Course evaluation survey results

Thanks to everybody who filled out our survey on course evaluations. Your results were compiled into a report and were presented into the faculty. Currently, the Faculty is looking over the report and is figuring out next steps to make the system better. We, of course will keep you updated. The report we produced is posted at our website here:

Course Evaluations Survey Results

The two main points that we asked for your input on, what you thought the system lacked and how it could be improved.

What you said could be improved on:

  • Questions are too vague. Quality of questions need to be improved.
  • Numerical answers aren’t enough, comments are required.
  • Numerical answers often don’t provide enough info, since most of the values are averaged from 3-4.
  • There is no retake rate in % form.
  • People aren’t aware the results are even posted online or where to access them. While, they get an e-mail reminder to do their evaluations, there is no such e-mail sent out when they are posted. More promotion of results is necessary.

We need your feedback

ASSU needs your help in making course evaluations better

 

The Arts and Science Students’ Union (ASSU) is currently working to gather student feedback about the new on-line course evaluation system . As part of this process, we need students to fill out a survey about the evals. ASSU will be working with the Faculty of Arts and Science and the Centre for Teaching, Support, and Innovation (CTSI) to improve the system.

To fill out the survey, just go to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GGSPWYB

ASSU’s open letter concerning the Student Societies Summit

Julia Malowany for The Varsity

Professor Cheryl Regehr
Vice-President and Provost
Simcoe Hall
21 King’s College Circle
Toronto, ON

CC: Professor Jill Matus, Vice-Provost, Students & First-Entry Divisions

Dear Professor Regehr,

We are writing to you today to express our concern at a number of recommendations made by the faculty who attended the Student Societies Summit this year, including the formation of a university wide Appeals Board and the requirement that all CROs in student elections be selected from a roster approved by the university.

ASSU, along with many other student societies, were invited to participate in this summit in October to resolve the disputes between the various college and faculty divisions and the UTSU.  Our representative met with other student representatives and the faculty members each month and engaged in what we felt were productive discussions on student governance.  While fruitful discussions occurred, none of the proposed recommendations were ever approved or substantially discussed by the summit participants.

While we recognize that these recommendations are well intended, we feel that presenting them as “conclusions of the summit” is misleading, as student representatives were never given the opportunity to consent to their approval.  It is also important to recognize, that while these recommendations have implications on all student societies, some were left out of the process. The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU), the Association of Part Time Undergraduate Students (APUS) and the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) were not invited to participate in these discussions on policy that would ultimately affect them.

The report submitted on April 14th proposes that Governing Council enact a new policy for student societies and makes recommendations as to what might be covered in this policy.[i] The first recommendation is that “the new policy for student societies require that every society use an arms-length Chief Returning Officer (CRO) who has been appropriately certified by the University.” It goes on to stipulate that this process could work by having the student societies assign a member the responsibility to be a trained CRO for the university.  After they were properly certified, they could be chosen by any society but their own to be a CRO.  We find this recommendation to be problematic; as it takes away the right members of a society have to choose their CRO and the right members have to conduct their own elections.  Furthermore, individuals on this roster may not be familiar with the bylaws of the organization they are chosen to oversee – since the stipulation states that they have to be totally external to the organization, and there is no guarantee that they will not come with biases of their own.  The use of members assigned by other societies to serve as CROs for other societies also brings with it risks. As we have seen, the political climate amongst student societies at U of T is one that is divisive and opinionated and student societies have commented on the legitimacy and the ability of other societies to represent students.  While these organizations certainly have the right to make such statements, this brings into question the neutrality of the CROs from other societies.

The next few recommendations deal with the creation of a proposed “Student Society Appeals Board” which would “serve as a court of final appeal about the conduct of student societies”.[ii] This board would be composed of students, faculty, staff and a retired judge. It would also have the power to issue binding directives to student societies, of which the consequence of non-compliance would mean the withholding of student fees. To guide these directives and the requirement that societies act in an “open, accessible and democratic fashion” it is also recommended that a set of guidelines on elections and governance be developed. [iii] The creation of such an appeals board raises many issues.  First of all, the composition of such a board leaves many questions unanswered. What would the ratio of students to other members be on the board? How would the members of the board be chosen? Would they be elected or would they be appointed? What recourse do students have if they believe that one of the board members is not an appropriate selection?

