Instructor evaluations are one step away from being available online after two resolutions successfully passed Wednesday's Student Government Association meeting.
The proposals will move forward to University Senate for final approval. If the measures are enacted, students would be able to evaluate instructors outside class, but evaluations would not be publicly viewable.
SGA President Frank Hood said Provost Terry King was not receptive to publishing mandatory online evaluations for public viewing.
"(Provost King) is not willing to support an initiative that will allow students to publicly bash professors online," Hood said. "The university just isn't willing to set something like that up."
Jacinta Yanders, Secretary of Community Relations and author of the bills, echoed Hood's sentiment. She said the process would not drastically change from its current form.
"The idea with this is that evaluations would essentially remain the same as now," Yanders said, "we're just trying to get them online. This isn't designed to be a Rate My Professor."
She said each department would decide how they will use the assessments if they become mandatory.
She is confident the administration will seriously consider enacting the resolutions, she said, and some administrators are in favor of the idea.
A concern is whether paper evaluations would be eliminated in favor of the online format, Yanders said. Depending on Ball State's decision both paper and online formats might still exist. SGA research shows several schools use both forms, she said.
SGA Vice President Carrie Cozad said students willing to evaluate their instructors would do so regardless of format.
University Senate will meet Dec. 11 to vote on approved resolutions.
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