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Show I Devaluating evaluation, cellar style cooperate? Why, after declining to cooperate, did he d negotiate? Why does Welcker seem to want to obstruct? As a matter of fact, why Welcker? A surprising number of people can't get along without it. The Course Evaluation Book, we mean. It's that handy little volume summarizing the results of the quarterly course evaluat, on program. It's good to have around when planning the next quarters scried" e. On the basis of previous students' experiences with a particula in-I in-I structor teaching a particular course, an indecisive student can observe right there in black and white who the good instructors are, and who they aren't. It's saved a lot of people a lot of wasted time. It's been valuable in questions of tenure and retention. It's provided something more than the usual hit-or-miss chance at getting good instruction. But its credibility and thoroughness is being threatened right now by a number of people. It all happened with the change of Registrar, curiously enough. The former Registrar, E.A. Reeder, apparently thought Course Evaluation was worthwhile, being that he was not only cooperative enough to let the cards be sent out in registration packets, but he was generous enough to absorb the cost of any additional mailing fees. The new Registrar, Max Welcker, apparently doesn't care to see the four-year-old Course Evaluation Program continued. One of his first acts in office was to deny the evaluation people use of the first mailing of registration material. They could, he generously added, use the second mailing if they could come up with $1,200 in postage fees. Which the course evaluation people confidently set out to do. Then the registrar decided there would be no second mailing; instead, people would pick up their materials in person. And he coincidentally forgot to tell the course evaluation people about this change in plans, so they had no opportunity to negotiate any alternate method. Well, said the course evaluation people, if there's going to be no mailing, then money shouldn't be any problem, so could we include our cards with the in-person materials? No, mumbled the Registrar, it's too much trouble for us (or something like that). The only alternative left was to mail a class' cards to the instructor and depend on him to get them distributed, etc. The course evaluation people have already noticed a significant drop in the number of classes returning cards, predictably. A number of instructors seem strangely reluctant to have their courses evaluated, with the result that the evaluation booklet will list those professors refusing to distribute cards, as a legitimate comment on the nature of the course (which we think is well-deservedj. But the threat to the effectiveness of course evaluation is not the fault of a few instructors. An evaluation requires for its administration a disinterested party, which the instructor in this case obviously is not. The fault, instead, is the Registrar's. Why, before Welcker, did things run smoothly? Why, after Welcker, did things foul up? Cost, he might plead. Why, after cost was removed as a factor, did Welcker decline to |