On School Policy II

Dear Mr. Storm,

I appologise for the delay in this reply. A contract dispute between the administration and members of our tenured faculty had to be expediently dealt with. A number of these professors were suggesting that they might not appear during working hours (I believe the vernacular uses the term 'strike' for this). Under the conditions of their tenure, the University is responsible to ensure their employment. Thus it follows that if they were disinclined to attend, the administration would be in violation of the contract. Fortuitously, we managed to placate them be moving several faculty offices from the various tents around campus to Bronze hall.

Having thus recently familiarized myself with the guidelines and regulations applicable to university professors, permit me to answer those inquiries related to such. The first of which I believe questioned the value of the Student Faculty Evaluations.

Your conjecture that they have no effect on employment or salary is well-founded. We could not use them in such a way; our discrimination policy prevents any such application. Though most students are diligent workers who will no doubt form the core of the world's future, there remains a significant number of less motivated individuals. Such people might evaluate their professors in a terribly biased fashion. Regardless of whether it stems from race, gender or simply a desire to punish harsh-grading professors, such results are invalid.

Nor are the questions themselves particularly poor indicators of professor performance in any case. Does "highly available during office hours" mean that the professor is hobbling his students by letting them rely on him? has he been shirking his research and administrative tasks?

We do have use for these documents. By using the quantity, rather than content, of the forms returned we can ascertain which professor elicits the most feedback. Such a professor is most likely a negative influence. Few things stimulate students as well as a complaint, and beyond that, the professor is generating masses of paperwork which must be dealt with. You would have to consult the individuals departments for specifics, but they also use the evaluations forms. The college of the Sciences for example buys dinner for the professor with the most interesting feedback.

I regret that further preparations for the staff talks must take precedence. I will endeavour to resolve your remaining questions as soon as university business is concluded.

Dr. Callid-Stult