Although the Student Association does not need University Council approval to collect and publish voluntary teacher evaluations, it approached the council for its endorsement Wednesday.

Council Executive Secretary J. Carroll Moody said because faculty participation in the evaluations will be voluntary, “this doesn’t require University Council action.”

A committee made up of faculty and students will be formed to determine which student comments will be published, said SA Sen. James Mertes.

The SA will get departmental permission before approaching teachers within the department, Mertes said. Teachers will be evaluated on a “class by class basis,” he said.

“For the sake of expediency,” the SA’s evaluation forms will be distributed and collected with regular NIU teacher evaluation forms, Mertes said.

owever, council member J. Patrick White objected to the use of school resources for the process. “You’re trying to get the bureaucracy involved,” he told Mertes.

SA Academic Affairs Adviser Willie Fowler said only faculty members who voluntarily participated in the SA evaluation process would pass out forms.

The SA pays for publishing the results of five-question surveys, Fowler said.

However, White said because NIU would be distributing the forms, the whole university is “going to be involved in this,” whether it wants to be or not.

Mertes said the SA would “be asking the departments to do us a favor” by distributing the forms with the university’s evaluations, and not demanding it.

The committee will present the results of its pre-test after it is completed this spring, Mertes said.

Member Sherman Stanage said some faculty are “gun-shy” after mishaps publishing teacher evaluations in 1969. The results had typographical errors including wrong instructor names and classes, Stanage said.