The Daily Campus

Issue date: 9/3/08 Section: Commentary

It's only the second week of school but some students are already staring out the classroom window, wondering why on earth they decided to take the three-hour class with the professor whose monotonous voice has lulled half the room to sleep. What if there was another way - a way for students to select classes with more innovative, challenging or entertaining professors?

There is.

In recent years, many universities throughout the nation have begun allowing students to have access to the grades professors receive on their student evaluations. According to many students, this has created a more open and accessible academic environment.

"A lot of students use the system to help select their classes," said Michael McGuffee, Editor-in-Chief of the FSUNews at Florida State University, which in 2003 began allowing students access to professor evaluations. "Because all students fill out these evaluations, they tend to be fairer than some other sites like ratemyprofessor.com."

Indeed, although popular Web sites like ratemyprofessor.com and myprofessorsucks.com showcase ratings for the vast majority of professors, these sites are often found to be skewed.

In contrast, because the official school-sponsered evaluations are given out to all students, they are likely to provide a much more accurate picture of what a professor is like. Futhermore, this data is far more likely to be broken down into potentially helpful categories: for example, how much students in that particular major enjoyed the professor's teaching style or whether a particular class taught by a professor was better suited to upperclassmen.

In addition to helping students select the best possible professors for themselves, posting professor evaluations is also important from a legal standpoint.

According to McGuffee, Florida state law mandates that, because FSU is a public university, information about professors must be available to the general public. The evaluations at FSU are similar to those filled out by students at UConn, with questions asked about a professor's preparation, accessibility and overall performance. These evaluations are then posted on the internet and available to the general public.

"Any time you spend state money or public resources on something, that information ought to be made available to everyone," said Timothy Kenny, an assistant professor of journalism. "This is a public university so there are compelling reasons for the evaluations to be made public."

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