Responses to SLEQ are confidential, not anonymous, and it is possible to have inappropriate comments removed. This clearly came through in comments from respondents to our Campus Safety and Student Abuse of Faculty Questionnaire with the suggestion that accountability is needed for anonymous evaluations.

Comments from students are treated as confidential and while student identity is traceable, it is not disclosed to the instructor.

There is a policy and procedures supporting the collection of student learning experience feedback.

Procedures for the University Council Approved Student Learning Experience Feedback includes a section regarding the removal of student comments. To be removed, they must be “deemed wholly inappropriate, such as comments that are hateful or discriminatory on the basis of attributes such as gender, sexual or gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion or disability.”

The following steps must be followed to have a comment removed.

1. Make a request to your department head or associate dean to have the comment removed and indicate why you find the comment inappropriate.
2. Both your department head and associate dean (associate dean and dean in a non-departmentalized college) agree with you and bring your request to the attention of the Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning (VPTL).
3. The VPTL agrees the comment must be removed. The VPTL has the final authority to remove a comment.
4. You can put your request directly to the VPTL if the comment violates university policy, “including but not limited to” the Standard of Student Conduct in Non-Academic Matters policy and Discrimination and Harassment Prevention policy.

A student can request their feedback be removed, and if the VPTL views the request to be a legitimate concern for the integrity of the feedback being provided, the VPTL can decide to remove it. This can only happen prior to feedback being released to you.

When a comment is removed, the student’s feedback in its entirety is removed. Students are only advised when comments are removed if the VPTL believes it is in the best interest of the student or if the comment is such that disciplinary action may be considered.