The Student Assembly had its request for the release of the Student Opinion of Teaching (SOOT) forms approved by the Faculty Senate’s Educational Policy and Priorities Committee in late January and by their executive committee in April, but now remains deadlocked, with the final approval of the full Faculty Senate postponed.

Binghamton University students currently rely on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com to tell them what classes to take and what professors to avoid, but with the release of the SOOT surveys they can get a better idea of what classes to take and which professors to avoid based on the overall ratings of students who took their courses the previous semester.

The resolution requesting the release of the SOOT surveys to students has been a goal of Peter Spaet, vice president for academic affairs for the Student Association, since he took office at the beginning of the fall 2008 semester. This resolution was authored in collaboration with Daniel Rabinowitz, VPAA-elect.

On January 30, 2009, the request for the release of the SOOT surveys was proposed to the EPPC and was unanimously approved. On April 24 the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate voted with a 10-0 result in favor of sending this proposal to the next and final step, the full Faculty Senate.

“Initially, it seemed that some of the committee was not in favor for it, but I was very pleased with the final vote,” Spaet said.

The Faculty Senate is a group of faculty that votes on academic proposals and issues. There is a member from each department in on the Senate board.

At their last meeting on May 5, the Executive Faculty Senate voted on Spaet’s proposal. They decided to postpone the vote until the next meeting, which will be Tuesday, May 12.

Benjamin Fordham, a political science professor and voting member of the EPPC, said that he thought Spaet’s proposal was compelling. According to Fordham, because we are a public University, there is no reason as to why these surveys have to be kept private.

“There was no controversy on the EPCC,” Fordham said. “If there’s resistance, it’s not from us.”

Initially Spaet had the understanding that if the full Faculty Senate approved the resolution, further approval by Binghamton University Provost Mary Ann Swain would still be required.

The provost does not need to approve the resolution, making the full Faculty Senate the last step to getting the SOOT surveys released.

“The main reason that I wanted to release these forms is because these surveys would give students the highest quality and best quality information about their courses when they’re registering,” he said.

He also believes that the other options available to students, such as RateMyrofessors.com, are biased and easily tampered with.

The criteria for SOOT surveys are different in comparison with RateMyProfessors.com. For example, according to Spaet, the Web site asks how easy the course was and what the professor looks like, while SOOT forms ask more academic-based questions.

If his proposal passes, Spaet believes that it would lead to a higher response rate on the SOOT surveys.

“If students know that another student could benefit from these surveys, they will fill them out more sincerely and in more detail than they do now,” he added.

H. Richard Naslund, a member of the Faculty Senate and professor in the department of geological sciences and environmental studies, said he believes that making the SOOT surveys accessible could be an incomplete method for students to judge courses.

According to Naslund, using SOOT results to judge courses would be difficult because it measures student opinions of the course immediately after taking the course, not taking into effect how much they have learned or if this information was useful later in life.

“It is difficult to compare courses using the SOOT results because the SOOT uses similar formats for courses that are required and those that are electives, courses with large enrollment and courses with small enrollment, courses that are taken by majors and those taken by non-majors, etc.,” Naslund said.

The Faculty Senate is expected to vote on Spaet’s proposal Tuesday.