With over 11 million student-generated ratings, ratemyprofessors.com is a popular tool for students to plan their semesters. Professors, on the other hand, aren’t always happy with the anonymous critique.
“I’ve met some professors, some friends of mine, that have been completely criticized and attacked on ratemyprofessors.com. That’s cowardly, unprofessional and just rude,” said communication instructor Cameron Sublett.
Besides the occasional defamatory slurs on the site, it also contains several errors. Some teachers are, for example, listed twice, which affects the total average rating of the college faculty.
“I think you have to be cautious and recognize that there are certain vulnerabilities to a system like this, just the way it is set up,” said communication professor Sarah Hock. “You never take anything that you see on the Internet as being an absolute fact.”
Marilynn Spaventa, dean of educational programs, said she thinks there’s little control of the site since it’s open for everyone to contribute.
“Even teachers can rate themselves high,” she said.
Spaventa has more faith in the faculty evaluations at the college, which are designed by the academic senate. She said teachers at City College are being evaluated consistently: new faculty members more frequently and then every three years.
“That’s something SBCC as an institution should be proud of,” Sublett said. “We should only have the best of the best in the classroom.”
Sublett calls the faculty evaluations at City College a fruitful process based on legitimate data. Ratemyprofessor.com, however, uses highly unreliable data.
Another critique some instructors aim toward the site is the irrelevance of the “hotness” criteria.
“Is that really a legitimate reason why people should be taking classes?” Hock said. “Is it appropriate that we are being invited to kind of offer professional critique based on appearance? Because in the business world you certainly would not be doing that.”
Communication professor Darin Garard said he checks his rating every now and then.
“The students that do contribute are students that either love or hate the classes and their professors, but not those in the middle, which usually is the vast majority,” he said.
“There are students who wrote really mean things about me. We read and we laugh about it.”
Sublett said he doesn’t think the ratings influence professors’ teaching whatsoever, but they might influence their self-esteem.
“Be critical and voice your opinion because you have that right and you should be doing it,” Sublett said. “But be gentle and be respectful, because this is someone’s career, and someone’s profession.”
