One hundred sixteen students enrolled at two midwestern universities in neighboring states completed a 28-item Student Perceptions of Evaluations Questionnaire to determine students' attitudes towards the evaluation process. Four central questions to be answered were: (1) Do students understand how evaluations are used? (2) What are students' misperceptions about evaluations? (3) Do students take the opportunity to evaluate their professors seriously? (4) Do students think that professors take students' comments seriously? Results of the survey showed that students often did not know how or for what purpose the evaluations were to be used. They were also uncertain as to whether such evaluations were used in determining pay raises and/or promotions. Students indicated that they do take teaching evaluations seriously despite their uncertainty about whether professors take the evaluations seriously. It appeared that student ratings are not significantly undermined by their incomplete knowledge of the process or their uncertainty regarding how professors felt about the evaluations, but providing students with information about the uses of teaching evaluations would help reduce cynicism and improve lines of communication between students and their professors. Contains nine references. (GLR)