In response to “Students should not survey professors or determine rigor,” I can see the author’s point, saying that universities should not cater to every whim of their students in order to retain them as “customers.”

While some evaluations may certainly strive to ensure students’ happiness (what’s wrong with having Starbucks or Chick-fil-a again – it’s certainly no more “scholarly” to eat ramen noodles or old-school cafeteria food), this is not the only thing evaluations are for.

I feel like the author of the story missed one of the biggest reasons behind class surveys, which shows a different side of the situation: evaluating the actual performance of a teacher.

I am a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Alabama in Modern Languages and Classics, and this is my second semester teaching introductory French courses. Even as a GTA, there are only so many times the full-time faculty can come and observe to see how I am doing. How often do professors themselves get observed? Tenured professors? I’m sure it varies from department to department, but it’s not often.

The class surveys that students take are very important to make sure that the teaching faculty, from GTA to adjunct to professor, is doing its job, and doing it well. It is not purely a commercially driven step to earn the University more money. Does student satisfaction play a role in doing so? Of course! Unhappy students may very well transfer or drop out, lowering UA’s income. But the goal of ensuring a quality education is also an important one and something the class evaluations help with. If teachers are not truly teaching the material, if they are using unfair grading procedures, if they are not teaching in a way their students understand, these things need to be addressed.

Keep in mind, too, the people who review the information gathered. The instructor surveys and course evaluations are not looked over by some third party group who has no experience in the field and no connection to the university. They are looked over by department chairs, department deans, for GTAs by graduate coordinators and various other faculty. These people have taught classes themselves, seen what works and what doesn’t, and they also can recognize signs of potential issues with teachers and help them to improve. But they also know which complaints not to give to much credit too, and which issues are just students wanting an easy A.

In the French department, for example, we try to teach entirely in the target language, in order to expose the students to as much of it as possible and to acclimate them to using it themselves. This is part of a technique called communicative teaching, where the goal is for students to be able to actually use their language skills. Some students, however, write on class evaluations statements such as “Prof speaks in French too much. I don’t understand!!!!” When faculty reviews statements like this, they are not bothered, as they know the goal of teaching with this style. It’s actually expected and natural that students will not understand everything; that is part of the reason we do it! I was even warned before receiving my first set of evaluations that comments such as that are common and not to worry if I saw them.

Another thing that has to be considered is how students can give feedback directly to the professor, especially if it’s negative. Yes, a student can come up and speak after class, or send an email, but not everyone feels comfortable doing that. What if I, as a teacher, want to ask my students their opinions about the class? Will I get truthful feedback just asking them? Perhaps, but it’s likely I won’t get the full picture, especially if they have criticisms.

They also need time to reflect and say everything they need to say. I greatly enjoyed reading my first set of evaluations from last fall; it gave me insight from a different point of view into how the class went and was helpful in planning this semester. The anonymity of the course evaluations helps with these situations and ensures that everyone has a chance to say what they think.

Their goal is not only to ensure that the students who take classes continue to take classes, but for them to receive a quality education that will represent the University of Alabama wherever they may go, and to help teachers both new and experienced develop themselves. That is how the reputations of high-quality schools are built.

Thomas Carlton is a Master’s student in French linguistics.