The ability of such a board to deal with election grievances each March (when elections are traditionally held) is also questionable. There are dozens of student societies within U of T, ASSU alone is host to more than sixty course unions, and each of these societies brings with it a unique set of bylaws and constitutions.  For the members of the board to familiarize themselves with these bylaws and constitutions in such a short amount of time with potentially multiple cases presents a challenge that may compromise the integrity of the process. The board would effectively be dealing with every appeal that was rejected by the internal appeals processes of societies. This issue does not exist within internal society appeals boards, where there is just solely one set of bylaws to look at.

The most troubling element of this recommendation is the amount of power given to the proposed board.  The board can make binding directives on matters not restricted to elections, and non-compliance with these directives can be grounds for the Provost to withhold fees.  As written, these directives can be based on anything and do not have to be compliant with the organization’s own by-laws.[iv] In the latter case if the board rules against a by-law, it would be a case of the board going against what was democratically agreed upon by students.  Students can present grievances based on virtually any matter and the board can choose to withhold fees if it chooses to. In addition to this, the fact that the board would be “a final court of appeals” leaves no avenue for student societies to appeal, effectively forcing them to comply.

The recommendations state that in order to guide these directives, a set of guidelines should be produced by the University in order to ensure good democratic practices. These guidelines address appropriate voting technologies, the role of slates in an election, elections of board of directors and executives among other things.[v] We believe that such matters need to be addressed by student societies and discussed by their membership, not decided upon by the University. These are written out as “guidelines”, however since they would guide the binding directives the board would issue, they are effectively requirements.  This is troubling, as while not all societies may use these guidelines; this does not mean that they are not operating in an “open and democratic fashion”.

Finally, when discussing the policy on student societies, the final point mentioned is that “there should be a process that allows for the restructuring of societies”. [vi] This goes beyond the traditional role university administrations have held when it comes to student societies. These decisions must be made by the student membership, even in the event of a funding freeze. The administration, if it believes societies are not acting in a democratic manner can withhold funds, however it cannot play a role in the restructuring of the society.  This violates the fundamental autonomy of student societies themselves.

The University of Toronto is a diverse place where individuals of different lived experiences, come to exchange ideas and thoughts.  Our students, faculty, staff and community members each have different interests, experiences and fields of study.  Likewise, our student societies reflect this diversity.  Student unions, course unions, college councils and clubs all operate with a different set of by-laws, have different mandates, and cater to the different needs of students. A robust policy that ensures that the democratic rights of students are being upheld respects this. In the report, there is a caution against using a “one size fit all model”, yet this is exactly what the recommendations represent.[vii] While the recommendations are primarily based off concerns students have regarding the UTSU elections, they would affect all societies. This is not an effective way to address the concerns students have raised.

The report states that the recommendations would respect student autonomy, however in practice, this is far from the case. The by-laws and rules under which student societies are structured today each came about under a democratic process where students voted to adopt these rules. The university cannot circumvent this process.

It is important to recognize that these student grievances that have been voiced over the years amount to disagreements among the student body and as such there are no clear answers for how to proceed. As such, we believe that this process needs to be carried out with due consideration for the input of student societies and without undue haste.

We recognize that the status quo is unsustainable and we agree that change is necessary, however, we believe that any change that comes through policy must respect the autonomy and diversity of student societies, as well as be constructed with the consent of said societies.  These recommendations fall far short of these criteria.  The problem that has arisen over the past few years with student society elections is a unique and complex one that deserves to be carefully analyzed with the input of all those involved.  ASSU wishes to play a part in any policy Governing Council may shape in regards to the conduct of student societies, however, we cannot accept these recommendations for the aforementioned reasons.  We look forward to working together with you, the administration and all students to formulate solutions that work for us all.
Sincerely,

The Arts and Science Students’ Union Executive

Photo: Julia Malowany for The Varsity


[i] “Report of the Student Societies Summit,” page 19.

