SIVACRACY.NET

Next they'll add a feature so students can upload videos of your best/worst lectures.

Also just noticed they've added RSS feeds, so I can know instantly when I (or you) have a new rating posted....

I love this post. "won't this encourage the shallowest reactions to professors?" Dude, look at your students; are they even capable of a thoughtful response. The whole purpose of ratemyprofessor is to get shallow responses. Stalking? Don't flatter yourself. Photo policies? More repression of speech and action on campuses, just what we need.

I had a professor who really really really wanted to be rated "hot" on ratemyprofessor.com, since there were no professors in our department who were considered "hot." I admit it, I looked into rating him just for fun, but most people know and understand that this is an idiotic system. Have you read your own rating?

Uh. My students are capable of a thoughtful response. You were when you were in college, remember? That's why they are in college and that's what I test them for.

Flatter myself? Dude, my photo is right there on the right side of this blog. I am not concerned with anyone stalking ME. But the fact is that many professors do get stalked. And many do get threats. It's quite common. I know at least a dozen professor who have had to get restaining orders against stalkers. So many professors try their best to restrict their public exposure. Professors are not public figures unless they choose to be.

I don't know what repression of speech and action you are talking about.

Many actions are appropriately forbidden in the classroom: Disrobing, for instance. I kick students out of class for sleeping. Is that a "repression of speech and action?" I guess so. Sleeping is an act. But it ain't speech. I would kick someone out of class for giving someone the finger. Is that a "repression of speech and action?" Yes it is. But is it appropriate? Of course it is. Are you against classroom rules restricting disrobing or sleeping? Obscenity or uncivil behavior?

Classrooms are not public squares. Classrooms are just like any other workplace, except you have significantly more freedom to express one self in a civil manner. Such freedom is essential to the proper function of that workspace. However, when certain acts impede the proper function of that workplace because they are disruptive or disrespectful of other students, we step in and forbid them. No apologies.

Restricting indoor photography in a workspace is not an infringement of anyone's basic liberty. One may still take a photograph of a professor (or anyonw) outside a university building. That's rude and potentially dangerous. But it's allowed and should be.

Duuude... I was joking. Didn't you get it? Sorry, man. In the words of Jack Black, I was being a douche. You are right, this will keep students from posting the thoughful comments that I normally see on ratemyprofessor.com

I saw your picture here, it's very unshallow and likely to provoke thoughtful responses. You should put it up there. Maybe you'll be rated "hot"; not a shallow kind of hot but a thoughtful kind of hot.

Sorry. I should have figured that out. :)

Your dudeness.

Considering the number of ratemyprofessor comments in which the rater has the faculty member's name wrong, perhaps photos provide a little more redundancy, so students are at least slamming the right person. I suspect they would mostly grab them from our own web page pics. As to cell phone cameras, I certainly wouldn't want papparazi in the classroom, since that's outside the scope of my basic rules of engagement. Respecting my privacy and that of other students is a requirement for civil discourse, and -- besides -- I have to get their permission to post their pictures, so it should be a two-way street. As I keep saying, universities should post the real, official ratings, as Harvard now does on a password-protected site, and then sleazy sites like RMP wouldn't get so much traffic.