University of Illinois Accounting Professor Li Zhang is under fire this week after warning students about their “unconscious and unintentional biases” against women and minorities before they completed their evaluations. The College Fix reported on the complaint after Professor Zhang warned students at the end of last semester that course evaluations can be biased against racial minorities and women. She was challenged on the “passive-aggressive” messages received by some students. Professor Zhang’s cited study discusses there can be a gender bias in evaluations, but that a “simple intervention” that flags such bias can reduce the gap between male and female instructors in their ratings by students.Taking language from the student, she wrote a “Dear Learners” email that warned:
“It’s been well-documented that student evaluations of teaching are often influenced by students’ unconscious and unintentional biases about the gender and race of the instructor. Prior research suggests that women and instructors of color are systematically rated lower in their teaching evaluations than white men, even when there are no actual differences in the quality of instruction.
As you fill out the course evaluation, please keep this in mind and make an effort to focus on your opinions about the content of the course and not unrelated matters (such as gender and race).”
A student objected to the “passive-aggressive” nature of the email:
[T]his announcement can be interpreted in two ways:
1) It implies that I am a bigot, incapable of providing honest feedback without my opinions being negatively influenced by the professor’s race or sex. It suggests that any negative feelings I have towards the professor or the course are more influenced by personal, subjective feelings regarding race and sex than by any objective facts.
2) It suggests that I should provide high evaluation scores, regardless of my actual feelings, in order to atone for past actions taken by others.
Both interpretations are unacceptable and represent a passive-aggressive method to artificially inflate course evaluation scores. This approach is highly unprofessional and creates an “othering” effect, implying that white males are incapable of making objective decisions that are not influenced by race or sex.
Neither the University of Illinois nor the head of the accounting department responded to media inquiries.
There are two issues entangled in this controversy. First is the decision of individual professors in issuing this type of warning rather than the university as a whole. The study looks at a statement made by Iowa State University with all evaluations:
“Student evaluations of teaching play an important role in the review of faculty. Your opinions influence the review of instructors that takes place every year. Iowa State University recognizes that student evaluations of teaching are often influenced by students’ unconscious and unintentional biases about the race and gender of the instructor. Women and instructors of color are systematically rated lower in their teaching evaluations than white men, even when there are no actual differences in the instruction or in what students have learned.
As you fill out the course evaluation please keep this in mind and make an effort to resist stereotypes about professors. Focus on your opinions about the content of the course (the assignments, the textbook, the in-class material) and not unrelated matters (the instructor’s appearance).”
Most universities do not have such a warning, which has been much debated in past years. Some professors have argued that faculty members discount lower evaluations for female and minority candidates (in hiring or promotion) due to inherent bias or racism.
The second question is the general use of a university warning and whether the statement can chill or inhibit students from offering frank evaluations of a given professor’s performance.
Professor Zhang’s views on the subject constitute protected speech and, in academic work, is a matter of academic freedom. However, there is a balancing of interests when it comes to issuing statements on evaluations as part of their courses. Universities have an interest in preserving conditions conducive to honest and uninhibited evaluations.
I disagree with those who have accused Professor Zhang of plagiarism for using language from the study. She relied on boilerplate language, which flags this language at places like ISU.
Evaluations are a curious process. Schools differ on the importance of such evaluation. Some faculties are primarily known as research rather than teaching focused. Professors often privately gripe that efforts to teach more material or more difficult concepts tend to lower evaluations. The performance of a professor should not be judged solely on his or her popularity. Some of the most substantive and profound courses are also the most challenging for students.
Some faculty members express open contempt for the evaluations. One story comes to mind that seems analogous to Professor Zhang from the opposite perspective in dismissing evaluations. I was told once about a well-known law professor at a top school, who handed out his evaluations and was walking out when he stopped at the door and addressed the class. He mockingly said that, since many students are grammatically challenged, “there are two r’s in arrogant.” A student then immediately responded by asking, “but are there are two s’s in a**hole?”
Other professors seem to relish their negative reviews. I knew one professor who actually framed his negative reviews and put them up in his law school office. One of his favorites came after a term during which he injured his neck and had to wear a neck brace to classes. The evaluation simply read, “I’m glad you hurt your neck.”
