Jessica Kelly | Staff Writer
kellyj4@imail.losrios.edu
Some City College students and faculty are up in arms over a controversial Web site that posts professor’s grades and they fear it could lead to class cancellations and termination of adjunct professors.
The Web site responsible for the dispute that prompted a flurry of emails and a forum in the Learning Resource Center on March 5 is pickaprof.com. According to the site’s homepage‚ “Pick-a-Prof is a socio-academic utility that helps college students make educated decisions about professors and classes.”
The most offensive aspect of the Web site, according to those at the forum, is how college professors’
grades are made public. In fact, Pick-a-Prof requested access to City College grades in fall 2008, citing the California Open Records Act as justification.
According to Dr. Elaine Ader, the dean of Information Technology at City College, the school had no choice but to comply because of state law.
Robert Perrone, the executive director of the Los Rios College Federation of Teachers, the union for City College faculty, claims this Web site risks the rights of teachers in many ways.
“The Web site essentially appeals to the basic interest of students, which is ‘what is the easiest class, what professor is the easiest?’” Perrone said. “While that may not be what in fact happens, the Web site itself appeals to that.”
According to Perrone, if all students chose easy classes, some professors may feel pressured to grade conveniently in hopes of boosting enrollment. This would also ensure that courses taught by teachers deemed “tough” would see a drop in enrollment and could lead to class cancellations.
“If classes start getting canceled, students will have less class options and waitlists will increase,” said City College graduate Lindsay Davis.
There’s also fear that adjunct professors will be terminated because of lack of enrollment.
“The only way that adjuncts could be impacted is if you had an adjunct professor who is a very tough grader, students might choose to avoid taking that professor,” said adjunct biology professor Brian Gillespie.
Nonetheless, many students are excited about Pick-a-Prof. A person can register for free on the Pick-a-Prof Web site, and then look up professors’ names and the courses they teach. The Web site provides statistical charts of the grades given by professors in each course.
Out of a random sample of 70 City College students, 48 said they would use pickaprof.com to help them choose classes, and 20 said they would not. Two students were undecided.
“If students are using it to get a balanced view of an instructor then it can be useful,” said ELS professor JoAnna Prado. “It’s nice to know that you’re going to have a good teacher.”
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That is what free societies do and choice brings. Grades are usually a good pick on how a professor teaches, but also how a student responds in learning. It is a 2 way street, and with technology and power, you have the choice to take professors.
There are many great professors at SCC, but also some that are horrible, and take the job as a pay check, and since after 4 years, they become tenured, then can coast and not care. But there are professors that even after 20 years pour their heart and soul into their teaching just like their first day of teaching.
So the moral of the story is that even after tenture, professors are held accountable by the free market. If you teach well, and students get good grades, then your classes are full, if not, then students won’t take the class and it gets cancels, and they may coud out non-tenture or part time professors, but after a while, the administration would have to step in, b/c the more classes that are cancelled, them or money the school looses, and that my friends is where the business of education comes in and take effect.
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