Student Representatives & Their Impact?

[deleted671726]

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Hello,

I was wondering how your student representatives work together with faculty and other students in your programs?

• What is the communication like between your class and your student representatives?
• What is the communication like between your student representatives and the faculty?
• Is the system effective in making changes?
• Does your faculty listen to the feedback given by the student representatives?

I ask this because the majority of our class was in somewhat of an uproar earlier this semester. As a result, the student representative compiled feedback from the class via email and in person to present to the faculty. Unfortunately, the representative ended up meeting with the faculty for 2-3 hours and the faculty virtually took over the discussion, and nothing has happened in response to our feedback. I was wondering how other programs are and if there is a better way. This would definitely help when trying to work with the faculty in the future to make the program better for my class and all future students.

 

[deleted480308]

what was the uproar about? the specific answer to that has a lot to do with what staff reaction is to be expected

 

[deleted671726]

@sb247 There were a lot of complaints throughout the year, but most people did not speak up. The first physiology exam of this semester (our 2nd) was about 50-60% based on things that were 5-10% of our lectures. The student body felt that the exam was inappropriate for what was taught and focused on in class. The average was significantly lower. In a way, that exam opened the floodgates to issues that students had about the program for the past year but were being quiet about. Students started to talk with one another in frustration and a lot of the same common issues began to surface as collective student body issues. The student representative then collected all of those issues and presented them to faculty.

 

[deleted480308]

@sb247 There were a lot of complaints throughout the year, but most people did not speak up. The first physiology exam of this semester (our 2nd) was about 50-60% based on things that were 5-10% of our lectures. The student body felt that the exam was inappropriate for what was taught and focused on in class. The average was significantly lower. In a way, that exam opened the floodgates to issues that students had about the program for the past year but were being quiet about. Students started to talk with one another in frustration and a lot of the same common issues began to surface as collective student body issues. The student representative then collected all of those issues and presented them to faculty.

I'm a student representative in a medical school. I can tell you I wouldn't even bother bringing forth a complaint of, "you asked more about some stuff you taught us than other stuff you taught us". That's whining and isn't a legitimate complaint.

 

[callmecrazy]

Eh, I have to agree with the pp and say it sounds like this may have come off as just whining to faculty, especially if they were listing off complaints without constructive and reasonable ideas for change. They gave you the respect of giving a platform to listen/read your complaints, but they're not obligated to make the changes you wanted. Unless there's some sort of major issue on the part of the faculty and program that you're leaving out, I'd say take this as a lesson learned. Lesson being, it doesn't hurt to ask for change, but don't expect it to always go your way.

As far as our "academic liaisons", their main role was to sort out issues in exam scheduling, spreading finals out, etc. The class ahead of us also worked hard to make some changes in relation to tuition and elective courses. All positive communication but also always professionally approached.

 

[AlanWattsBlues]

The role of student reps seems to be more about faculty feeding information down than students feeding information up. End of course evals are probably the only time to really have an impact with feedback. Put it in writing in a measured tone, and make sure that multiple people are communicating similar ideas. It might help the next class, but it won't really help you.

And as others have stated, you may have difficulty getting the attention of faculty with the complaint that an exam is not proportionally representative of the focus of lecture. Unless there were questions on a topic that a professor specifically said is not fair game, then the faculty aren't going to take it seriously.

Heck, even if the professor tests on something they said they wouldn't test on, or something that they never lectured on, then I wouldn't expect much traction. I remember 5 or 6 of us failing a practical for doing what was explicitly stated as correct in the required textbook…. I brought this up with my faculty adviser, and the best I could get was "well, if you fail the retake, then there is always the appeal process."

They've kinda got us over a barrel in school. You've got to pick your battles…

 

[jesspt]

I'm a student representative in a medical school. I can tell you I wouldn't even bother bringing forth a complaint of, "you asked more about some stuff you taught us than other stuff you taught us". That's whining and isn't a legitimate complaint.

This=The Truth.