Nevertheless, most of us, and our schools, take our evaluations seriously. Of course, my own views on this matter may change shortly. My Torts students just submitted their evaluations.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
I think there is something in the water in Illinois
Yup. I took a pee in Lake Michigan.
So sue me.
I honestly see nothing wrong with such biases. The “truth” is that which presents itself. Similar feelings on transgenderism, also lately discussed, truth again is that which presents itself, not that we should recreate it, as this or as that. The lie but why is that we must necessarily recreate, that the evolutionary entity presented to us is not, can never be, good enough for human consumption. It’s ridiculous, a boldfaced ridiculous lie, one that flies in the face of all that is evolutionary – and everything is evolutionary – one our forefathers would have found wholly unacceptable. Yes, we are racists and we are sexists, all of us, on some level, if the professor seeks greater eval than (s)he must act to influence opinion accordingly. To do otherwise is to embrace racial paradox which itself has no place on any intellectual stage. The problem with higher education is that we have too many pseudointellectuals chasing status, acquiring credentials, that serve to validate their genuinely juvenile positions. Those students forced to sit in such classes must call them on it. Or they themselves will never be that which by their very presence would suggest they aspire to be.
I’ve had to complete course evaluations before. Never commented on personality or the professor’s (in)ability to “entertain.” I don’t buy into the notion classes must be fun. My biggest complaint then and now: The absolute absurd cost of textbooks.
Teaching should not be evaluated except by whether or not students master the skills or material presented.
Ah, if it were only so simple. I guess it depends on metrics. As a retired community college instructor, I can tell you that MANY students basically REFUSED to do the work necessary to master the material. I could create the best course material, the most riveting discussions and exercises, and offer the most excellent of support services, but, as they say, you can lead a girl to Vassar but you can’t maker her think.
Jonathan: given your obsession with pardons, what if Trump’s first day back in the White House, he reaches across the isle to pardon Democrats himself? Pardons accompanied by the same detailed specifics as Biden did while pardoning his son?
A blanket pardon for Joe Biden for every bribe accepted and classified document stolen over his 50 years in office. That will impress his son Hunter! Especially when accompanied with longer explanations of the necessary reason for the pardon than President Biden gave while pardoning Sonny.
A pardon for Barack Obama for the felony of hiring and paying a Russian spy to write the illegal Russia Dossier, ordering his lawyers in the DoJ and FBI to perjure themselves to courts, and violating Americans rights through color of law. Same detailed, specific reasons why that pardon was necessary and given in hopes of healing the nation.
A blanket pardon for all the Obama lawyers in the AG’s office, the DoJ and FBI who on Obama’s orders repeatedly perjured themselves to courts in order to spy on all things Trump and violate those Americans’ civil rights through color of law.
A pardon for the 39 FBI Head Office agents who the Inspector General’s report said accepted bribes from news media in return for providing “leaks” about their dropping the Clinton investigation to spin up the Crossfire Hurricane Trump investigation.
A pardon for those named members of the mainstream news media for bribing federal agents.
A pardon for Hillary Clinton for her five years of income tax evasion, perjury, the illegal Russia dossier, accepting Putin bribes, money laundering, and classified information crimes.
A blanket pardon for Chuck Schumer for threatening SCOTUS justices.
A pardon for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and all the members of her personally selected J6 Committee for suborning perjury and destroying collected evidence. Just today Benny Thomson went on cable news to say he is pleading for a preemptive pardon like President Biden gave his son Hunter.
Pardons for both James Clapper and John Brennan for committing perjury before Congress.
Pardons for Austin, Mattis, and all of the Woke generals for their violations of the UCMJ.
That’s just a short version of a long list. Even better than Obama pardoning over a thousand drug dealers on his way out of office. Even radical far left Democrats like Tlaib, Omar, and Gigi and myself would appreciate such a magnanimous gesture by Trump, reaching across the isle to Democrats in hopes of being the unifier that Biden and Obama both were.
Imagine the joyous cries of “Thanks” from all (who were just over a month ago pointing out his Hitler) when hearing the news of the specific crimes they now had presidential pardons for!
Hilarious! I love it.
* People don’t think bullshatters are good teachers whatever race, creed, color, gender, teachers are. If the teacher is gracious and charming the evaluation will be better than otherwise. Sexy women draped across automobiles sold a lot of cars.
