Many of the schools within Cornell are contemplating making their course evaluations public. We encourage each college not only to make their evaluations public, but to redesign the evaluation questionnaires so that they reflect the information that students find most useful when choosing classes.

The School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the College of Human Ecology are looking to follow in the footsteps of the College of Engineering, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the School of Hotel Administration by publicizing portions of their evaluations for students to peruse. ILR is especially commendable for considering a move to redesign evaluation questionnaires to add questions more helpful to students.

Course evaluations play a valuable role within the University. They encourage professors to maintain high standards of teaching, help department chairs assess their faculty and, when available to students, aid them in choosing classes.

Critics argue that course evaluations are not useful in light of the heavy use of median grade reports. However, students may flock to median grade reports because they are the only course information provided by the University other than course descriptions written by faculty members.

The online publication of course evaluations will decrease dependency on median grade reports, and to argue otherwise is to show a lack of confidence in students. It is common for Cornellians to choose notoriously tough classes when the faculty member teaching the course has a good reputation. By denying students access to course evaluations, however, students are forced to rely upon word of mouth or non-University websites to seek out reputable faculty members.

Websites that assess professors, such as ratemyprofessor.com, are not adequate substitutions for official course evaluations. These sites are often outdated and full of unconstructive gossip, yet many students turn to them due to a lack of better information. Furthermore, since posting on the sites is voluntary, most students who comment only do so when inspired by intense devotion or hatred of a faculty member. The impressions of less impassioned students often go unreported, leading to less accurate assessments.

For these reasons we would like to impress upon the administration in each college just how important it is to publicize course evaluations to Cornell students. Furthermore, since many of the evaluation questionnaires are aimed at department chairs and the faculty members themselves, it will be most useful if more questions were added with the assistance of students in order to keep their needs in mind.

With the publication of improved course evaluations, students will be able to rely less on median grade reports and be better equipped to make informed decisions when picking classes.