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Thousands of Scantrons went to waste last week. Students duly penciled in circles and made comments reviewing the courses and educators to whom they gave their fees and 10 weeks of time and energy.

Sadly, students will never see the results of this valuable data.

The current evaluation process, useful only to the faculty and administrators who truly care about student input, falls dramatically short of its true potential and leaves students stranded without the information necessary to maximize their education.

Ten years ago, completed evaluations were available to students. UCLA’s Office for Instructional Development, with the permission of the professor, distributed evaluations in booklet form until the program was discontinued in 1995 after being deemed too costly. Since then, there has been sporadic talk, and little action, on ways to create a useful and fair system that lets student voices be heard – by their teachers, department and, most importantly, by their peers.

It is time for results.

Students should not be left in the dark about the quality of professors and courses available when planning their schedules.

Independent Web sites like bruinwalk.com help, but too few students contribute. UCLA, ideally through the cooperative lobbying of the Academic Senate and student government, should restructure and standardize the evaluation process to insure the voices of students don’t fall on deaf ears – or worse, are muted by a lazy bureaucracy.