Winthrop denies FOI request
I wrote this piece for a journalism class before I received an e-mail from Tom Moore, vice president of academic affairs, denying my Freedom of Information request:
They help departments decide which professors will receive tenure and promotions. They can be an opportunity for students to retaliate against teachers they find loathsome. Some faculty members grimace before examining them while others look forward to seeing them with smug anticipation.
They’re faculty course evaluations and for the first time, you might get to take a peek at what others are saying about your favorite teachers and those insufferable ones.
After seeking counsel from the South Carolina Press Association’s lawyer, a legal request was made to obtain Winthrop faculty course evaluations. The request is currently pending.
Do professors want this information made public?
“Good gosh no,” said Jack DeRochi, assistant English professor. “There are some students that would be intimidated by writing something for public reading.”
Some professors are aware of the precedent for this request and aren’t surprised.
“A lot of universities have the numerical part of the evaluations online and accessible,” said Scott Huffmon, assistant professor of political science. “I don’t know how many universities our size have [faculty course evaluations] online.”
The clock is counting down for Winthrop administration to respond. The request was made two weeks ago and according to the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, the school has four days left to respond.
“They have 15 working days in total to respond. That doesn’t include spring break,” said Bill Rogers, a lawyer for the South Carolina Press Association. “They’re probably having their attorney review it. I would think [faculty course evaluations] are public documents and there aren’t any exemptions that would apply to this request.”
Penalties for violating a Freedom of Information Act request include 90 days in jail, a misdemeanor charge and a $300 fine.
The issue has grabbed the attention of some students.
“These evaluations need to be made public,” said 21-year-old theater junior Kevin Snow. “The sooner, the better.”
Others agree.
“It’d be a good way to find a consensus on what people think of a professor,” said 21-year-old broadcast journalism junior Nicolas Holman. “If it’s public, it’s not really invading your privacy at all. My name is not on [the faculty course evaluations].”
Several professors are content with the private evaluations currently in use.
“I think the course evaluations are primarily for the professor to use and to take those ideas and better ourselves as teachers,” said music professor Katherine Kinsey. “I’m not sure I would want to know about anybody else’s class nor would I want them to know about mine.”
Kinsey said her evaluations are “usually very good” but doesn’t believe evaluations would help students pick a better professor.
Political science professor Scott Huffmon sees course evaluations as a double-edged sword.
“The students want to take the best professors but are probably unaware of one professor who does phenomenal research but know she says ‘umm’ a lot,” Huffmon said. “Students evaluate based on technique. If you’re judging professors based on course evaluations, you have no way of knowing if this person is helping you gain new knowledge or is just giving you a slick presentation.”
Huffmon said most faculty resist presenting their evaluations publicly because they give a one-sided view.
The evaluations carry great weight with Winthrop’s administration.
“I know for a fact that course evaluations are extremely important to department chairs, colleges and the university,” Huffmon said. “We submit an annual report with our research, summary and analysis of our teaching. They take those evaluations quite seriously.”
Tom Moore, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, said his department is “waiting to receive some necessary information” before it prepares a response to the Freedom of Information Act request.
Ohio State University’s student newspaper The Lantern made a similar request for course evaluations in March. It took the school a month to respond.
The school’s administration provided the information in a hard-to-use PDF format. The Lantern is currently putting in another request to get the information in a database-compatible format.
“We’re still pursuing the matter,” said Annie Hall, a reporter for The Lantern.
Winthrop’s response:
I received this e-mail from Tom Moore yesterday, denying my request:
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 11:46:41 -0400
From: “Moore, Thomas F”
Subject: Request
To:
Dear Will,
The Office of Vice President for Academic Affairs received your request for information under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act on April 3, 2006. As you know, we are required to respond to you within 15 working days of receipt of your request, excluding weekends and holidays, to let you know our determination regarding your request, and we are doing so through this communication.
Your request was for “a copy of raw figures of student course evaluations in spreadsheet, database or CVS file form.” As detailed below, this office does not maintain or require maintenance by others of “raw figures of student course evaluations in spreadsheet, database or CVS file form.”
While the above constitutes our full response to your request under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act, I am happy, in keeping with our educational mission, to share with you voluntarily further detail regarding how student evaluations are used at Winthrop in keeping with both the institution’s use of recognized best practices in higher education and employment law, as well as guidelines associated with the performance rating system.
* Student course evaluations are one component of the way in which Winthrop assesses how we present academic material as part of an overall experience. Because faculty are key to that endeavor, student evaluations are an integral part of the personnel evaluation system.
* Because personnel evaluations – whether from students, department chairs, or others – are considered personal employment information, those materials on advice of counsel remain confidential within the meaning, interpretation and application of the Freedom of Information Act.
* As students will know from their own experiences, Winthrop requires student evaluations, and allows its various colleges and departments considerable latitude in crafting instruments that reflect the respective natures of various disciplines and programs. These evaluations are used at respective department and college levels in three ways:
o on an on-going basis, to ensure the overall quality and continuous improvement of the Winthrop Experience over time in all academic areas;
o on an annual basis, for individual employee personnel evaluations, which are done at the departmental and college level;
o on a scheduled basis, for individuals’ pre- and post-tenure reviews, which are also done at the departmental and college level.
As noted above, the Division of Academic Affairs maintains no centralized campus-wide data base of this information, nor does it require such to be maintained by any unit of the University. Only individual applications for tenure and promotion or nominations for awards would result in review of student evaluation information at the Vice President for Academic Affairs level.
I hope this information is useful to you in understanding how student evaluations are developed, used and maintained at Winthrop University.
Sincerely,
Thomas F. Moore, PhD
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty
Winthrop University
This story from the Ohio State University paper was my inspiration. My search is not over. If you’d like to see what my FOI request looked like, send me an e-mail (click the Contact section of this Web site).
Links:
Print and distribute this FOI poster
South Carolina Freedom of Information law
A statewide FOI audit by the SC Press Association
