by Chris Cumo

The University of Washington in Seattle was the first American university in the early 1920s to let students evaluate their professors, writes Peter Seldin, distinguished professor of management at Pace University, in "When Students Rate Professors." The practice spread slowly, noted Robin Wilson in "New Research Casts Doubt on the Value of Student Evaluations of Professors." In 1973 only about 30 percent of U.S. colleges and universities mandated evaluations. Today, however, they are ubiquitous, and they have sway. George Niketas, chair of the English department at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina believes they exert the greatest force at small colleges and universities that value teaching over scholarship. "Evaluations were used [at Charleston Southern University] as a club to keep someone from advancing," he said.

Robert S. Owen knows how powerful they can be. In 1995 Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania denied him tenure because students had given him mixed reviews. His marriage crumbled, and his savings evaporated along with his faith in the purity of academe. Despite these hardships, Owen got a second chance, landing an assistant professorship at SUNY at Oswego. He will never underestimate the influence of student evaluations.

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