Ramsurveys offers chance to read prof evaluations

When senior political science major Jennifer Greany hands in her

student course survey at the end of the semester, she takes her

time filling out the little bubbles.

“I’m usually the one who takes a while and writes down

comments,” she said.

Most students fill out the class and professor evaluation and

never see the piece of paper again.

A new Web site designed by Jesse Courchaine, a junior computer

information systems major, offers students the opportunity to view

a summary of these evaluations.

At www.ramsurveys.com, students are able to view the surveys and

make an educated choice based on classes and professors when

registering for the following semester.

Currently the surveys are available on the Associated Students

of CSU Web site, but Courchaine thought he could create a site that

presents the information more clearly.

“It’s a resource I use myself,” Courchaine said. “Students can

use it to register for classes and see how other people have rated

professors.”

The CSU faculty/staff manual states that professors “shall”

distribute the surveys to students in all courses they teach.

Although not all professors administer the surveys at the end of

the semester, a majority of them do, said Thomas Maher, director of

the Office of Instructional Services.

Maher said he and his staff process at least 175,000 surveys

each semester. A summary of the surveys is then sent to each

professor and ASCSU. Professors use the surveys to evaluate their

teaching, and if they choose to they can submit the surveys for

consideration of tenure and promotion.

ASCSU posts the surveys on its Web site for students to access

information on professors.

Courchaine downloaded the information from the ASCSU Web site

and broke it into categories to make surveys searchable by either

class or professor.

“You can actually see where your surveys are going,” Courchaine

said.

However, Kevin Schafer, senior mechanical engineer major, is

skeptical of other students’ opinions.

“I don’t take people’s advice on movies,” he said. “It’s the

same way with professors. Some of my favorite professors are ones

other people hate.”

Ramsurveys is unaffliated with CSU.