Negotiate or grieve to stop the use of student opinion surveys
Student opinion surveys have been widely criticized as a poor and biased measurement of teaching effectiveness. CAUT policy is that the results of these surveys should not be used in decisions concerning tenure, renewal, promotion, and merit. The weaknesses in student opinion surveys are even more acute today, as the student experience has been adversely affected by the rapid transition from in-person to remote instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some universities and colleges recognize this problem, and are not conducting student opinion surveys during the pandemic. Where surveys are proceeding, the results should be provided only to instructors for their personal use. Some associations have negotiated policies where surveys containing discriminatory, harassing, or otherwise inappropriate comments are removed and neither provided to the instructor nor included in any aggregated results.