Thursday, January 8th, 2009

USAC works to put professor evaluations online

The Undergraduate Students Association Council approved two resolutions Tuesday – one in support of making professor evaluations available to students, and the other suggesting that students should be able to switch between two separate chemistry series.

The council is working toward making the professor evaluations that students complete each quarter available on the MyUCLA Web site.

This proposal is a response to the somewhat inaccurate current system – Bruinwalk.com – which allows students to evaluate professors online, but has drawn criticism for being incomplete.

“Bruinwalk.com is the only thing available now,” said USAC President Marwa Kaisey. “This system is flawed because you don’t even have to have taken the class and usually the only people posting are the ones who really liked or disliked a class.”

Noa Simchoni, professor evaluations director at the USAC President’s Office, said she presented the proposal to the Undergraduate Council of the Academic Senate and is waiting for a response. She hopes to have the evaluations up and running on MyUCLA spring quarter.

The evaluations were available in paper form to students until 1995, but the service was discontinued because of high printing costs, according to the Daily Bruin archives.

“In some cases (the comments left on Bruinwalk.com) might be biased for whatever reason, so I would be in favor of the new evaluation process,” said Ryan Matlock, a second year physics student.

During the meeting, USAC also voted to pass a resolution in support of allowing students to transition between the Chemistry 20/30 and Chemistry 14 series.

The Chemistry 14 and Chemistry 20/30 series are sequences of classes offered by the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Currently, students must commit to either the more rigorous physical science and engineering-based 20/30 series, or the life science-based 14 series.

With USAC’s support, the Academic Affairs Commission plans to present a formal resolution to the UCLA administration. The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry declined to comment until it receives an official proposal.

Academic Affairs Commissioner Nat Schuster and other officers have been working on this project since early fall.

Schuster said many new UCLA students, unsure of which major to declare or which classes to enroll in, listen to the advice of orientation counselors and upperclassmen who suggest taking the broader Chemistry 20/30 series. But many students later decide that the Chemistry 14 series better meets their educational needs.

“UCLA students should have freedom in choosing the depth of chemistry coverage that will best suit their future careers,” the resolution read.

The more in-depth Chemistry 20/30 series consists of six lectures and at least three laboratory courses, while the Chemistry 14 series only requires four lectures and two laboratory courses.

“Once the students make their decision, this decision continues to haunt them into their junior and senior years. They are unable to correct the mistakes they made,” Schuster said.

Members of the commission want to give students, who on average change majors at least once during their college career, what they call a much-needed second chance.

Scott Huffman, a first-year chemical engineering student, said he believes providing this new option will help undecided students.

“A lot of people come to UCLA and then realize that they don’t want to be a physical science or engineering major (and want to switch to life sciences instead), so making this policy change seems like a good idea,” Huffman said.

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