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.