A good way to convince someone you care

By Ryan Maloney, assistant women's volleyball coach

Head Coach, Geoff Braun

After a college class is finished for the semester, professors allow students to give feedback in on online submission form. How interesting was the class? How valuable was it? How was the professor's teaching?

After a sports season, the athletic department does the same for athletes. How did your coach do? Did you enjoy the season? Was it a valuable experience?

In both cases, the feedback is useful, but the feedback isn't the point. The point is that the college wants to communicate that it cares about its students. But consider an alternative:

In March during my final semester of grad school, the professor stopped one of our classes early. Then she asked us to rate her -- anonymously -- on how she was performing as a teacher. She wanted to give us the opportunity to give feedback before the end of the semester so that we'd all benefit.

It's easy to believe that the teacher cares in the second scenario. Online forms can't care.

We can't be so lucky to get this treatment from everyone who serves us, but we can care enough to do it for those we serve.