First they sent us formaldehyde sheetrock to poison our homes, then they send us cheap and defective steel bolts, which end up in everything from your wheelbarrow, to the hospital gurney; trucks, trains, automobiles, and aircraft. No limit to what they were put into. Little ticking time bombs just waiting to break throughout our infrastructure. And then there are the lithium batteries which explode.
Flash forward, with the spread of Confucius Institutes, or portals for Communist infiltration and spying on the university level, the “Chinese Bolts”, made their way into the university educational system. Li Zhang seems to just be following what she’s been taught from Mao’s Little Red Book. Very difficult for Pavlov’s dogs not to drool at the sound of the buzzer. The Trojan Horse method of seeding disunion, disharmony, and division. One of the basic functions of any Communist revolution is to first attack the enemy’s weak points without the enemy even being aware.
And so we end up in a society where then some rich little Comrade who’s been brainwashed into seeing life as a superiority contest between economic, gender, or racial classes, mind you the most recent one in New York, captured in PA, and born into a family worth many millions decides he’s had a bad hair day, then goes out and guns someone down with a bullet in the back. Even in the old wild and lawless west, shooting an unarmed man in the back was instantly recognized as the work of a sniveling coward that resulted in a “Wanted – Dead or Alive” poster.
Evaluations? Mao inserted his dogma into each and every daily activity one could imagine. And one’s profession is but one of those.
The quality of education from kindergarten through graduate studies in university can probably be determined by how the jobs of those teaching are contingent on producing a good learning environment and results. Tenure generally means little to no risk to continued employment no matter how incompetent you might be. The unionized public schools that continue to be an ongoing horror show of horrendous rates of sexual abuse of students are not much better.
I only remember a couple of teachers through K-12 that I believed to be dicks – but they all presented their material in a manner that was at least competent. Most I have some amount of fondness for 60 years later. I just went to see my nearly 100 year old Grade 4 teacher on hearing she is now in an assisted living home to tell her I enjoyed that year with her and how she was considered very special by all of us.
University in the 1970’s was a crapshoot. The husband and wife team of the Brantinghams were sterling in their courses and fieldwork in CPTED, that they happily allowed and encouraged lowly undergraduates to get involved in.
There was the completely and unquestionably brilliant Norm Wardrop who taught constitutional and criminal law. Still a practicing lawyer, still prosecuting wayward lawyers for his bar association, an author of law texts, a chain smoker while at the front of the class with a coffee/soup stained tie at the center of an unkempt jacket and shirt. One who on numerous occasions invited disruptive students to follow him outside the classroom to engage in recreational pugilism, or just get out if they didn’t like the offer. His demands for high quality scholarship from his students were matched by the quality of his lectures and assignments, along with his willingness to give his time outside of the classroom with students made him the most inspirational prof I ever had.
In comparison there were some tenured professors who I remember nothing of nor the content they taught. The prof who taught a course on evidence in criminal trials did nothing more for those three hour long lectures than walk on stage to the lecturn, and then read to students verbatim from a book he had written on the subject. All grading, requests for help, etc was handled by his TAs – I never even met that man; like more than a few I simply quit attending the lectures and spent the time going through the course outline and his book.
The point is, it’s like economics; if there are no consequences for poorly spending your time, your assets, your resources, that person has no consequences on the horizon for poor performance to worry about. If all that is required for the paychecks and bennies to continue is just a pulse and showing up, that’s the kind of quality in education you will get.
Charter schools, the military, and apprenticeship trades schools are generally the opposite. If you don’t set the standard for your students and fail to deliver excellence in teaching, you’ll be kicking your lunchbucket down the road in short order.
The generally poor standard of instruction in American education has a direct causal link to a lack sanctions for poor professional performance in delivering instruction to students.
Old Airborne Dog
Some people can teach well. Others, not so much. If she is seeing a trend, perhaps she might need a self-assessment and do something different in her teaching style.
Teachers that issue such “warnings” know well that they are inferior in their trade compared with peers and universities that issue these warnings know that they have compromised their curriculum – and thereby their students’ education – by staffing their faculties with inferior teachers by their DEI policies.
