From April 16 through April 27, the Student Rating of Teaching Effectiveness evaluations are available on Angel, and it is utterly critical that every student at Penn State takes these evaluations seriously this term.
As the school year draws to a close, all of us have seen corruption and inefficiency unravel on campus, our local and state governments, and our classrooms. As part of the efforts to cure the ills at Penn State, we the students must take every opportunity to demand educational integrity from our mentors.
SRTE completion hovers around 50 percent, but our university is in a state of flux both in and out of the classrooms. Chemistry courses have introduced ALEKS, a notoriously difficult (but startlingly effective) tool for students to self-educate. Physics courses are seeing a new message board tool, Piazza, for students to communicate. Math courses are introducing numbers, like threvin and slevin, to entertain otherwise blasé students.
As this year’s president of the Eberly College of Science Student Council, I had the privilege to meet with the college faculty, alumni board, and my peers to discuss the quality of our science classes. It is no secret that retention is a problem in science classes; however, there is something that we can do about it.
The SRTE data is released after every term, and this term, we need to make our voices heard loud and clear: These are the problems we face, and we want to see change wherever possible.
R. Ben Heidorn
President of Eberly College of Science Student Council
