Opinion: Editorial

Clean up on aisle common sense

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Related stories:

• ASM web page 'sucks' (November 16, 2007)
• Those in aisle seats need a civics lesson (October 20, 2005)
• Lessons in lecture hall etiquette (September 1, 2004)
• Moderation possible on drug law (April 28, 2008)
• It's still alive... (October 15, 2007)

Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:

• The Invisible Man Award: Wyndham Manning (May 7, 2009)
• The People's Choice Award: Jacqueline Hitchon et. al (May 7, 2009)
• The Lifetime Achievement Award: ASM (May 7, 2009)
• Honest representation (May 5, 2009)
• Junger for ASM Chair (May 5, 2009)

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It goes without saying that the main concern of any university's student government should be the interests of its students. For all its faults, the Associated Students of Madison has kept that in mind in at least one way: by publishing feedback from course evaluations on a website available to the public. This service could undoubtedly prove very useful to University of Wisconsin students — that is, if ASM would ever update it.

At the end of every semester, students are given the chance to scribble their opinions about a class and rate their professors' competency on course evaluations. Scantrons are distributed to lecture halls full of students with firsthand accounts of the professor's performance and what did and did not work in the classroom. This process is touted as beneficial to departments that use the feedback when professors are evaluated for pay raises, promotions and tenure, and also for professors who use the information to better their teaching approaches.

Since the late 1990s, ASM has used state open records law to gain access to this information in hopes of making the evaluations beneficial to students as well. According to its website, ASM collects and posts evaluations for "most UW courses"