URFA position on Student Evaluations of Teaching during the Winter 2020 Semester

May 8, 2020

While some fac­ul­ties have sus­pend­ed stu­dent eval­u­a­tions of teach­ing for the semes­ter, oth­ers have indi­cat­ed that they are mov­ing ahead with them any­way despite the mas­sive dis­rup­tion that has occurred to the student’s learn­ing envi­ron­ment. It is URFA’s posi­tion that the only thing that can be mea­sured this term is the student’s sat­is­fac­tion with the University/College’s abil­i­ty to tran­si­tion to online learn­ing. Mem­bers’ abil­i­ty to move cours­es online, and the student’s sat­is­fac­tion with instruc­tion, can sim­ply not be eval­u­at­ed due to these excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances and mem­bers should not suf­fer any con­se­quences from a neg­a­tive eval­u­a­tion received in this semes­ter.

If your fac­ul­ty made the deci­sion to con­tin­ue with Stu­dent Eval­u­a­tions of Teach­ing despite the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, URFA and COR strong­ly encour­ages mem­bers to take the issue to their Fac­ul­ty Coun­cil. URFA has cre­at­ed a draft motion for mem­bers to present at Fac­ul­ty Coun­cil. Find it on our web­site here. If you have any ques­tions, please con­tact the URFA office.