On April 25, 2006 the Academic Senate passed the Resolution on Developing a Standardized Core Evaluation Form. This resolution recommended that instructional faculty incorporate twelve core questions into all student evaluation of courses starting in Fall 2006. The President accepted and approved this Academic Senate resolution on May 15, 2006. The complete resolution and the HSU Instructor Evaluation—Core Questions are attached to this Administrative Memorandum, and are also available on-line at http://www.humboldt.edu/~aavp/AdminMemo/0602_Student%20Eval%20Core%20Questions%20Administrative%20Memo.pdf
Therefore all academic programs shall adopt the attached HSU Instructor Evaluation—Core Questions for student evaluation of courses commencing with the 2006-2007 academic year.
The Academic Senate further recommended that if academic programs chose to add discipline-specific questions to the twelve core questions, that the same 5-point rating scale be used: 5 = excellent, 4 = good,
3 = average, 2 = below average, and 1 = poor. I strongly urge academic programs to follow the Academic Senate’s advice if discipline-specific questions are added to the HSU Instructor Evaluation – Core Questions.
Academic programs may also choose to add open-ended questions to the HSU Instructor Evaluation – Core Questions. The Academic Senate provides suggestions for additional objective and/or open-ended questions. These are listed on the attachment following the twelve core questions.
As stated in the attached Academic Senate resolution, “. . . the results generated from the Instruction Evaluation Form shall be used only for purposes of instructor self-improvement, instruction retention, the RTP process, and Periodic Evaluation of tenured faculty.”
If you have any questions regarding the implementation of the HSU Instructor Evaluation—Core Questions as the university-wide common instrument for the student evaluation of all courses, please contact either Academic Senate Chair Saeed Mortazavi or the Associate Vice President for Faculty Affairs, Colleen Mullery.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
DISTRIBUTION: All Faculty, Staff, and Administrative Offices
Attachment: Academic Senate Resolution #23-05/06-SA
(Academic Senate Resolution #23-05/06-SA)
Resolution on Developing a Standardized Core Evaluation form
#23-05/06-SA – April 25, 2006
RESOLVED: That the Academic Senate of Humboldt State University thanks the Course Evaluation Subcommittee for their two years working towards an instructor evaluation form which would be useful for every department; and be it further
RESOLVED: That the Student Affairs committee recommends to the President that the attached set of questions be adopted as a core set of questions for use in every department; and be it further
RESOLVED: That each department is encouraged to add department-specific questions to the University-wide core questions; and be it further
RESOLVED: That any rating-scale questions added by departments must use the same 5-point scale (5=excellent, 4= good, 3=average, 2=below average, and 1=poor) employed by the core questions; and be it further
RESOLVED: That the results generated from the Instructor Evaluation Form shall be used only for purposes of instructor self-improvement, instructor retention, the RTP process, and Periodic Evaluation of tenured faculty; and be it further
RESOLVED: That use of this new form begin in the Fall of 2006, with a review date of one year from implementation to allow any needed changes by the Academic Senate.
Rationale: Currently, most departments at HSU have designed their own course-evaluation forms, with the result that Personnel committees have a bewildering
experience dealing with a wide variety of rating scales and other types of forms.
This resolution would create some uniformity through the use of common-core
questions and common formatting of the forms used across campus, while still
allowing departments to ask the questions they find most meaningful.
Recommended by Senate – April 25, 2006
Approved by President Richmond - May 15, 2006