'Course Critique' copes with student criticism

COURTESY YALE COLLEGE COURSE CRITIQUE ANCIENT HISTORY: The 'Course Critique' contains many reviews of classes that have since changed professors, such as History of Modern China.

The Yale College Course Critique might be more of a bother than a boon to confused Yalies during shopping period. Among other errors, the last publication contained reviews of non-existent classes and departed professors. "The Course Critique is a handy Cliff's Notes-like sort of resource, but people should definitely not take it as gospel," Shannon Scott, SY '99, said, as he tried to decide what classes to take. "It's outdated and frustrating and totally underrep-resentative of Yale courses and teaching."

The Spring 1999 issue of the Critique contains reviews of only 100 courses, less than one tenth of the total number of course offerings. Some of the classes reviewed are not being offered this semester, such as Political Science Professor Rogers Smith's Constitutional Law course. Many critiques are based on responses from less than 10 percent of students in a class, while others date back as far as fall 1995. In addition, the critique features reviews of professors who are on leaves of absence, such as popular History Professor Jonathan Spence.

"We're doing the best job that we can," Critique Senior Editor Joyeeta Dastidar,
SY '99, said. "We have a lot of problems with staffing and even more problems with polling. We stay outside the dining halls and we either don't get enough people or people don't want to return the surveys." According to Editor-in-Chief Stephen Shiao, BR '99, the Critique is also constrained by a small staff and difficulties meeting deadlines.

In response to these complaints, the staff has been searching for novel ways to make the Critique more up-to-date and comprehensive. This year, the staff asked professors who teach large lecture courses to urge their students to share their opinions on classes. History Professor Glenda Gilmore, who taught a course on American society and politics last term, said, "I gave my students a pep talk to encourage them to fill out the surveys. To review only a few of the many history classes in the Critique just doesn't seem worth it. "

The Critique's editors have also repeatedly asked the Administration to grant them access to the end-of-the-semester course evaluations students fill out for their professors, but their requests have been turned down every time. "The Yale faculty has chosen to have its evaluations be for the benefit of the instructors and for the benefit of those making internal faculty decisions," Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, explained. "I know the frustration of the students who try to put [a course critique] out. It would take a vote of the faculty to re-conceive the way we do course evaluations." Brodhead noted that last year, his office experimented with an online course evaluation system, but the return rates were "dismal."

At other colleges, however, administrative cooperation from the administration is integral to the success of course critique publications. Ona Hahs, former editor of Harvard's Cue Guide, a 500-page book that includes reviews of nearly every one of the college's thousands of courses, said the aid provided by the Administration is "the key to having a successful guide. The registrar gives us information on enrollment, professors, teaching fellows, et cetera." She attributed the Guide's success to the evaluation form's versatility. "The forms which students fill out have a twofold purpose: for the Cue Guide and as feedback for professors and teaching fellows," she said.

Gilmore believes, however, that cooperation from the Administration would undermine the fundamental ideals behind the Critique. "It shouldn't be the culture, it should be the counterculture," she said. "It's an underground effort. I grew up in a period when we relied on course critiques. It was a form of students taking control of their own education. Students sort of do it here through shopping period, but a course critique is another tool to do that."

Despite its problems with staffing, surveying, deadlines, and the Administration, Shiao insisted the Critique tries its best to fulfill its mission. "As a publication, it does what it claims to do, and we make it the best that it can be," he said. However, Shiao admitted, "It's going to need substantial reworking and revamping."

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