One bad professor in your schedule can be the difference between an enjoyable semester and 14 weeks of academic hell. This explains why teacher rating services such as ratemyprofessor.com have become so popular among Fairfield students.
Whether you’re looking for an easy teacher, a challenging teacher or even a “hot” teacher, www.ratemyprofessor.com can usually add some insight to your search for the ultimate schedule.
Now, FUSA has taken the initial steps to create an official Web site where Fairfield students can evaluate their professors online.
According to FUSA senator Ada Sim ’06, who is heading up the effort, contract negotiations are underway with the company which maintains ratemyprofessor.com to create an online forum for Fairfield students.
The project hasn’t come without hurdles.
“Our contract fell through recently, which is really delaying progress,” said Sim.
According to Senator Beth Grossman ’07, “The goal is to get it up and running by the night of peer advising.”
The new site, the URL of which is currently classified, is laden with many features which will make it more attractive to Fairfield students than other unsanctioned alternatives.
“Every teacher will be able to submit their own information: bios, class information, even syllabi. Also any inappropriate ratings will be filtered out,” explained Sim.
This ability to edit student evaluations raises questions about the issue of censorship.
“I think I would have less faith in the information on the site knowing that FUSA had the ability to edit it,” said Mike Wood ’07.
FUSA claims that such censorship, while not impossible, would not happen.
“This is going to be run by FUSA. We have no reason to censor the ratings and evaluations,” said Sim.
“I think [the site] would be helpful, but only if the students put a grade, so people aren’t like, ‘I hate him he sucks’ when they got an ‘F’ for never attending class, ” said Wood.
“I think it’s a good idea. I have taken classes that I probably wouldn’t have taken, had I known more about the professor. Sometimes, the professor makes all the difference,” Said Kaitlin Chabina ’07.
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