How do you create and maintain a top tier educational system when teachers want to punish students for thoughtcrimes that are completely unrelated to their subject matter?
Were I in her class I would have given her a shitty review for admonishing the class. And for being Chinese🤣🤣🤣
“notoriously difficult accounting course” What??
I didn’t know there was such a thing. Most students I knew failed in engineering because they couldn’t get past the math and went into accounting.
In defense of the professor, it takes a fair amount of skill to hide those three-martini lunches.
After high school I went through 3 levels of education.
The 1st was College at Emory University where we ran the gamut of good and bad. Most had the 2 “R” word of arrogant and some the 2 “S” word but there were some who were inspirational . One particular professor in Organic Chemistry (Dr Mandel) was inspirational in the best definition of the word. I give his name because of the incredible respect I had for him. How he could make me love organic chemistry is a mystery I never quite figured out but his inspiration drove me to the top of the class that quarter(we did not use semesters then) He is also the only professor whose name I remember. The most I could say about the rest of the faculty was they did not generally care one way or the other as to whether we liked the course, thought highly of it or if we even passed or failed.
In Medical school it was the opposite with virtually every professor being invested in the success of the students and going the extra mile to help and make sure things were clear. Occasionally there were some with rough edges but they gave me a wonderful education and prepared me well for Residency. Thats why I continue the give money to the Medical College of Georgia and return for reunions and have nothing but warmth in my heart for them.
Residency and Fellowship was a mixed bag at Baylor in the Texas Medical Center. You had a tremendous cluster of world leading physicians with accompanying ego’s. However being older and wiser I could work through the ego’s and arrogance to see what was taught and marveled at the quality of it. The Assist Chief of Medicine was brilliant and inspirational. My Chief in Pulmonary was arbitrary, capricious, argumentive and had one of the biggest egos I experienced but he was brilliant and could work through problems in the ICU in seconds while I was till asking questions. So you put aside the other and learned what he had to say. We argued all the time but at the end of my fellowship he offered me a job on the faculty!!
So I guess that a lot of how we deal with this is dependent on our age and experience and our own sense of confidence.
There is much here to suggest that after high school 1-2 years out in the real world would be helpful and then go to college. The more experience that you have in the real world better prepares you for that time in college when you can stand up in class and tell the professor what they just said is bulls—t. Too much that is taught in college depends on a certain amount of intimidation of young minds who are not yet (for the most mart) ready to defend themselves. A time in the military would be excellent preparation for college.
I was never in the military but my family was military and my father advanced from private in 1941 to Lt Col by 1961 (when he retired). A vet of WW2 and Korea, he was a great role model to follow and great for bouncing questions off him when dealing with college faculty.
As far as bias is concerned, I always felt that it was a nonentity because I was too busy trying to understand the course rather than the mouthpiece who was up at the front talking.
Well it is funny how creative people can be when offering feedback that is anonymous and targeted! While overall evaluation averages do offer limited insight on performance firing warning shots across the bow of students is probably equivalent to using a stick on a hornets nest! The final act usually gets an appropriate response!
I wonder if Professor Zhang has given any consideration to the possibility that women and instructors of color receive poor reviews because they deserve them? Maybe there is something else at work here. . .
BillyG says: December 14, 2024 at 8:45 AM
the possibility that women and instructors of color receive poor reviews because they deserve them? Maybe there is something else at work here. . .
Two of those useless ‘instructors of color’ would be Dr. Thomas Sowell and Dr. Walter Williams. If you have no idea who they are but claim to be conservative, you haven’t cracked too many books.
Maybe there is something else at work here?
Old Airborne Dog
Anonymous “Screaming Lil Bow Wow” attempts to steal more “valor” while he refuses to tell us which war he won.
he apparently is winning the war in your head rent free
The anonymous Airsoft Gravy Seal Six Sniper gun bunny refuses to explain how he escaped a prison sentence for molesting the young children on the base. Which component of the military were you an Airsoft Sniper in, Gun Bunny? Navy? With OAD in the Army? Coast Guard?
If you can’t actually specify what the supposed “stolon valor” was that you claim was posted, at least tell us how you evaded your parole officer and are still able to get on the internet as a convicted sexual predator, gun bunny.
