Long overdue

The idea of publishing general education courses’ teacher evaluations at NIU is an idea that is long overdue. Some may argue that the idea violates the professors’ right of privacy, but what about our rights as students at this university? Now the way I see the situation, students are paying a large amount of money to receive an education, so the least we deserve is being taught by professors who care about our needs as students. It appears to me that students’ rights are being overshadowed by the wishes and possibly fears of many professors at this university.

Allowing teacher evaluations to be published for students not only allows us to see how professors are being evaluated by our peers, but also gives us some idea of what to expect when we register for our courses. The misconception by many is that the publication of evaluations is some form of headhunting by students when actually all we want is some idea of what to expect when we walk into the classroom. Don’t we deserve at least that?

The boycott by the Student Association is the only way the voice of many students is going to be heard. The SA attempted to allow professors to release their evaluations voluntarily, yet only 27 out of 343 replied. With such a small number of professors replying, it can only make you wonder how much the professors actually respect us as students.

Stacy A. Strohacker

Political Science

Junior