PAGE 2
THE DECREE
FRroAY, FEBRUARY 8,1974
NCW Student Body
Is Apolitical
Way back in the fall of 1970, the fledging class of 1974 met
one day to nominate candidates for class officers. No less
than 14 people were nominated to fill the four positions.
Banners were made, posters filled the Student Union, and
even a few handmade buttons were passed out. Candidates
campaigned door-to-door in the dorm. There was even a
party ticket (Christchurch Plus One Party—Haridson,
Henderson, Rand, and Read).
If student politics were so exciting back then, why is
there such a lack of active participation in student
government today? Generally, freshmen are more willing to
become involved in SGA work than upperclassmen.
However, this does not whoUy explain the disinterest that
most students have for Student government.
Although the students that I have talked with have had
varying opinions on this question, each of these students
felt that there was poor communication between the SGA
and the student body. To be more specific, the consensus
seems to be that there is poor communication between the
student body and Tom Hardison, the President of the SGA.
This is true because as President, Tom symbolizes the SGA
more than any other one person.
Almost everyone that I talked to felt that Tom has been
effective and dedicated to the interests of the Student body.
However, these students felt totally ignorant about what
Tom had been doing this year. Oddly enough, they did not
know what Tom was doing, but they believed that he was
doing a good job. Some of the students remembered talk
about a new constitution, but by and large they felt apart
from the programs and the decision making process of the
SGA.
Recently, the Senate did a study and overwhelmingly
praised Tom’s leadership. However, they also felt that Tom
should involve them more in decision making in student
government business. To alleviate this problem, some
Senators suggested that Tom give a report at the weekly
Senate meetings.
The Administration has also been a factor in creating a
lack of interest in the SGA. Some students cited the fact
that despite a great deal of student effort, the
Administration has failed to liberalize some of the Open
House rules. Also, in the past three years, there have been
several SGA and Dorm Council decisions that have been
over-ruled by the Administration. This has not helped to
create any burning desire to work in the SGA.
However, the greatest single cause of uninvolvement in
Student government is the fact that the Wesleyan student
body, for the most part, is a political. Students here do not
seek out their elected officials, they do not question the
Administrators of the College, but they do seem to
passively let their voices go unheard.
Of course, there are exceptions to this, and that is why
the SGA is still in existence. However, there is a good
possibility that there may be none of these exceptions in the
near future. That, perhaps, is the greatest challenge that
the underclassmen of Wesleyan will have to face.
—Robin GuUck
Do They Work?
OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN COLLEGE
Editor-in-Chief Charlie Rogers
Associate Editor Tom Hardison
Business MGR Charlie Rogers
Circulation MGR BobLauranzon
Sports Writer “Smokey” Cameron
Typist Peggy Verkler
Photographer Jay Van Hoose
Adviser Mr. Bruce Van Blarcom
Columnists: Tom Hardison
Reporter: Donald Williams
Business Address: Box 3056, Wesleyan College
Rocky Mount, North Carolina 27801
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY WESLEYAN STUDENTS
Opinions Published Do Not Necessarily Represent
Those Of Wesleyan Colley®
Faculty Evaluations ...
Buffalo, N. Y.-{I.P.)-Stu-
dent evaluation of instructors is
a valid means of measuring
teaching effectiveness. This is
one of the findings of a study
conducted by Dr. Peter K.
Gessner, associate professor of
pharmacology at the State
University of New York at
Buffalo.
The study found that the
higher the student ratings of
the instruction they received in
a particular area, the higher
the class score relative to a
nationwide norm in that area.
According to Dr. Gessner,
“This suggests that both
student ratings and class
performance on national nor
mative examinations are valid
measures of teaching effective
ness."
The group used for Dr.
Gessner’s study was a class of
119 sophomore medical stu
dents taking a one-semester
basic science course in the
Medical School. The course was
taught by 10 faculty members,
each of whom was solely
responsible for instruction in
one or more of the 23 subject
areas of the course. This
situation allowed data for the
study to be collected under
controlled conditions, since all
the faculty members were
rated by the same group of
students.
“We don’t really know what
good teaching is,” Dr. Gessner
said, “but if the students say it
is good, it means they like it,
and if class performances on
examinations is high it means
they learned something. If both
of these results are in some way
related to how well the
teaching is done, then they
should parallel each other,
which was the case with this
study.”
Student ratings of teaching
effectiveness were obtained by
means of a questionnaire
completed anonymously by the
students at the last lecture
session of the course. Students
were asked to use a three- point
scale of “good,” “satisfactory,”
or “unsatisfactory” to rate each
of the subject areas covered
during the course with regard
to content, organization, and
presentation. The results of
this rating were then converted
to a numerical scale.
To insure that the relation
ship between student evalua
tion and class performance was
a viable one. Dr. Gessner
investigated other variables
which might have affected the
results. He investigated the
data to determine if material
was remembered better be
cause it was taught later in the
course, or if the amount of time
emphasis devoted to a subject
influenced the results. In both
cases the answer was “no,”
leaving teaching effectiveness
as the only common factor in
the outcome.
Class performance relative to
a national norm was evaluated
by an analysis of how the
students answered the 141
questions on Part I of the
National Medical Board Exami
nation, which the students took
five weeks after the end of the
course to which it pertained,
and the National Medical Board
provided the percentage of
both the U/B students and the
nationwide sample who ans
wered each question correctly.
The high correlation between
student ratings and class
(Continued to Page 4)
Aiwo Point
Program To Stop
Pollution.
Th« LHt«r Point.
Someone just tossed
a can on the ground.
Use this point
to point it out.
Maybe next time
he’ll tos,s it
in a litter ba.sket.
Tha Air
Pollution Point.
Don't close
your e.i ea
io that smokins
smokestack,
point it out
10 someone
who can do
something about it.
People start pollution. People can stop it.
1 a A Pijbhc Sor^o»
AtAI Tha New9pap0T a
The Advwteno Oxnci
Keep America Beautiful
99 Pork Avenue, New York. New York 10016