Never!

I discovered the “Rate Your Students” blog via a ChristianityToday.com article about RateMyProfessors.com. Is that a random trail or what?

First, let me get the preliminary disclaimers out of the way:

1. Re: CT’s article - I think it is somewhat creeptastic that RateMyProfessors.com has a “hotness” rating for professors. I honestly couldn’t care less if my professor is “hot or not”. I once had a professor who rotated the same two sweaters (red and navy) with the same khaki pants for half the semester. We were shocked when he showed up one day in gray. Hot? Not. Did it matter? No. Would astronomy have been any more interesting if he was better looking? Perhaps I wouldn’t have spent as much time doing my government reading during lecture, but I’m pretty sure his looks didn’t change the planets’ alignment.
2. Re: the concept of RMP - I do use RateMyProfessors.com, in addition to what other students on campus are saying about a class, statistics from previous years, and my desire to learn about the subject. I’m not so uneducated that I am willing to take a random class without knowing if the professor has exceptionally unreasonable expectations for the class, if he/she is extraordinarily rude, if the median grade is a C (do you care more about teaching or ruining the GPAs of your students?), etc. I take none of those sources as gospel, but I look at a lot of factors before signing up for a class. It has to be worth it to me.
3. Re: Profs’ beef with RMP - Obviously, there are students who will misuse RateMyProfessors.com or just be really immature in general. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone is as brilliant and scrupulous as I am.

Now, on to Rate Your Students: The Risk of Being Real. I take issue with any professor saying,

Speaking for myself, I can tell you that I don’t care what my students think of me. Not one iota. Why should I?

Let me tell you why. I am paying $17,300 this semester for tuition. I am taking 4 classes, so that is $4325 per class. Given that my classes meet an average of 2.5 times a week for about 15 weeks, I am paying a little over $115 for each lecture and section. When you consider that my smallest class has 20 people and my largest class has 150, the university is making a significant chunk of change. No offense, but that is a lot of freaking money to let you have your on and your off days. I understand professors do not make $115 per lecture, per student. But sorry, that is not my problem. I’m still paying it.

So, when you diminish the importance of your popularity down to a few paragraphs like this:

However, the problem is I have to care about what they write on their evaluations. As I am what has been referred to as a “unmarketable, lowly, worthless slaves (i.e. Adjuncts),” good evaluations actually matter to those people who decide whether to rehire me the next year. I’ve heard rumors that there are places that will rehire a lowly Adjunct despite poor evaluations, but I’m not entirely certain that makes me safe from the ax.
One time that I was invited back to teach a few classes at the same college, the Chair said, “We would love to have you teach for us again; your students love you.” When both of those things were said in the same breath, I was somewhat suspicious that they were related. Then when a different Chair at a different college said the exact same thing to me, I went from suspicious to paranoid.
So until I reach a point where I actually have some fucking job security (which, with the way things are going, may be never), I have to care what the eighteen-year-olds think. Even the ones who don’t think.

In my opinion, you’re missing the point. No intellectual self-respecting student or administrator is asking you to sacrifice your academic integrity to reach out and be friendly to the little kiddies. As a student, I truly want to learn. I don’t want you to coddle me and make sure I like every word that comes out of your mouth. (If I did, I sure as heck wouldn’t be at Cornell.) I do, however, want you to present the material in the best way you can. Be yourself, be friendly, be passionate, be whatever. But do not tell me my opinion of you does not matter. That you shouldn’t have to care about what I think about you. Because you should.

The university may write your check, but I am the one paying you.