Northern Kentucky University’s Student Government Association has continued progress on a resolution recommending the “declassification of course evaluations.” This would allow all NKU students to view course and professor evaluations from previous semesters, prior to registration for courses.

This resolution was presented for a second reading at Monday’s SGA meeting by Senator Brad Rogers who stated that, according to the Norse2020 poll,which was taken last school year, 65 percent of surveyed NKU students said they use RateMyProfessors.com. The website is a public forum for course and professor evaluations when students are registering for courses.

According to SGA President Erik Pederson, declassifying course evaluations will be a more reliable way of obtaining information about courses than RateMyProfessors.com.
“At RateMyProfessors.com you can go to any university and submit a comment for a professor you don’t even know and possibly tarnish their reputation,” Pederson said. “Allowing student access to course evaluations will hold all professors more accountable … and will allow student voices to be heard by others.”
NKU junior Erin Mullins also thinks this access to evaluations is a good idea.

“It could be beneficial to see information about a professor,” Mullins said, “but not necessarily who said it.”

According to Rogers, this resolution would be beneficial to students for several reasons. It would help by identifying homework assignments for the course, the usefulness of reading assignments, the organization and overall effectiveness of the professor, the number of hours devoted to coursework, students’ most important reasons for enrollment and whether or not students felt prepared for the course prior to the course’s commencement.

“The resolution is a win-win for everyone,” Pederson said. “We want to see who the best professors to take are.”

Also, according to Pederson, the only reason students have never been given access to evaluations before is because students simply have not asked.
This resolution was not voted on, after being read for a second time, due to a discrepancy in the terminology used in the name of the resolution. According to Dean of Students and SGA Faculty Adviser Jeffrey Waple, the word “declassify” could possibly come off as confusing and/or ambiguous as to its application to the proposal at hand.
It was agreed by SGA members that the title of the proposal will be reworked in order to develop a more appropriate title. The resolution will be voted on at the Sept. 24 meeting where it is, according to Pederson, expected to be passed.

If the resolution is passed, it will be presented to the faculty where SGA will attempt to get the resolution implemented.
SGA also presented a resolution which would recommend the transition of printing authority from departments to Business and Auxiliary Services in order to reduce printing costs for both the university and students. This resolution was unanimously passed and is SGA’s first passed resolution of the school year.