KCAC tournament sleep deprivation “Date Night” WEDNESDAY ... · Volume 115 Number 16 April 28,...
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THE COLLEGIAN Thursday: Hi: 84° Partly Cloudy/Wind Friday: Hi: 73° Thunderstorms Saturday: Hi: 73° Thunderstorms Volume 115 Number 16 April 28, 2010 THE STUDENT VOICE OF SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE THE COLLEGIAN WEDNESDAY THE WEATHER Winfield, Kansas CAMPUS OPINION SPORTS IDEA course evaluations measure for enrichment End of the year stress causes sleep deprivation Duo brings on the laughs in “Date Night” Men’s golf team wins KCAC tournament Samantha Gillis/Collegian photographer Rachel Muth, history junior, Lea Shores, English junior, Beth Bellinger, elementary education junior, and Tory Dreger, athletic training junior, enjoy a softball game and some free food during the Purple Storm tailgate April 24 at Broadway Sports Complex. The Lady Builder softball team took on Friends University during their last home game. Student Foundation organized the event, and were at the complex until 4 p.m. serving hotdogs, chips, lemonade and water. Checkout clock ticks out cantankerously By Samantha Gillis News and opinion editor This article stimulates innovative student thinking: 5 strongly agree: 4 agree: 3 neutral: 2 disagree: 1 strongly disagree. When the teachers pass out those course evaluation sheets about this time of the year, some students groan and others eagerly scribble down comments in hopes their voice will be heard. But is their voice heard? Do teachers and administrators even care about the results of the sheets? Andy Sheppard, vice president for academic affairs, believes the course evaluations are important to improve how classes are taught. “The evalua- tions give the school and individual teachers a way to determine if their classes actually taught the students what they needed to know,” he said. Teachers take a similar evaluation for the course and if the teacher’s and the students’ evaluations match up, it shows the professor and his or her students are on the same page about the course. As a whole South- western scores about a 67 percent in what the professors think their courses accomplished compared to what the students thought the same course accomplished. “This is abnormally high for an in- stitution,” said Sheppard. Teachers typically do not hand out the evaluations to every class. “The reason is to prevent over assessing. If the students take the evaluations for all of their courses they wouldn’t take them very seriously,” said Shep- pard. In some cases the teachers ran- domly choose which classes to evaluate, but Tom Jacobs, depart- ment head of communications and computer science, said it is more methodical. “Usually teachers have their classes on a rotation, they will evaluate classes they have never taught before, and once all of their classes have been evaluated, they rotate which classes are evaluated,” he said. After students finish with the eval- uations and stuff them into a manila envelope, the sheets are mailed to the Individual Development and Educa- tional Assessment headquarters in Manhattan. The comments are typed out to protect confidentiality. Once this is all complete the evaluations are sent back to the school. “There is a summary of the school, and then there are the individual course summaries,” said Sheppard. Each department head receives the individual course sheets for the teachers in his or her department. “From there the department head can either just hand the sheets back to the teachers or look them over and speak with the teachers individu- ally,” said Jacobs. “I am not sure about other depart- ment heads, but usually I just hand back the course evaluations to the teachers and if they want to talk about how to improve the course with me they will set up an appoint- ment,” he said. Jane Schlickau, professor of nurs- ing, wants her course to be continu- ously evolving. She said, “Nursing students have to take a licensing exam, and it’s our goal as a nursing faculty to prepare them for that. The difficulty with the exam is that it is always changing, so we always have to change and improve our courses.” When she receives her course evaluations she looks them over with her department head. “On the course evaluations I take the comments very seriously. Also, if the majority of the students in a class didn’t do well, I know I didn’t give them the correct information,” she said, “The evalua- tions are a really good tool to help improve the course.” Schlickau wants students to under- stand the comments are completely confidential. She said, “Sometimes I wonder if students are afraid to be honest because they think I will know who wrote it and it will affect their grade, but it doesn’t. In truth we just want to improve the course.” Her advice is to, “Be honest.” Jacobs also has a concern with the evaluations. “Students should know that these are not a teacher evalu- ation, but rather an evaluation of the class and the information they gained from the class. The sheets are not a popularity contest,” he said. However Schlickau thinks typical- ly if a student likes the course they like the teacher and his or her teach- ing style—so in some ways they are one in the same. They all agree the comments are the most significant piece. “Typical- ly the comments are very thought- ful,” said Sheppard. “Comments tend to give the best insight. If a student is going to take the time to write out their opinion, I am going to seriously consider what they have to say,” said Jacobs. When writing comments Schlick- au said to suggest ways of develop the class, or point out why the course was helpful. “It does not directly af- fect you as a student, since the stu- dents have already taken the course. I think students do care about the next group that is going to take the course,” she said. Samantha Gillis is a junior major- ing in convergent journalism. You may e-mail her at samantha.gillis@ sckans.edu. Purple Storm nears infield Brownie