It's About Time

Last week, Registrar Barry S. Kane announced that students who complete their Q evaluations online will be able to access their final grades immediately after the end of the examination period instead of having to wait the usual 10 days. The end-of-semester evaluations, which are mandatory for all but the smallest seminar courses, are an important part of both teaching and learning here at the College, and it is essential that students fill them out. Therefore, we applaud the Registrar for implementing this new system and hope that it is an efficient and effective means of incentivizing the completion of these critical evaluations.

While students here at the College often fret about their grades, it is important to remember that faculty and teaching fellows also welcome feedback. Indeed, it is a critical component of improving the quality of teaching here at Harvard, especially in departments where large classes are common, like economics and government. As such, we view this new system as a much-needed method of improving student participation rates, which have been less than optimal for many classes (including both huge lecture courses and small seminars).

In particular, we hope that, by providing a powerful incentive to those students who are most concerned for their grade in a class, professors and other teaching staff will be able to receive feedback from a wider range of students, including those who may not have been as enthusiastic about the course as their peers. Increased participation by the student body should be able to provide a clearer picture of what a class actually entails. Indeed, many courses in this year’s Q Guide had rather incomplete evaluations as a result of low participation rates.

We also hope that the new policy is a sign of things to come. In the past, many students have expressed frustration with the Registrar for its overly bureaucratic and arbitrary methods, especially the 10-day waiting period to receive final grades. This policy was especially frustrating to second-semester freshmen, sophomores, and juniors hoping to apply for internships and fellowships with deadlines in late May. As such, we are impressed with the Registrar’s new flexibility and hope that it will continue to take student feedback into consideration.