The Student Government Association hosted a meeting Thursday where they passed bills involving syllabi and course difficulty in the Student Evaluation of Teacher Effectiveness (SETE).
The syllabus bill was the first to be passed. Currently, the University of Memphis does not offer resources to view past syllabi for a course in which a student wishes to enroll, this bill would change that by adding an example syllabus to the course registration process by spring 2019 registration.
“I realized that I had no idea what my classes next semester were going to be like,” Garrett Barnes, prime sponsor of the bill, said. “I think one of the biggest things that helps students get prepared for their semester is their syllabus, and it will be nice for them to see it beforehand.”
The second bill passed was to add a "course difficulty" question to the SETEs. This would show the difficulty of the course rather than just the grade students received, as a question is currently framed.
“There is a distinction between how difficult a course is and what grade someone made,” Barnes said. “I know some people who got an A in a class, but it was only because it was really hard, and they had to work for it.”
Barnes said he is optimistic for this to be available for the spring SETE, but it is more likely be available by the summer.
Near the end of the meeting, SGA discussed a bill to support a student entrepreneur’s idea for a student valet service. In the student's survey, 55 percent of students said they would use a valet service if it was offered on campus. The service would cost money to use and would be run by students.
Because the student who proposed this idea was not at the meeting, SGA senators said they did not receive enough information and decided to wait to vote on the bill until their meeting next Thursday.
