The department offers three types of course evaluations each semester: Student Ratings of Teaching (electronic or paper), TA evaluations, and graduate seminar evaluation forms.
Staff will distribute all course evaluation forms at the start of the data collection window as determined by the Office of Measurement Services (OMS). Instructors must distribute Student Ratings of Teaching (SRTs) on or before the last day of class. All paper SRTs returned to the main office staff will be sent to OMS for processing. SRT data reports are returned from OMS via email within 21 business days. For more information about the Office of Measurement Services’ SRT Process, please refer to the Office of Measurement's website.
Paper SRT forms are typically returned to the department within 3-4 weeks. The department handles the return of these paper forms differently, depending on the course level.
- Course evaluations for undergraduate courses are put into the instructor’s mailbox as soon as they are received from OMS. TA evaluations are left in TA mailboxes at that time as well.
- Return of evaluations for graduate seminars follows stricter guidelines. Evaluations for graduate seminars are held onto by staff for a minimum of one semester. After one semester, SRTs and seminar evaluation forms will be returned to faculty if the Graduate Program Coordinator confirms that:
- All grades for the course have been submitted <OR>
- There are no incomplete (I) or not reported (NR) grades for Political Science graduate students in the course.
Courses with outstanding I or NR grades will continue to be stored by staff to be checked again for return the next semester.