By Jessie Stones and Wojtek Dabrowski
In the past two rounds of the Instructor Course Evaluations, the business faculty were consistently at the bottom of the ratings heap.
The winter 2000 results obtained and ranked by The Eyeopener show that, of the seven lowest-ranked programs, four are in the faculty of business—ranked from highest to lowest, business management, hospitality and tourism management, administration and information management and retail management.
The faculty fared better the semester before, but none of the programs broke the top 20.
Lee Maguire, associate dean of business management, said this is because the surveys are too generic.
He said each department should be asking its own questions to find out what students really think of their courses and professors.
“One size fits all makes everyone’s feet hurt,” he said.
Maguire also said a lot of the surveys are more pertinent to arts students, not business students, and the multiple choice question and answer format leaves little room for voicing opinions.
“If we though the [ICE survey] represented student opinions well, we wouldn’t be sponsoring the student union survey.”
The Business Students Association is preparing to launch a survey at some time this year, which they hope will measure students’ opinions in more detail, so professors can use responses when they’re planning course outlines.
But some professors still worry about students knowing the evaluations’ results.
“We’re not trying to burn anyone,” said BSA president Eric Filmer, a fourth-year business student. “I’m sure some faculty are not impressed with the idea because they’re not sure what questions will be asked. We have to be sure the results are accurate.
“We want the profs on board,” he said.
“They don’t have to be, but we’d prefer to have that.”
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