As the end of the semester rolls around and classes meet for the last time, there is still something that must be done before University of Wisconsin students can breathe a collective sigh of relief: evaluations.

But with many students rushing out of lecture before the stack of Scantrons makes it to the back row and others scribbling down angry comments over the professor's supposed bias, the question arises of just how much course evaluations matter.

According to Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters and Science, they have a "significant impact."

"Departments look at [the evaluations] when professors are evaluated for pay raises and promotions and tenure," he said, adding the student feedback also helps departments recognize potential problem areas in the classroom. "[Departments] can work with the professor to correct issues or problems raised in evaluations."

While noting that evaluations sometimes seem to be taken more seriously by the students than the faculty, political science professor Jon Pevehouse acknowledged the importance of evaluations for determining tenure.

"At that point the big question is, can they teach?" he said. "Once you're tenured, it's about perfecting your own approach."

In terms of student concerns, the effect evaluations have on teaching style might prove more important to the evaluators.

What students have to say does matter, Pevehouse said.

"Especially in terms of things like readings," he said. "If students don't like it, they don't get a lot out of it."

But rarely is the open-answer portion of course evaluations marked up solely with feedback about the syllabus and required readings. Especially in the political science and history departments, Pevehouse said course evaluations often become a battleground where students unleash about the instructor's teaching style and, even more commonly, about a perceived bias.

And while some comments along those lines can seem unfounded, Pevehouse maintained that feedback plays a role in ensuring professors are not using their pulpit presence inappropriately.

After semester upon semester of sorting through the pencil scratches, Pevehouse knows when he's got it right.

"For every person I find who says I'm a flaming liberal, there's another who accuses me of being a flaming conservative," he said. "So I think I've got balance."

The archives of course evaluations are not just for faculty use, though.

For about a decade, the Associated Students of Madison have collected as many course evaluations as they could through open records requests, posting the information on the organization's website.

While ASM has been criticized for incomplete information on the site — the page of spring 2006 evaluations is missing several departments including English and political science — ASM officials stand behind the site's importance.

"We've always published anything we received," said Jeanette Velazquez, student representative for the School of Letters and Science. "It's a good way for students to have a voice in how they want to be taught."

Admittedly, she said, the website probably does not have the kind of draw a site like ratemyprofessors.com boasts, but the ASM site is "more reliable."

With or without a site of published evaluations, Sandefur said there is no shortage of ways students can research potential class selections.

"Look at syllabi; talk to other students," he said. "I wouldn't rely only on the course evaluations."