troops quiz big kids about Earth Week By Korie Hawkins Staff reporter If you haven’t received a knock at your door, expect one soon. The housing staff is buckling down this year on students to get their things packed early this year. Health inspections are happening this week, and they will be looking around to make sure everyone has started packing. Sarah Hallinan, director of resi- dence life said, “We have over 340 students that will be moving out. Final checkout for all hall and apart- ment living areas will be at 6 p.m. on May 7. As for graduates, they must be checked out by 4 p.m. on May 10.” Students are obligated to set an appointment with their resident as- sistant or resident director 24 hours in advance. If your RA isn’t avail- able, you are allowed to check out with another RA. Residence life has posted flyers informing students on how not to lose their housing deposit this year. That list is as follows: Make a check- out appointment at least 24 hours in advance, be ready to checkout at the time you signed up for, clean your room, make sure you have all of your belongings and checkout be- fore the halls close. “You and your things need to be gone by checkout time. If not you will lose your housing deposit. If your room is not cleaned, you will lose your housing deposit. If there is anything left in the room, you will lose your housing deposit,” said Hal- linan. Leadership will be taking dona- tions for furniture. Areas will be set up by the dorm halls or in the halls to place unwanted usable furniture. Hallinan said, “There will also be a battle of the halls and apartments to see who comes up with the most donated food items.” Food donation areas will be set up in the dorms and apartments. For clothing donations, there is a red box located on Main Street in the Chinese Buffet parking lot to donate clothes to Goodwill. Jasmine Woodfork, early child- hood education junior, said, “I have already packed the majority of my things. I just need to take a big bag of clothes down to the women’s center.” Several students have already started taking items home and pack- ing. Some are just waiting until the last day of finals to cram everything into their vehicle and accidently leave things behind. Whatever the case may be, check out properly to avoid extra charges. Korie Hawkins is a junior major- ing in communication. You may e- mail her at korie.hawkins@sckans. edu. Alejandra Rojas/Collegian photographer Above: Rachel Muth, history junior, Morgan Con- stantine, computer science sophomore, Kate Nor- ton, assistant women’s soccer coach, Jamie Hark- ness, biology junior, Kelli Florio, athletic training sophomore, Tabatha McMullen, early childhood education senior, Cassi Reimer, physics senior, and Molly Komlofske, philosophy & religious studies sophomore, listen to Brownie troops as they pres- ent information about how to effectively save water. Right: Members of the Brownie troop quiz those who attended a presentation on how water is used daily. The presentation was open to all students and took place in the Beech Science Center on Thurs- day as part of Earth Week.
Transcript of KCAC tournament sleep deprivation “Date Night” WEDNESDAY ... · Volume 115 Number 16 April 28,...
THE
COLLEGIANThursday: Hi: 84°Partly Cloudy/Wind
Friday: Hi: 73°Thunderstorms
Saturday: Hi: 73°Thunderstorms
Volume 115 Number 16
April 28, 2010
THE STUDENT VOICE OF SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE
THE
COLLEGIANWEDNESDAY
THE WEATHER
Winfield, Kansas
CAMPUS OPINIONSPORTS
IDEA course evaluations measure for enrichment
End of the year stress causes sleep deprivation
Duo brings on the laughs in “Date Night”
Men’s golf team wins KCAC tournament
Samantha Gillis/Collegian photographerRachel Muth, history junior, Lea Shores, English junior, Beth Bellinger, elementary education junior, and Tory Dreger, athletic training junior, enjoy a softball game and some free food during the Purple Storm tailgate April 24 at Broadway Sports Complex. The Lady Builder softball team took on Friends University during their last home game. Student Foundation organized the event, and were at the complex until 4 p.m. serving hotdogs, chips, lemonade and water.
Checkout clock ticks out cantankerously
By Samantha Gillis News and opinion editor
This article stimulates innovative student thinking: 5 strongly agree: 4 agree: 3 neutral: 2 disagree: 1 strongly disagree.
When the teachers pass out those course evaluation sheets about this time of the year, some students groan and others eagerly scribble down comments in hopes their voice will be heard. But is their voice heard? Do teachers and administrators even care about the results of the sheets?
Andy Sheppard, vice president for academic affairs, believes the course evaluations are important to improve how classes are taught. “The evalua-tions give the school and individual teachers a way to determine if their classes actually taught the students what they needed to know,” he said.
Teachers take a similar evaluation for the course and if the teacher’s and the students’ evaluations match up, it shows the professor and his or her students are on the same page about the course. As a whole South-western scores about a 67 percent in what the professors think their courses accomplished compared to what the students thought the same course accomplished.
“This is abnormally high for an in-stitution,” said Sheppard.
Teachers typically do not hand out the evaluations to every class. “The reason is to prevent over assessing. If the students take the evaluations for all of their courses they wouldn’t take them very seriously,” said Shep-pard.
In some cases the teachers ran-domly choose which classes to evaluate, but Tom Jacobs, depart-ment head of communications and computer science, said it is more
methodical. “Usually teachers have their classes on a rotation, they will evaluate classes they have never taught before, and once all of their classes have been evaluated, they rotate which classes are evaluated,” he said.