[ii] “Report of the Student Societies Summit,” page 20.

[iii] “Report of the Student Societies Summit,” page 20.

[iv] “Report of the Student Societies Summit,” page 20.

[v] “Report of the Student Societies Summit,” page 21

[vi] “Report of the Student Societies Summit,” page 19.

[vii] “Report of the Student Societies Summit,” page 20.

Summer Office Hours

With the Summer term about to begin, the Arts and Science Students’ Union office will begin using our summer hours starting May 5th. Our office hours are: Monday and Tuesday from 10am-5pm, Wednesday and Thursday from 10am-6pm. The office is closed on Friday.

You can always reach us at students.assu@utoronto.ca or 416-978-4903

ASSU 2013-2014 Award Winners

ASSU is pleased to announce the winners of our awards for 2013-2014

Out of an extremely competitive pool of nominees,  these recipients were chosen to be honoured for their involvement and dedication to the Faculty of Arts and Science, and the community at large. Thanks to all of the nominees for making these award decisions so difficult to make.

First year campus involvement award

Stephanie Calhoun
Amitpal Singh
Amy Xiao

William R. Gardner Student Leadership Award

Winner – Abinaya Balasubramaniam
Runner-Up – Johnny Huang
Runner Up – Deborah Mazer

Gavin Nowlan Campus Leadership Award

Winner –Lucy Chau
Runner-Up –Benedict Darren
Runner-Up –Emily Tsui

Katharine Ball Graduating Award for Course Unions

Winner – Benjamin Gillard
Winner – Matthew Tran
Runner-Up – Vivian Choo
Runner-Up – Widya Salim
Runner-Up – Bruno Savoie

Sanjeev Dewett Course Union of the Year Award

Association of Political Science Students

Ranjini Ghosh Excellence in Teaching Award

Dr. William Ju – Human Biology Program

Terry Buckland Award for Diversity & Equity in Education

Washroom Inclusivity Project

Urmila Sarkar Students Service Award

Sally Walker – New College Registrar

 

ASSU’s New Executive

Congratulations to our new 2014-2015 ASSU Executive!

ASSU council met on March 19th to elect five new Executive members for the coming academic year. The candidates gave impassioned speeches about the need for more support from the Faculty of Arts and Science, as well as a renewed focus on Course Union collaboration. The voting was extremely close due to quality of the candidates. Thank you to everyone who ran! As per the ASSU constitution, there will be two more Executive Members elected in late September.

PRESIDENT (Acclaimed)

Abdullah Shihipar

EXECUTIVE MEMBERS

Lisa Chen

Reid Dobell

Chrystal Gao

Dylan Chauvin-Smith

Thanks again to the wonderful candidates, and the ever-benevolent ASSU council.

ASSU responds to student concerns regarding paid review sessions

ASSU continues to work with the Faculty of Arts and Science to increase free services for students

 

The Executive of the Arts and Science Students’ Union has received feedback surrounding the “Say no to private reviews” campaign. Much of the feedback is based on false information regarding the nature of the campaign, and what exactly ASSU is in favour of. The Executive have written a letter to clarify to students expressing concern what exactly this campaign hopes to achieve. You can view the full letter here.

 

March 10, 2014

We would like to thank the students who have sent in their concerns about ASSU’s recent “Say No To Private Review Companies” campaign, and would like to take the time to collectively respond to the concerns raised and we hope that this will clarify any misunderstandings.

ASSU launched its “Say No To Private Review Companies” campaign in November as an awareness campaign, not as an attack on any individual private tutoring services. The basis of the campaign was to inform students that there are free under-utilized resources available to them at the university.

It was also a campaign to inform students—first year students in particular—that these companies are not affiliated with the university, though some instructors with the private tutoring companies have teaching experience with the university, as a lecturer or a TA. The responses that we have thus far received clearly indicate that students are trying to make an informed decision, and we are pleased that students are taking the time to decide what is best for them, which is one of our main goals for this campaign.

