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News
Thursday, September 12, 2013
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Faculty, staff discuss evaluation methods SAMANTHA GALINDO Contributing Reporter The Academic Affairs Subcommittee of the Faculty Senate held a town hall meeting to discuss the use of IDEA evaluation forms and Faculty Evaluation Survey (FES) 1 and 2 of the faculty evaluation process. This meeting was held in the Lowman Student Center Theatre f on Wednesday. Subcommittee Chair Sheryl Murphy-Manley, Ph.D., gave a presentation of the subcommittee’s proposed university revision to the FES 1 and 2 followed by an open forum discussion with faculty members. The faculty member FES Form 6 is used to determine final faculty evaluations and is separated into five different fields, according to Murphy-Manley, the teaching part of the evaluation is determined by the department chair rating, the FES 1, and student ratings, FES 2. The Form 6 evaluations are used to rank the overall average of faculty members and in determining adjustments to faculty salary. The subcommittee has proposed three major changes to the current system. They recommend that the FES 2 be determined by adjusted scores of the IDEA evaluations. IDEA scores are the student evaluations given at the end of each semester regarding their class experience and are thereafter used by the university to assess faculty merit. Determining adjusted scores currently means taking into
Kaleigh Treibor | The Houstonian
OPEN FORUM From left: subcommittee members, James Crosby, Ph.D., Kevin Clifton, Ph.D., Rick White, Ph.D., and Chair Cheryl Murphey-Manley, lead the faculty and staff meeting.
account five questions asked in the survey. Two questions have been identified as having a significant impact on a student’s evaluation: item 39 “I really wanted to take this course regardless of who taught it,” and item 13 “As a rule, I put forth more effort than other students on academic work.” This essentially means that if a student had high motivation to take a class and evaluated the professor highly, the adjusted score will go down from the IDEA score as the student was already more susceptible to enjoy the class; and likewise if a student had no motivation to take the class and evaluated the professor lowly the adjusted score will increase of the raw score, according to the
News Brief IT@Sam experienced brief internet connectivity issues for some users Sam Houston State University computer users may have experienced a problem with their internet connectivity on Tuesday. Kea Harvin with IT@Sam said that one of their log in servers went down so anyone who got on them was kicked off of internet. As of Wednesday, the problem was resolved and no one else compained of internet issues. Information collected by Molly Waddell
TECH,
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Previously governments could rely on complicit or compromised certificate authorities to provide them with the means to catch encrypted traffic. Google recently made changes to their Chrome browser to curtail this practice. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is planning to follow suit. “[They] are enabling security features that make certain types government surveillance very difficult,” Gray said about the tension between the tech companies and the NSA. “In fact, advancements in cryptographic protocols have made anti-surveillance features relatively simple for tech companies to bake into their communications products.” While it seems that Facebook, Google and Apple have the upper hand, there are still questions on whether the situation is settled. “It’s not over,” Bennett said. “This is only the beginning. There’s still plenty of room for corporate America, United States government and international governments to essentially go to
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presentation The second proposed recommendation would be to switch from the IDEA long form to the short form and to add discipline-specific questions on the new form. In the past, the university has never chosen to use the short form, according to Murphy-Manley This would mean students would only have 18 questions to ask instead of 47, leaving more space for student comments and only three questions will adjust the raw scores. The subcommittee also recommends changing the wording of the FES Form 6. Under the teaching portion of the evaluation FES 1 and 2 would
be clarified. They recommend changing the Chair Rating to Chair Rating of Teaching including Faculty Effectiveness and Student Ratings would be revised as IDEA Summary Adjusted Scores. The subcommittee said the reason for this proposed change is so that department chair ratings of faculty will not be influenced by the student IDEA evaluation scores. The Faculty Senate and the Provost’s office hosted IDEA Center representatives, a video presentation of the Q&A can be found by faculty on Blackboard, and they stated that IDEA scores should not determine more than 50 percent of overall teaching evaluations for faculty.
Following the presentation, subcommittee members held an open discussion with 30 to 40 faculty members in attendance. Several faculty members expressed concern that the IDEA system is used in determining their merit system. Others expressed confusion over the fact that their scores are lowered by the adjustments for 50 percent of the faculty, while the other 50 percent experience an increase. Then faculty was also bothered by the fact that the evaluation that students make when determining if they work harder than other students is subjective and therefore not valid or reliable criteria to be used in the adjustment of student evaluation scores. “I thought the meeting provided a really lively discussion and brought to light a number of crucial issues regarding teacher evaluations on campus,” Faculty member Dr. Richard Watts from the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling said. Subcommittee members Paul Loeffler, Ph.D., James Crosby, Ph.D., Rick White, Ph.D., and Kevin Clifton, Ph.D. also contributed to the presentation, along with William Jasper and Doug Ulrich who were not in attendance. Faculty members were also given a survey to help contribute their opinions to the proposed changes and to offer any of their own. There will be a second Faculty Senate presentation in the LSC Theater Tuesday from 3 to 4:30 p.m. for any faculty who were unable to attend.
SHSU wants local man’s land for new ROTC building COLIN HARRIS Assistant News Editor Tensions are rising between local property owner Tarek Maalouf and the SHSU administration. The University wants to acquire land Maalouf recently purchased from the City of Huntsville. Maalouf ’s black “Eminent Doom” signs stand scattershot across the front of Maalouf ’s and his allies’ properties. The sign’s message is a defiant allusion to the university’s eminent domain power, a longstanding practice that allows government entities to acquire private land without the owner’s permission. The only stipulations are that the previous owner is paid fair market value for his land and the land must be designated for public use. SHSU’s desire to acquire the property stems from its updated master plan and the need for a new building to house the ROTC and Veteran’s Resource Center. Both are currently located in Academic Building III which is scheduled to be razed in 2016. The disputed property is a 2.5acre parcel at 2257 Sam Houston Ave., which had formerly been
Kaleigh Treiber | The Houstonian
BACK AND FORTH. The land that the school wishes to acquire is located on Sam Houston Avenue near Jack in the Box.
used as an Army Reserve facility. Two structures currently occupy the site: a 7,500 square feet red brick building and a 2,000 square feet metal unit used for vehicle storage. According to SHSU Associate Director of Communications Julia May, the ROTC presently uses around 11,000 square feet of space at ABIII, but the university is prepared to renovate the existing structures if necessary to accommodate the program.
Maalouf purchased the property Aug. 20 from the City of Huntsville for $650,000 and has plans to develop the property into a mixed-use facility with both commercial and residential features. Maalouf owns several properties in Huntsville totaling more than $1.5 million, according to the Walker County Appraisal District. He also owns Jaidyn’s and the Draft Bar.
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