It is getting close to that time of year again. While students are itching for summer break, we all realize that there are plenty of tasks ahead before we can finally enjoy perpetual freedom, or at least a few months of it.
On top of the studying, projects, week nine “midterms” and just about any other timely academic activity, another task the University requires students to undertake will be waiting for us on DuckWeb.
If we decide to ignore its request, the system will withhold our grades until the Friday after the grading deadline (roughly sometime after finals week).
But as obnoxious as course evaluations can be (I once had seven course evaluations for a block class), they can serve an academic purpose to faculty, the University and graduate  teaching fellows.
Yet many students fail to take their evaluations seriously, either opting out of doing them completely or making snide, unconstructive comments with the knowledge that they can sign their evaluations anonymously.
The ability to anonymously comment does not hold students accountable for the things they write. More importantly, anonymous comments don’t become part of the professor’s personnel file and evaluation materials.
I saw this amplified in a journalism course of mine last fall term.
If you talked to any student in the class, they probably would have been honest about their frustrations, which did not necessarily come from the teachers but instead the structure of the class. With a few hundred students between two classes working simultaneously on the same assignments, yet getting different instructions from teachers, GTFs and fellow students, the School of Journalism and Communication computer labs often become a medley of confusion. Several hundred students worked on a deadline to produce a project with a multitude of different instructions varying from person to person.
You can imagine how routinely tense Sunday afternoons around 4 p.m. became.
So at the end of the term when course evaluations opened, I found many students were scared to sign their evaluations, because they did not want their comments to affect their grades or relationships with the teachers.
It’s one of the few times when students have the ability to add input about teachers and courses, and we fail to do so because we are nervous that our comments will have negative consequences — hence the creation of the anonymous button.
Some may argue that teachers don’t even look at the comments or they do not take them seriously, and I often wonder if this is true because they receive comments that are rude, unjust and injurious.
If a student anonymously writes, “ You suck at teaching,” how do professors know what to improve? Such comments probably won’t give them any incentive to change their teaching style or course structure.
And teachers are not old dogs. They have the ability to improve upon their teaching methods, style and assigned course material. But they will never achieve that with unconstructive comments.
If you are going to be gutsy, you can at least make your bravery valid by signing your name.
The comments not only go to the faculty, but also to the University so they can assess and evaluate the worth of classes. So it is important to be honest; don’t water down the truth because various people read your evaluations.
If you did not enjoy a class for certain reasons, state them in a way that a higher authority could accurately utilize or understand.
Maybe if we knew our names were attached to those comments, we would be more willing to provide constructive feedback, and we would be more conscious of what we say.