Certain reviewers use questionable tactics to promote their sessions by highlighting or exaggerating the rates of failure for students, or spreading rumours of forced bell-curve. We do not believe that companies should be allowed to make profit on campus and through preying on students’ anxieties during exam season.

We would like to clarify that this is not a campaign to ban these companies. Rather, it is a campaign to raise awareness about the pre-existing and under-utilized resources that can help students to reach their academic goals. It is clear that some students do benefit from the review sessions, and this reflects the University’s inability to meet the needs of our students. We wish to stress that students are entirely free to choose to attend these seminars.

ASSU Executives have regular meetings with the Office of the Dean of Arts and Science, and the Office of the Dean has given full support for this campaign. In addition, The Office of the Vice-Provost Students has endorsed the campaign and has repeatedly stressed that there are free but under-utilized resources available to students at the university.

If students are not given enough preparation by the lectures, or if there are not enough resources available to them, then this is something that needs to be remedied by the Faculty. After all, we pay tuition precisely for these resources. ASSU has been pushing the Faculty to provide adequate support and ample review opportunities for tests and exams through the External review process and through our Exam Jam de-stressing sessions.

Thus, we believe that the students in the Faculty of Arts & Science should decide for themselves which academic resources best fit their needs, but it is ASSU’s responsibility to ensure that students make these decisions with accurate information.

For more information about our campaign, please visit our campaign website at http://www.strikingly.com/noprivate. If you have further questions feel free to get in touch with us, we are always happy to discuss these issues.

Best,

ASSU Executive

ASSU Award Winners

ASSU is pleased to announce our award winners for the 2013/2014 Academic Year

Out of  an extremely competitive group of applicants, these students were chosen to highlight the amazing leadership and involvement students in the Faculty of Arts and Science here at the University of Toronto have shown. Congratulations to these dedicated students.

William R. Gardner Student Leadership Award

Abinaya Balasubramaniam -Winner

Johnny Huang -Runner Up

Deborah Mazer -Runner Up

Gavin Nowlan Campus Leadership Award

Lucy Chau -Winner

Benedict Darren -Runner Up

Emily Tsui -Runner Up

First Year Campus Involvement Award

Stephanie Calhoun

Amitpal Singh

Amy Xiao

Marks not returned to students in time

ASSU and the Faculty of Arts and Science are looking into how students receive their term marks

 

There have been many students complaining about not getting term work graded and returned before the drop deadline this year. ASSU is committed to making sure that every student receives term work back before the drop deadline.  Not only is getting term work back in a timely manner important for students, it’s also a Faculty of Arts and Science policy. ASSU is currently asking for students to let us know if they have had trouble this year getting work returned after the Fall drop date of November 5th.

If you didn’t receive work back before the November 5th deadline to drop an “F” course, email ASSU at: students.assu@utoronto.ca with “Marks Feedback” in the subject line.  Be sure to include which course this was in. This information will help ASSU and the Faculty make sure that everyone is following the Faculty guidelines.

 

The Faculty policy is clear

 

From the Faculty of Arts and Science Academic Handbook:

2.11 Assignment Weights & Return Dates – Faculty Rules (*R*)

University policy dictates that instructors must return “at least one piece of marked term work before the last date to drop the course,” normally about 3⁄4 of the way through the course. F courses, in early November; Y courses, in February before Reading Week; S courses, in early March.

Faculty policy makes this requirement more specific:

i) Instructors shall return by the deadline one or more marked assignments worth a combined total of at least 10% of the total course mark for H courses and 20% for Y courses.

ii) The deadline for returning such marked work shall be the last regularly-scheduled class meeting prior to the Drop Date, with one exception: for courses that run the entire Fall/Winter Session (Y1Y or H1Y courses), the deadline shall be the last regularly-scheduled class meeting of the first week of classes in January.

