Some students find it difficult to gauge where they stand in a class because they feel they are not adequately informed of their grades. However, a new policy has been put in place this semester that asks faculty to provide students with an idea of how they are doing in a class.
The Student Senate Academic Affairs Committee, chaired by Julia Leusner ’08, along with the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee, headed last semester by Professor Amir Hirsa and currently by Professor Mike Wozny, have rallied to allow students to request a mid-term evaluation from their professors. The Faculty Senate, under last year’s president, Achille Messac, put the matter to a full faculty vote in the spring; they approved the measure with 77 percent voting for and 23 percent against.
This semester, students should be provided with some form of assessment that indicates their standing in the class against an average of how the rest of the class is performing, according to Prabhat Hajela, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Education. The method of assessment is left up to the instructor.
Students should keep in mind that this is a mid-term “assessment,” not a grade and therefore, it does not imply a letter grade must be given; according to professors, there are too many implications in giving a letter grade. Although some professors may decide to give a grade, that decision is left up to the individual professor.
Students are able to request this evaluation after mid-semester when they have no indication of how they are doing in a class. The goal, according to Jim Napolitano, the current Faculty Senate president, is that students should be able to figure out how they are doing in a class, which he feels is a “perfectly reasonable request.”
Napolitano, a physics professor, believes that if students feel they are not getting the feedback they need, they should talk to their professor and seek further information.
Many of the faculty agree with this new evaluation policy. Napolitano, for example, believes it is quite a sound request from the students and that they have a right to know where they stand in any given class. Students should know how they are performing so that they can make a more informed decision about dropping classes.
Other professors, however, feel that students already should have an idea of roughly where they are in their classes. Some, such as Professor Gary Bedrosian, also a physics professor, feel that students know how they have done on their exams and homeworks, and therefore should have a general knowledge of where they stand. In addition, he said that the Early Warning System flags students who should take measures to seek extra help for any reason.
