In an unanimous vote by the Student Senate on Tuesday, the Student Government Association officially proposed that St. Olaf have its own way of rating professors and courses called the Course and Teaching Evaluation (CATE). This idea is generating a copious amount of attention from St. Olaf students and faculty.
To shed light on the the issue, a Senate committee headed by Mohn Hall Senator Jon Laven ’12 has been promoting the proposed system.
“[CATE is] a classy version of ratemyprofessors.com [that] would allow students to evaluate courses and view ratings via SIS,” Laven said, referring to the Student Information System.
To make this system work, students would be required to fill out online evaluations for classes and professors before seeing their grades. Forms would include approximately 8-12 questions with additional space for comments. All responses would be anonymous. This mandatory student input aims to eliminate the bias of ratemyprofessors.com.
“The SGA is looking for a broader range of responses, not just extremes,” Josef Lorentz ’11, a CATE committee member, said.
Currently, Lorentz and many other students agree that a major disadvantage of ratemyprofessors.com is that only students who are either extremely passionate or loathe the professor post reviews there.
This system is mandatory. An “opt-out” option will be available to prevent “students [from] quickly and inaccurately completing the form,” according to the pamphlet produced by the CATE subcommittee with SGA.
In addition, CATE has advantages over word-of-mouth. Kim Spitzfaden ‘11, chair of the Student Senate, feels that this system would be especially beneficial to incoming first years.
“[CATE] will allow first years to know information about classes and professors before they register,” she said. “They don’t have the opportunity to get advice from upperclassmen prior to their first semester.”
Spitzfaden helped put the CATE proposal in motion by changing the structure of the existing sub-committees. CATE came out of discussions with some of her friends who attend schools with similar programs in place. She appointed Laven to head the sub-committee, and SGA immediately began to work on turning this plan into action.
The administration, the student life committee, the faculty life committee, Dean James May, Dean Greg Kneser and Information and Instructional Technologies (IIT) have all been consulted, and most have been supportive.
“Only a small minority of professors have been outspoken against this,” Lorentz said.
“They don’t want to change the culture of St. Olaf. Largely, they think it will cause a lack of trust. The problem is that our generation wants to know information. We are used to comparing products and choosing the one that we want to buy. Why shouldn’t this logic apply to the classes and professors we are paying so much for?”
The only drawback that Spitzfaden can conceive of is the timeline.
“There is an 18-month waiting list, and that is a big obstacle,” she said.
“We are doing this for the future of St. Olaf, not ourselves,” Lorentz said.
The timeline is proving to be a hurdle for the committee.
“I’ve only spoken with one student who is against the proposal, and she is a senior who feels that since she won’t be here when it happens, it is a stupid idea. That isn’t a good attitude,” Laven said.
Professors are examining the CATE proposal along with students to see what benefits and drawbacks exist. Professor of Religion Trish Beckman did not think she had enough information to form a definitive opinion about the program.
“I worry about how it would be applied to faculty members’ careers, including tenure and advancement,” Beckman said. “The concern is that [CATE] may become a popularity contest; the hope is that it will help match learning style to teaching style.”
Beckman rattled off a list of categories that she would like to see on the evaluations should this proposal succeed, including class format, types of assignments and policy.
Spitzfaden reiterated several times, “[SGA] wants to work with professors to make this system a positive addition to the college for both students and faculty.”
Spitzfaden encouraged students to sign the petition that is available online and express their support. The petition and more information about CATE can be found online at Oleville.com.
koester@stolaf.edu
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