/15/2004 2:46:20 PM >>>
I could use some advice about a college survey policy issue.  I
recently
became aware of what I believe to be an somewhat unethical policy with
regard to our faculty evaluation process.  We use a Survey of Student
Perceptions of Teaching and Learning for students to evaluate faculty
at
Raymond Walters College.  The guidelines for administering the survey
are
included in our faculty handbook.  The following is listed as
procedures
for administering the survey:

1.      The instructor shall arrange for a student, colleague or other
responsible person to administer the student opinion survey while the
instructor absents herself/himself from the room.

2.      The person administering the survey will place the surveys in
a
sealed envelop and will return the completed forms to a designated
member
of the faculty or staff.

3.      A typed summary of the results of the evaluations will be given
to
the instructor.  Original evaluations are the property of the Faculty
member being evaluated.  In order to maintain student confidentiality,
however, each Department will determine when it is appropriate to
return
the original evaluations to the Faculty member.

The students are told that this is an anonymous survey.  The problem I
have
with this is that I have heard of the original surveys being given back
to
faculty members within a year or less time.  Since our students attend
the
college for longer than a year in most cases, and depending on the
program,
they may have the same faculty member for a number of different
classes,  it is then conceivable that a faculty member given back the
original surveys might recognize students' handwriting, compromising
anonymity.  I do not know the history of this policy of making the
evaluations "the property of the Faculty member being evaluated" and
giving
them back, but I can think of no legitimate reason for this since they
are
given a typed summary of the results and the comments. Although I am
not in
any way involved in the administration or analysis of this survey, as
an
institutional researcher, this policy bothers me, and I have shared my
concerns with the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.  He agreed that
this
policy needs to change.  He said that in order to change the policy,
the
faculty committee designated to make policy revisions would have to be
made
aware of these concerns and ultimately the faculty as a whole would
have to
vote on whether the revision should be made.  He suggested that it
would be
helpful to cite some sort of widely accepted survey administration
ethics
standard or something that would make it very clear why they need to
make
the revision.  Can any of you point me to such a standard? How do your
colleges/universities handle the faculty evaluation process?

Thanks!

Sandi


Sandra Stockman, M.Ed.
Coordinator, Data Analysis
University of Cincinnati - Raymond Walters College
9555 Plainfield Road
Cincinnati, Ohio  45236

email:  [log in to unmask]
Phone:  (513) 745-5736
Fax:  (513) 745-5780

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that
counts
can be counted."   (Albert Einstein)