K-Staters,
Welcome to February! I hope your first two weeks of class have gone well and that you’ve made it to Bramlage at least once to cheer on the men’s and women’s basketball teams!
Today, I’d like to update you on another one of the Schooley/Unruh campaign goals from way back when we ran for office almost a year ago, and it relates to a topic that affects every single student on campus: K-State’s teacher evaluation process. Running for SGA leadership positions, we heard the concerns of numerous students who felt their voices weren’t heard in the process — whether they filled out a TEVAL or IDEA form at the end of the semester, they worried K-State wasn’t doing all it could do to improve the quality of teaching. We made it our mission to represent the student voice and improve the process through the formation of a group dedicated to that goal.
After months of meetings with administrators and students across campus, we’re happy to announce that we’re making progress — in a tangible way! We’ve worked with Dr. Jana Fallin, director of the Teaching & Learning Center of Kansas State University, to initiate a task force to study the TEVAL surveys. Provost April Mason has approved the establishment of the TEVAL Task Force to begin this process, and we couldn’t be more excited! The task force’s goals will be threefold: first, to evaluate the validity and reliability of the student course rating survey, second, to discuss possible steps that could be taken to improve the survey, and third, to begin development of training events for department heads, faculty and students on use of the student course evaluation process.
Chance Berndt, Junior in Marketing and SGA’s Executive Initiatives Director, will serve as the student representative on the TEVAL task force. Chance’s email address is cberndt@ksu.edu — he’s open to hearing your thoughts on the current and potential future process, so as your student representative, don’t hesitate to contact him or me!
On an unrelated note, as hard as it might be to believe, it’s already almost time for SGA elections! Being involved in SGA has been one of the highlights of my time at K-State, and as cheesy as it sounds, my life. If you’re interested in running for Student Senate or even Student Body President, head to www.k-state.edu/elections today — the deadline to file for office is next Friday, February 14.
Keep up the great work!
Eli Schooley
Student Body President
elis@ksu.edu