The University of Mississippi Faculty Senate passed a resolution stating its desire for student evaluations from this semester to be excluded from the conversation around each professor’s annual performance, potential promotion and tenure on April 7.
This resolution came after the semester was shortened due to disruptions by Winter Storm Fern, which caused decreased instructional time, syllabus changes and tension between students and professors.
The university was closed for two weeks, from Jan. 26-Feb. 7.
The resolution argues that the circumstances caused by Winter Storm Fern could result in data that is not reflective of what a professor’s performance would look like during a normal semester.
“Whereas given the significant impact of Winter Storm Fern to the Spring 2026 academic semester, data collected in student evaluation of instruction is likely to be uninterpretable, if not biased,” the resolution said.
Stephanie Miller, a professor of psychology, is a faculty senator representing the psychology department. She is a leading force behind the resolution.
Miller said that because Winter Storm Fern forced professors to make changes to their curriculums, due dates and teaching pace, the data gathered from evaluations should not be held against professors.
“These evaluations are data — they help us understand how classes and teaching materials are being received so we can make necessary adjustments, and they allow others at the university (our chairs, administrators) to assess the quality of teaching being provided at the University of Mississippi,” Miller said. “Because this semester was so extraordinary, these data may not be an accurate reflection. For example, professors may have needed to skip over particular topics or spend less time covering a topic. This is not what the professor wanted to do … but the situation demanded that changes be made.”
However, Director of News and Media Relations Jacob Batte said that the university is still collecting student evaluations for this semester. The university has not yet decided whether these evaluations will be taken into account in faculty evaluations regarding performance and promotions.
“Student evaluations will be collected this semester,” Batte said in a statement to The Daily Mississippian. “The university will consider whether they will be included in faculty evaluation processes.”
In the aftermath of the shortened semester, professors responded by cutting material, speeding up lessons, assigning more homework and rearranging due dates. These adjustments impacted classroom environments and relationships between students and professors.
“The two-week closure due to this natural disaster was unprecedented and caused significant disruption for teaching and learning for both students and faculty at UM,” Miller said. “Many students and faculty did not have access to campus resources (nor) the internet and were dealing with significant damage during the closure. This disruption also carried across the entire semester, as the recovery for the community takes time, and the modifications to classes affected the whole semester.”
These changes caused some students to feel overwhelmed by their course load. Keely Garri, a freshman international studies major from Roanoke, Va., expressed sympathy for her professors. However, she noted that in her Korean class, several lessons were eliminated from the curriculum. Additionally, assignment due dates overlapped.
“My professors essentially had to go through and cut a whole bunch,” Garri said. “With some, it was easier than others, but with my Korean class, we didn’t learn the last three lessons … It was a combination of everyone playing catch-up, but also major assignments kept on falling on the same day because everything was so smushed together.”
