Interesting. I have seen many funny comments posted about professors on Ratemyprofessors.com. I have seen many offensive comments written by students on Ratemyprofessors.com. I have wondered about the long-term effects of a professor-rating system that ranks “hot” professors who give easy A’s more highly than professors who are either (a) not hot, or (b) not easy graders, or (c) none of the above.
But this is the first time I have seen a professor do anything in response. Mano was offended by a sexist, objectifying comment a student left about her on the site. She’s now told the entire section she won’t write recommendations for them because she does not know which student wrote the offensive comment. (Remember, the profs’ names are public; the students can post anonymously.) As she said,
They can write it, but I don’t have to tolerate it.
I have found that most of my friends who have “chili peppers” next to their names find Ratemyprofessors.com funny. But — like the paper evaluation system most colleges use for student evaluations — there are problems with anonymous evaluations of professors / courses. Only students are protected by anonymity. Some colleges take course evaluations a little too seriously, considering they’re written by people who often will rate a course most highly when they get a good grade. (Can you see the flaws in such a system?) How different things might be if evaluations were written after course grades had been distributed, and if students’ names were attached.
I wonder if any other profs have retaliated against the chili-pepper weilding crowd?
4 comments ↓
I think this qualifies, like all the prof rating systems online, as something that needs to be ignored because its worthless and can really drive a prof crazy.
This may just be that I don’t know enough about the rating site, but how does the faculty member know that the comment was written by a student in the particular course she has blacklisted? Couldn’t it have been someone from a previous year? Or even potentially a joke by someone who has never taken the class?
I personally probably would have ignored this kind of thing – students are, by definition, learning, and don’t always do the wisest things: I’ve once been at the back of a crowded elevator while a clump of students from one of my classes was gabbing away about my course, not realising I was there… I think there’s a bit of an obligation not to react to this kind of thing, but to allow the students to be judged on their “public face” presented in class…
That said, if someone wants to bring home a lesson about the fact that these sorts of comments are inappropriate – or that, contrary to some student belief, the internet is really not a private space, there are other ways – maybe using the incident as a “teachable moment”? Maybe offering the opportunity for the student to come forward and apologise? Maybe threatening to withhold recommendations unless the student withdraws that comment from the website (an action they could still undertake anonymously)?
hi bicyclemark and N.–
N– the site actually requires students to say which semester they took a course with the professor and which course it was (though, of course, this does not ensure they’d tell the truth). Like you, I would ignore it.
The update on Mano’s blog says that after she sent the message to her students, the offensive comment was deleted (presumably by its author) and she may well retract her decision not to write recommendations (which I think is a good idea). In effect, it looks as if it will go the way N suggests above.
By the ay, N– I think your suggestion of using as a teachable moment and asking for a retraction is potentially more productive and a good way for people to deal with this in future. As I said, in this case, it sounds like the end result is similar.
I think students often don’t think about the public nature of the internet, and they also don’t always remember that professors are people too.
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