Following complaints about biased and inappropriate student feedback on OMET surveys, Pitt is implementing new guidelines to remove harmful comments from end-of-the-semester professor evaluations.<\/p>\n
The Office of Measurement and Evaluation of Teaching<\/a> administers anonymous student feedback surveys twice a semester. At the end of the semester, survey results are distributed to faculty and department administrators for review, yet in recent years, there\u2019s been an increase of harmful language<\/a> across these evaluations. This October, OMET implemented new guidelines that allows professors to request the removal of negative comments.<\/p>\n Lisa Votodian, the survey assessment manager in the University Center for Teaching and Learning<\/a>, explained how faculty will now be able to request<\/a> a committee review and potential removal of incendiary and harmful comments in their teaching surveys. These comments affect the numeric results given to professors, which are calculated on a Likert scale<\/a> using student feedback results.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[Once a request] is submitted, a panel made up of faculty, students and teaching consultants will review the request and determine the appropriate next steps,\u201d Votodian said. \u201c[This] may include the removal of the comments as well as the corresponding numerical ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n The new panel, made specifically for these requests, marks the first time professors are able to ask to remove negative comments. Castilleja Olmsted, a teaching assistant professor in the biology department, said this new committee has \u201cbeen a long time coming.\u201d In the past, Olmsted has found issues with her previous OMETs, including negativity and wanting her students\u2019 comments to be more specific.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve gotten negative comments,\u201d Olmsted said. \u201cI think everybody has. It\u2019s a lot harder to deal with feedback that\u2019s not actionable. You\u2019re allowed to say you hate the class, but there\u2019s nothing I can do with that comment to actually change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n The overly-critical evaluations from students is not a new behavior in teacher evaluations, according to Votodian.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSuch behavior has not only occurred here at Pitt but at other colleges and universities as well<\/a>,\u201d Votodian said. \u201cThis new review process aligns with other colleges and universities that have existing pathways in place<\/a> to address incendiary or harmful survey comments.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Olmsted mentors graduate students in the biology department and always makes sure to have a conversation with them about how to deal with negative OMET comments.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to teach them what they can get out of [the comments], despite not being ideal,\u201d Olmsted said. \u201cSo I\u2019m glad [the University] is looking into it, since it\u2019s not uncommon at a lot of universities to make it clear to students that comments that are inappropriate will be addressed.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Some professors, including Olmsted, allot time during a class period for students to fill out the OMET. She believes it\u2019s important to get as much feedback as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to make sure I\u2019m getting a response from as many people as possible,\u201d Olmsted said. \u201cSo, the data can be used to say what\u2019s really going on in class as a whole, instead of just a couple of people who felt very strongly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Though John Stoner, a history professor, has not seen harmful language on his own evaluations, he has heard his peers express their concerns with negative comments on their OMETs.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lot of evidence now that faculty members<\/a> of color and female faculty members \u2014 regardless of their race \u2014 are often objectified in a different way for purposes that have nothing to do with their teaching effectiveness,\u201d Stoner said in reference to comments described as \u201csexist\u201d and \u201cracist\u201d by Votodian in the University Times.<\/p>\n Stoner, who has taught at Pitt for 16 years, has seen \u201cconstructive change\u201d with OMETs over time, such as switching from paper surveys<\/a> to the current online system, which includes more questions for students to fill out.<\/p>\n