Wired.com ‘s Joanna Glasner raised an interesting question in her article today:
Do college faculty members have a case if they sue popular website RateMyProfessors.com?
Professors don’t seem to like it much:
"By and large, RateMyProfessors is unmentionable in university administrations," said Kenneth Westhues, a sociology professor at the University of Waterloo who completed a study of the rating site last year. "Many professors won't even admit that they look at their ratings on the website."
(As an aside, I did have one professor in undergrad who mentioned that he never looked at his ratings, but his kids did. They thought it was hilarious.)
Westhues, however, thinks the website provides a valuable service:
"Here's this tenured professor with high rank and high salary and students say he's a disaster in the classroom," he said. "RateMyProfessors gets that information out into the open."
There’s a downside, though:
"Anyone can contribute ratings, whether they know how to rate someone effectively or not and whether they are enrolled in the class or not," said Chet Robie, associate professor of management and organizational behavior at Wilfrid Laurier University.
At his university, Robie said he and many of his colleagues suspect that one faculty member has been doctoring colleagues ratings to make his or her own appear more favorable. Across RateMyProfessors, he believes there is more than enough defamatory material to launch a class action suit against the site and the people posting the offensive comments.
So, on one side, we have free speech, opinion, and perhaps even truth. On the other side, falsified ratings, potentially damaged careers, and perhaps defamation.
The posts are closely monitored for obscenity, and multiple posts from the same user are eliminated. When a professor gets a lot of attention, it’s generally more positive than negative, according to one site administrator.
So, given the context of the article and the class, I did the natural thing: I looked up wired.com’s own – and our class’s own – Professor Adam Penenberg.
Nothing. He’s not even on the list. For the record, blogger Jay Rosen is on the list, but has no ratings.
Professors and schools probably will sue RateMyProfessors eventually. They may get a settlement, they may even shut the site down. But I don’t think they have much of a case. The site is place for students to trade opinions with each other of people who – to them, at least – are public figures. And in my experience, the professors with the worst ratings teach required courses, so attendance in their classes is pretty much guaranteed. These professors also tend to get chili peppers indicating that they are “hot†(some ironic, some earnest).
And even NYU President John Sexton got a 5 rating for his honors seminar. No chili pepper, though. Scandalous.
Anonymous (not verified) @ December 5, 2005 - 1:24pm
My university always gives out class evaluations at the end of the semester, and I assume most universities do the same. This is the perfect time for students to "rate their professor." We're given the chance to say what we like about the class/professor, and how we would improve the course. And we are not limited to 350 words! Many of my professors take these evaluations very seriously... they are always looking for ways to improve their teaching. I feel this type of evaluation is much better than rating professors publicly. As a student, I am much more comfortable writing down reviews I know my professor will at least be aware of.
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