The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

The Daily Illini

The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

The Daily Illini

The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

The Daily Illini

The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

The Daily Illini

UI withholds releasing instructor evaluation scores

The University is continuing to deny access to public records concerning instructor evaluation scores.

On May 10, 2010, The Daily Illini filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking for Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) scores from instructors who released their results for the fall 2009 semester. Students are offered course evaluation forms that allow them to rate the instructor’s overall teaching effectiveness and overall quality of the course.

Nine months after the request was made, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office ruled that the exemption the University used to deny releasing the information was not valid. However, The Daily Illini has not received the documents, and University Spokeswoman Robin Kaler could not be reached after multiple attempts for three weeks following the ruling.

The next form of communication came March 17 from Kaler in a second denial of request letter that cited five exemptions to withhold the information, including the exemption that had already been denied by the attorney general’s office.

Kaler said the University does not want to provide the information because “the harm is that participation in the program is voluntary, and it’s highly unlikely that many instructors and students would find value in participating in a program that has lost its confidentiality.” She added that the results are not a tool for students to choose their instructors but rather a way for instructors to improve their teaching methods.

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The Daily Illini originally filed the request to cross-examine the documents with other data. The newspaper does not intend to publish the scores without context.

Currently, the public can view the “List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students” found on the University’s Center for Teaching Excellence website, Kaler said. However, not every instructor chooses to participate in the program nor do they choose to be included in this list.

Discussions with the University first began when Kaler denied releasing the information in May 2010 and said the request was an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

The attorney general’s office was contacted soon after to decide if the University’s use of the exemption was justified.

On Feb. 23, Assistant Public Access Counselor Amanda Lundeen ruled in favor of The Daily Illini, and said the University could not use that exemption to avoid providing the documents.

“The disclosure of information that bears on the public duties of public employees and officials shall not be considered an invasion of personal privacy,” Lundeen said in the letter.

Three weeks later, Kaler sent the University’s second denial of request letter to The Daily Illini with the additional exemptions.

“While we did not receive the requested pre-approval to deny your request under this exemption, we maintain that our interpretation is correct and we do continue to cite it as one of our bases for our denial,” Kaler said in the letter.

The Daily Illini intends to send Kaler’s recent letter to the attorney general’s office for further review.

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