After students finish with the eval-uations and stuff them into a manila envelope, the sheets are mailed to the Individual Development and Educa-tional Assessment headquarters in Manhattan. The comments are typed out to protect confidentiality. Once this is all complete the evaluations are sent back to the school.
“There is a summary of the school, and then there are the individual course summaries,” said Sheppard. Each department head receives the individual course sheets for the teachers in his or her department.
“From there the department head can either just hand the sheets back to the teachers or look them over and speak with the teachers individu-ally,” said Jacobs.
“I am not sure about other depart-ment heads, but usually I just hand back the course evaluations to the teachers and if they want to talk about how to improve the course with me they will set up an appoint-ment,” he said.
Jane Schlickau, professor of nurs-ing, wants her course to be continu-ously evolving. She said, “Nursing students have to take a licensing exam, and it’s our goal as a nursing faculty to prepare them for that. The difficulty with the exam is that it is always changing, so we always have to change and improve our courses.”
When she receives her course evaluations she looks them over with her department head. “On the course evaluations I take the comments very seriously. Also, if the majority of the
students in a class didn’t do well, I know I didn’t give them the correct information,” she said, “The evalua-tions are a really good tool to help improve the course.”
Schlickau wants students to under-stand the comments are completely confidential. She said, “Sometimes I wonder if students are afraid to be honest because they think I will know who wrote it and it will affect their grade, but it doesn’t. In truth we just want to improve the course.”
Her advice is to, “Be honest.” Jacobs also has a concern with the
evaluations. “Students should know that these are not a teacher evalu-ation, but rather an evaluation of the class and the information they gained from the class. The sheets are not a popularity contest,” he said.
However Schlickau thinks typical-ly if a student likes the course they like the teacher and his or her teach-ing style—so in some ways they are one in the same.
They all agree the comments are the most significant piece. “Typical-ly the comments are very thought-ful,” said Sheppard.
“Comments tend to give the best insight. If a student is going to take the time to write out their opinion, I am going to seriously consider what they have to say,” said Jacobs.
When writing comments Schlick-au said to suggest ways of develop the class, or point out why the course was helpful. “It does not directly af-fect you as a student, since the stu-dents have already taken the course. I think students do care about the next group that is going to take the course,” she said.
Samantha Gillis is a junior major-ing in convergent journalism. You may e-mail her at [email protected].
Purple Storm nears infield
Brownie troops quiz big kids about Earth Week
By Korie Hawkins Staff reporter
If you haven’t received a knock at your door, expect one soon.
The housing staff is buckling down this year on students to get their things packed early this year. Health inspections are happening this week, and they will be looking around to make sure everyone has started packing.
Sarah Hallinan, director of resi-dence life said, “We have over 340 students that will be moving out. Final checkout for all hall and apart-ment living areas will be at 6 p.m. on May 7. As for graduates, they must be checked out by 4 p.m. on May 10.”
Students are obligated to set an appointment with their resident as-sistant or resident director 24 hours in advance. If your RA isn’t avail-able, you are allowed to check out with another RA.
Residence life has posted flyers informing students on how not to lose their housing deposit this year. That list is as follows: Make a check-out appointment at least 24 hours in advance, be ready to checkout at the time you signed up for, clean your room, make sure you have all of your belongings and checkout be-fore the halls close.
“You and your things need to be gone by checkout time. If not you
will lose your housing deposit. If your room is not cleaned, you will lose your housing deposit. If there is anything left in the room, you will lose your housing deposit,” said Hal-linan.
Leadership will be taking dona-tions for furniture. Areas will be set up by the dorm halls or in the halls to place unwanted usable furniture.
Hallinan said, “There will also be a battle of the halls and apartments to see who comes up with the most donated food items.”
Food donation areas will be set up in the dorms and apartments.
For clothing donations, there is a red box located on Main Street in the Chinese Buffet parking lot to donate clothes to Goodwill.
Jasmine Woodfork, early child-hood education junior, said, “I have already packed the majority of my things. I just need to take a big bag of clothes down to the women’s center.”
Several students have already started taking items home and pack-ing. Some are just waiting until the last day of finals to cram everything into their vehicle and accidently leave things behind. Whatever the case may be, check out properly to avoid extra charges.
Korie Hawkins is a junior major-ing in communication. You may e-mail her at [email protected].
Alejandra Rojas/Collegian photographerAbove: Rachel Muth, history junior, Morgan Con-stantine, computer science sophomore, Kate Nor-ton, assistant women’s soccer coach, Jamie Hark-ness, biology junior, Kelli Florio, athletic training sophomore, Tabatha McMullen, early childhood education senior, Cassi Reimer, physics senior, and Molly Komlofske, philosophy & religious studies sophomore, listen to Brownie troops as they pres-ent information about how to effectively save water. Right: Members of the Brownie troop quiz those who attended a presentation on how water is used daily. The presentation was open to all students and took place in the Beech Science Center on Thurs-day as part of Earth Week.
