As part of our ongoing work to ensure we have effective systems in place for assessing and improving the education we offer our students, I have convened a committee to review the ways we collect and consider student feedback on courses. The University is committed to offering a high-quality education to all students, and providing students the opportunity to submit anonymous feedback helps instructors and department leaders improve the curriculum, informs course-level curricular decisions, supports teacher improvement and plays an important role in nominating instructors for Brown teaching awards. This review will help ensure that our system continues to provide secure, accessible and meaningful information to instructors, as well as to department chairs. For students, the review will help us ensure anonymous feedback is considered and acted upon in a timely and efficient fashion.

The University’s last review of course evaluations took place in the 2017–18 academic year. In addition to the adoption of our current evaluation form — which was fully implemented in 2019 — that committee also recommended that the new form be reviewed in five years. The newly charged committee’s work is also timely, as Brown’s next accreditation review is scheduled to take place in Spring 2027. This review will help us demonstrate, as part of the self-study required by our accrediting body, that the “effectiveness of instruction is regularly and systematically assessed using valid procedures” and that “the results are used to improve instruction.”

I am grateful to the faculty, students and staff who have agreed to participate in this important work:

• Nicholas Monk, co-chair of the committee; Executive Director, Sheridan Center Center for Teaching and Learning
• Katie Rieser, co-chair of the committee; Director of Teacher Education, Associate Teaching Professor of Education
• M.J. Ahmadi, Ph.D. student, Chemical and Environmental Engineering
• Janet Blume, Deputy Provost; Interim Dean of the Graduate School; Associate Professor, School of Engineering
• Rachel El Grably '28, Chair of Academic Affairs, Undergraduate Council of Students
• Scott Frickel, Department Chair and Professor, Sociology
• Kim Gallon, Associate Professor of Africana Studies
• Jeff Huang, Associate Professor of Computer Science
• Monica Linden, Teaching Professor of Neuroscience
• Jennifer Nuzzo, Director of the Pandemic Center, School of Public Health; Professor of Epidemiology
• Ethan Pollock, Dean of the College; Abbott Gleason University Professor of History
• Stephanie A. Ravillon, Associate Teaching Professor of French and Francophone Studies
• Melvin Rogers, Associate Director of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics; Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor of Political Science
• Eric Kaldor, staffing the committee; Director, Assessment and Transformational Programs, Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning
• Sara Misgen, staffing the committee; Assistant Director, Interdisciplinary Teaching Communities, Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning

I invite you to view the committee’s full charge on the Office of the Provost website.

I have asked the committee to produce short-term recommendations by March 1, 2026, in time to be implemented during the spring semester course feedback cycle. They will deliver longer term recommendations by May 1, 2026.

You can send questions and feedback to sheridan_center@brown.edu.

Sincerely,

Francis J. Doyle III, Provost