This is a very strict requirement with no exceptions. If some extraordinary circumstance prevents you from meeting this deadline for your whole class or a significant part of it, you should notify your UG Administrator immediately. In such cases, the students are normally allowed to drop the course after they have received back the marked work, even if it is beyond the deadline. This is not the case, however, for an extension beyond the deadline you grant to a individual student based on the student’s request or exceptional circumstances. In such cases you are not obliged to meet the deadline.

ASSU By-Election Candidate Statements

ASSU will be holding a by-election during the ASSU Council Meeting on November 20th.  Course Unions will be able to send two representatives to this election. Here are the statements from the candidates.

Charles Dalrymple-Fraser

The academic components of student life have been widely downplayed: we slave over textbooks, our assignments are due at the same time, and the groupwork’s a pain.  Yet, it has been my great fortune at UofT to be able to study what I love, and it’s been my passion to help others love what they study.  As a third-term executive and former president of the PCU, I’ve had a number of amazing opportunities to help improve the quality of the academic experience of students; but, these opportunities and the growth of our CU would not have manifested without the assistance of everyone at ASSU, and the resources they provide.

My name is Charles, and I’m a fourth-year student running for an executive seat on ASSU, so I can continue to work to improve the academic aspects of student life (and not just those of students in my home department).  Through my years at UofT, I’ve become intimate with the ASSU team, its procedures, and the many invaluable resources they provide, as well as its constituents and members, and I’ve naught but benefited from everything about those experiences.  It is my hope that you will allow me to bring these experiences – as a student and as a CU executive – to the ASSU team, to help continue its ever-upward momentum, to help enrich your own pursuits, and to bring back to mind the value of the academic experience.  If you have any questions at all, please do feel free to contact me.

 

Ben Coleman

Hello Course Unions!  My name is Ben Coleman, and I’m running as a Candidate for the ASSU Executive.

Before I explain why I can do a good job serving course unions and arts and science students, I should introduce myself.  I’m an Arts and Science student, from New College, in my third year of studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  I have an odd, mixed accent, and I’m shockingly tall.  In my spare time, I’m Arts and Science director for the UTSU.

I’m interested in Arts & Science issues.  This summer, I made an ad-hoc twitter contest to see if anyone could make the course evaluations more pleasant to look through (shout-out to CSSU for joining in).

I take my responsibility seriously.  The only time I’ve missed a UTSU meeting was when I was doing fieldwork in middle-of-nowhere Saskatchewan and didn’t have internet.

I think an ASSU exec needs good communication skills.  Earlier in the year, I researched how much interest U of T was charging on late tuition payments, and landed on the radio being pitted against the University Registrar.  I made sure to diplomatically follow up with him to put us on good terms.  It worked.

I’ve met friends in class at an EEBU social, learned about banking from an ESA guest speaker, and have absorbed the history of Santa Claus parades from a HSA guest lecture.  I really appreciate how course unions improve students’ academic and social lives, and would love the chance to serve all of you.

Celine Liu

Hi everyone, I am Celine Liu and I am a first year Economics student.  In the past two months, I have seen many first –year students like me, who were experiencing academic stress and facing social activities anxiety.

After recognizing these common problems, I want to firstly, become a speaker who expresses our ongoing difficulties.  Secondly, becoming a negotiator who tries to arrive corresponding solutions with relevant departments at UofT.  Lastly, I want to be an advisor, letting more students know their concerns has been discussed, which they can now solve their problems with the support from UofT.

The desires of volunteering and helping other students in the UofT family have motivated me to run for the Arts and Science Student Union executive member.  I believe my fluency in different languages and active involvement in diverse clubs will help me to hear and represent the voices from everyone.  My skills of problem solving, which were developed from constant practices for debate and Model UN are also helpful when playing a role as a logical negotiator.  Moreover, my previous facilitation experience is helpful for organizing campaigns and events that aim at providing students with more useful suggestions and new assistance as a product of negotiation.

As a passionate learner, I will become a better listener, a negotiator and a speaker.  With your support, a sense of family will be achieved here at UofT.