“Professors Strike Back” against Anonymous Student Feedback and for Constructive Conversation

(New York, NY) RateMyProfessors.com provides an anonymous venue for students to critique professors. “Professors Strike Back” is a counter-initiative launched by mtvU.com which features video clips of professors reacting to remarks posted by students. With students exercising the freedom to comment on professors- as harsh graders or classroom dynamos, it seemed only a matter of time before professors would jump on the social networking bandwagon to respond.

Four of the current and one of the upcoming “Professors Strike Back” professors are faculty members at Marymount Manhattan College: David Linton, professor of communication arts; Jerry Williams, assistant professor of English; Jason Rosenfeld, associate professor of art history; Peter Cain, assistant professor of psychology; and Sue Behrens, associate professor of communication sciences and disorders.

Their reactions to student postings on RateMyProfessors.com represent a new kind of open dialogue that is taking place between college students and professors. Marymount Manhattan professors have used it as a sounding board to suggest ways students and faculty can effectively communicate.

RateMyProfessors.com is the largest listing of college and university professor ratings on the Internet. It has more than 6.8 million student-generated ratings of more than one million professors. It averages 3.1 million visitors per month.

David Linton is ranked one of the “Most Popular Professors” on the mtvU Web site. Linton says buying an education is not the same as buying a car. A valuable college education for students is not one fueled by following technical steps of passively accumulating credits and claiming a degree. “You can get your money’s worth out of us if you put the effort in to push us. We want you to work hard and if you do, you’ll make us work hard,” advises Linton. “We’re in the position to give you something back based on what you put in and that is why this is different than other consumer experience that you have.” Jason Rosenfeld agrees, by conveying he hopes students get the most out of his class and have a positive college experience in general, otherwise, he would have “…a deep sense of sadness that I’ve failed you as a student.”

RateMyProfessors.com is a stumbling block for positive exchange when students take the freedom of cloaked input to the extreme by submitting offensive comments. “Anonymity is indeed a big open door invitation to vent and post vengeful comments,” notes Sue Behrens. “Some comments on the site are indeed mean-spirited, hurtful or just plain unhelpful. The authority that the site bestows on students should come with a ‘be mature’ sticker.” 

Both Jerry Williams and Peter Cain share some humorous responses to more lighthearted student comments. Williams indulges comments about the “awesomeness” of his classes, while Cain reenacts some of his amusing imitations and recollects his classroom antics of climbing up on a desk. But what comes from seemingly facetious comments is that these two professors, alongside their peer faculty members at Marymount Manhattan, truly care about the student experience.

David Linton was quoted in a New York Times article, “The Professor as Open Book,” which discusses professors seeking to be accessible to students while enjoying a taste of celebrity from being featured on “Professors Strike Back.” Click here to read the article.

To visit mtvU’s Professors Strike Back site, please click here.

Published: March 24, 2008