BFC discusses course evaluations, affirmative action

The Bloomington Faculty Council convened Tuesday for the last time this school year. The council discussed course evaluations, the only action item on the agenda. The council also discussed affirmative action among faculty members on campus.

Course questionnaires
The council continued a discussion regarding a new policy about course questionnaires, formerly referred to as “course evaluations.”

Members discussed the issue of moving the questionnaires from their traditional pen-and-paper format to an electronic evaluation available online.

Professor of Optometry William Swanson and other faculty members expressed concerns that such a change would decrease student response rates. Former IU Student Association President Justin Kingsolver said that if students were to receive some sort of benefit, such as making certain results of the questionnaires available to students, the response rate would likely stay the same. The return of data to students had been discussed at previous meetings.

Purdue University converted to an online course questionnaire system two years ago, Kingsolver said, and according to a report, the format change saved about 750,000 pieces of paper. Kingsolver said the change would cater to sustainability, an issue he said students care about. A preliminary vote revealed more supporters than opponents for the electronic questionnaire.

The council also discussed making select information from the questionnaires available to students.

“I have a lot of faith that our student body would use the information in a positive way,” Kingsolver said, adding that a return of data would open the relationship between faculty and students.

Faculty members expressed concerns that the information would be misinterpreted. Council members voted to allow the return of information to students. The council also voted to grant the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education access to the data for purposes of program review and assessment, as well as to include several campus-wide questions on each department’s evaluation.

Affirmative action report
University Director of the Office of Affirmative Action Julie Knost presented the annual affirmative action report for the IU-Bloomington campus. This year’s report, which included data from the University employee database, indicated many successes in representation of women in faculty and highlighted areas of improvement for the University, Knost said.

The total number of women faculty members increased by 2 percent for the 2011-12 school year, Knost said, which continues a 15-year trend of a roughly 1 percent increase in women faculty members every year.

Despite the increases, Knost said the University should “watch the distribution of where women are hired.” She said progress has been made in the sciences, although “math is still a problem.”

The report also included statistics about minority faculty members, which Knost said were based on faculty members’ self-identification of minority status.

Despite 16 new minority hires for the current school year, 12 minority faculty members resigned, which Knost said might be indicative of an issue with faculty retention.