At the end of the day, evaluations of teachers by students are really nothing more than evaluations by purchasers of any producer’s merchandise. Are such evaluations in ANY arena subject to bias? Of course, that is the nature of opinions. However, one hopes that a large enough sample size will drown out much bias such that a clearer picture of the item being evaluated can be achieved (it will NEVER be perfect).
The true danger that lies in the example provided in Professor Li Zhang’s situation is the potential bias she is introducing into the situation.
-Is Zhang distributing evaluations of her performance BEFORE she assigns grades? Would that and her little speech influence student’s responses if they had the idea their grade was at stake?
-Is Zhang distributing evaluations during final exams with her little speech (similar to evaluating the disassembled kids toys DURING assembly on Christmas Eve in the face of what seems instructions written by a moron but experiencing total satisfaction when the job is complete)? Talk about maximizing distortion of any results via stress.
-Is Zhang distributing the evaluation immediately AFTER the final exam along with her little speech when the students are still likely maximally stressed about their performance and future? Kind of like evaluating the cop that just gave you a warranted ticket just before the cop drives off.
-Is she distributing the evaluations long after the student has completed her course, the student has received the grade and will potentially ONLY consider her/his grade when evaluating Dr. Zhang? Or, perhaps, the student has a diminished memory of her course details? Or possibly the student does not even care?
Such circumstances do not even address the evolving environment in universities, in general, where the student population has a significantly increasing composition of female and people of color makeup. And this crowd is showing color and sex bias??
One can only hope that evaluations are submitted in a method and timing that maximizes feedback and minimizes bias, knowing it will never be perfect. Unfortunately, it appears that Dr. Zhang and the universities are biased (and motivated to be so, as in salary and advancement) to the point of assigning the possibility of a ‘bad’ evaluation as being nothing more than the bias of the student, thus distorting or minimizing the results of the evaluations. Under such circumstances, how would you expect ANY company to fare if they minimized/ignored the feedback of customers?
Speaking from the point of view of not only student in my own right, but as a retired clinical associate professor, my impressions of some of the faculty I have encountered in academia is that they are definitely out of place when it comes to interpersonal relations, emotional stability, and their sociopolitical persuasions. They have, out of need, and likely never held down a serious day-job, sequestered themselves atop ‘ivory towers’ from which they never have to let down their hair. Of memory, is a frizzy haired, bespectacled, forever unkempt female faculty member who taught an economics course back in the ’60’s. True to the emerging rebellion I am sure she was to be part of, she was inordinately proud of the fact that her family eschewed TV watching. “Oh!” “We don’t have television”, was the remark during an exchange which brought the device to the forefront. A ‘wackjob’ was my only thought in response to her claim.
Student evaluations is a familiar topic, and as a mathematics professor, I’ve received my share of “biased” evaluations. When I first began teaching, a colleague mentioned about evaluations, “They give you what you give them.” Not quite. Getting good evaluations in tough courses requires one essential rule: “Students need to feel you care about them*.” My assessment for this instructor of notoriously difficult accounting courses is that she’s tough (is good), but she’s indifferent to her students (is bad). Hence, “biased” reviews.
*This may be a good rule for anyone in management.
Gdonaldallen-Absolutely. If you don’t care, even the poorest or meekest student will pick it up. The whole essence of teaching is to care about your students and to make sure they have received the message you are trying to send to them. If you don’t do that then you have failed at the job.
Your comment “Getting good evaluations in tough courses requires one essential rule: “Students need to feel you care about them*.”” with the footnote “*This may be a good rule for anyone in management” triggers me, in a good way.
I’ve conducted surveys of businesses large and small for 20 years and because I have a PhD in social science research, I’ve analyzed the results thoroughly. The ONE THING that most strongly correlates with improvement over time in an organization’s performance culture AND bottom-line business results is that subordinates say their manager “cares about me.” Caring is not measured as “likes me” or “is easy on me,” but rather is measured by how much a person feels their manager works hard to get the best and most out of them in a way that enhances the subordinate’s performance and self-esteem. I contend this applies in education and management.
Easy to say…really, really hard to do. But, it can be learned by most…but will be used only if it is reinforced by those who manage the managers. Who “manages” professors at a university? Hmmmmm……maybe that’s where a lot of problems plaguing universities begin.