Why do we do professor evaluations if professors have tenure?

Question

And are they even taken into consideration?

Answer 1

I can assure you they are considered; however, one poor evaluation will barely be noticed if all the rest are positive.  I do know of one professor who was rated rarely poorly overall by a class; I believe it caused him much concern, and he made some positive changes in his classroom.

Answer 2

I don't think they take them into consideration at all. They are just  there to make the students feel like they have some power over the dull, boring, old people they chose to teach us and expect us to learn from.

Answer 3

Evaluations are necessary in all types of work, not just teachers.  Just because a teacher was the "teacher of the year" last year doesn't mean that they sit back on their laurels and become a bum.  Teachers change, times change, and evaluations are a necessary tool for feedback.  It can benefit both, the professor and the administration.

Answer 4

Tenure doesn't mean that there aren't consequences - it just means that you have earned some loyalty from the university and can't be fired easily.  I can tell you that at many schools, faculty raises are dependent in part on teaching.  Faculty members can be denied the right to teach certain courses in which they don't do well.  In addition, most tenured faculty care deeply about doing well and want the feedback.  It is only the rare exception who doesn't care if s/he does well or not.

Answer 5

Couple of reasons:  First, although it is true that some of my colleagues do not pay attention to these evaluations, many of us do-  my University, for example, is very focused on the experience students have in the classroom (we know you have choices of where you go), so from the beginning I and many other folks pay close attention, especially to written comments on what was good and bad my classes, and make adjustments to how I teach based directly on that student feedback.  I'm continuously tweaking my classes based on what students tell me, even though I was tenured 8 years ago.  

Second:  Tenured professors have to go through "post-tenure review", roughly every 5 years, in order to remain in good standing and be eligible for raises at most high-quality institutions.  This process involves, essentially, a smaller version of the tenure review (scrutiny of teaching, service, and research), and make no mistake-  poor teaching evaluations can be a show-stopper here if the are pervasive.  Doing poorly on these reviews can result in a Professor being dismissed for not doing his/her job and resigning tenure, so this is a big deal.  Constructive student evaluations of classes and Professors are incredibly important in this process, so I hope as a student you will take the time to fill these out.  Great question-  I hope this answer is useful.

Answer 6

It's supposed to provide the professor with feedback....  Good question, though.  I guess that's why we always just go down the list and mark 3 or N/A--b/c we know it really doesn't matter.

Answer 7

I don't think they are for the administration to consider; They are just for the professors. I had some professors who said they took them very seriously because they wanted to improve their teaching. But I'm sure a lot of professors just blow them off.