October 7 2002

Over The ie Pages

Rate Your Professors...on sexiness
Students, profs, debate merits of Web site

By Cortney Pachet, Central
Bureau

WINNIPEG (CUP) —
Students across North
America can rate the sexiness
of their professors on a popu-
lar Web site, but some stu-
dents and professors are call-
ing it mean-spirited and irrele-
vant.

Over 8,000 students in
Central Canada have used
RateMyProfessors:com _ to
grade’ their _— professors.
Universities of Manitoba and
Winnipeg have less than 4,000
ratings combined, but the
University of Regina is
amongst the five most rated
Canadian universities with
4,853 comments.

The site gives students the

opportunity to rate their profes-
sors based on a list of four cat-
egories: helpfulness, clarity,
easiness and sexiness.

Mare Ducusin, a fourth year
English Honours student at the
University of Winnipeg,
believes the site is mean-spir-
ited.

“Generally, I'm against cen-
sorship,” said Ducusin. “But |
certainly hope professors
won't go to see this site. They
would have to have a really
thick skin”

He also fells the sexiness
category is irrelevant.

“[Sexiness} never enters my
mind at all,” said Ducusin.
“That’s not something | look for
in a professor. | think I’m a bit
more concerned about the

way they speak, their teaching
style and the assignments
they give.”

“| think that sexiness can be
relevant in terms of the stu-
dents engagement with the
course,” said Dr. Mark Morton,
Assistant Professor of English
at the University of Winnipeg,
who has been rated favourably
on the site. “If | were creating
that site | wouldn't call it a sex-
iness rating, but a charisma
rating.”

RateMyProfessors.com
founder and California soft-
ware engineer John
Swapceinski believes the sexi-
ness rating enhances the
entertainment value of his
Web site.

“| thought it would be fun for

In A Van Down By The River

Man lives on Dal campus, solution to student housing crisis?

By Christopher A. Walsh, The
Gazette

HALIFAX (CUP) — A man
named Jim has solved the
same housing crisis faced by
many university students in
Halifax this year. He lives in a
van on the Dalhousie campus.

Now comes the part in his
story where we discuss the
nagging cocaine and alcohol
addiction that cost him his job
and his wife... Only that would-
n't be true. Jim lives in a van
like a*vagrant at Dalhousie in
the warmer months because
he wants to. At 53, the self-
proclaimed miser lives on less
food a day than even the poor-
est student.

“| eat cornmeal and raisins
for lunch everyday,” he said.
“My stomach doesn’t know the
difference once I’m full.”

But all of this is self-inflicted.
Jim used to work for the feder-
al government in the Arctic
Circle where he watched for
Russian missiles aimed at the
United States. There he saved
all of his money and lived well
below his means. He had
$50,000 that he invested and
now lives off the interest-or the
smallest amount he can, now
saving up for nothing.

He drives his van to Florida
in the winter where he sleeps

at rest stops and Wal-Marts.
The road calls Jim and he
answers only to it, begging for
his privacy and scrounging for
respect.

“A lot of people walk by me
and think it’s disgusting. | think
they think, ‘this guy is living in
his vehicle and can’t afford
anything else,” he calmly
states. “For me, it’s not out of
desperation, it’s out of choice
and | like it.”

Today, Jim has splurged for
lunch and the thick stench of
peanut butter hangs heavy on
his breath as he steps out of
the van. He’s not particularly
tall or stocky, just average
build with short gray hair anda
smooth face that smiles lightly,
echoing his quiet demeanor. In
other words, he fits the stale
profile of a serial killer.

But Jim doesn’t like that kind
of action. He’s a little dull,
entertaining himself with
books about investing.

“I's not an entertainment,
its a distraction” he admits.
“And it’s a challenge to try to
keep myself from being too
depressed about the meaning-
lessness of life.”

He finds the meaning of his
life in the freedom of going
wherever he wants to go,
when he wants to. That

absolute independence
affords him a different view of
things—a choice of what to do
next. He has no idea what's
next, but doesn’t seem to
mind.

“| might live like this the rest
of my life” he says. “I might
want to live inside sometime.
But it’s having the choice that’s
important to me.”

It's the choice that drives
Jim. He hangs out at
Dalhousie to use the books
and Internet on campus, dis-
appearing into the shadows of
the maple trees that cover the
campus. Perhaps some of you
have seen him lurking about,
with thoughts of investing and
the general calmness that
comes with having no sched-
ule or specific place to be. He
has become a type of phan-
tom, with rumors and folklore
made up to explain him. He’s
already flown south for the
winter, planning to return to
Dalhousie next spring.

“Why should there be an
end?” he said. “I don’t want to
be aware of my end. To me,
that’s like watching a movie
when you know the ending. |
don’t want to know the ending,
| want it to be a surprise.”

the students,” said
Swapceinski. “In the com-
ments students were writing
‘he’s cute’ or ‘she’s cute.”

Swapceinski says the site
should act as a source for stu-
dents selecting professors or
courses, not as a measure of
their attractiveness.

Morton agrees, pointing to
the practical
uses.

“| think ifs a

think that any-
thing that stu-
dents can do to
empower them-
selves is a good idea.”

Ducusin says that students
could miss the point of the site
and might use it to attack their
professors .

“Ideally the site could pro-
vide students with a chance to
express their feelings about
their professors without feeling
a need to censor themselves,”
he said. “In actuality, you have
students looking at the site as
an excuse to bash a professor
mercilessly or just be witty. |
see problems with people
going overboard and writing
things that aren’t appropriate.”

Swapceinsky says
RateMyProfessors.com goes
through several levels of
screening to ensure nothing
libelous or profane is present-
ed on the site. A filter automat-
ically removes any profanity
and comments are read by
screeners within 24 hours of
being posted. A red flag sys-

tem is also in place for users to.

alert the screeners of any
inappropriate comments.

“If it reflects the teaching
style [of a professor], people
have a right to their opinion. If

“It's not a

great resource.1| CONCern Of mine

if professors like
the site”

they want to say ‘this teacher is
a terrible teacher’, they have a
right to say it,” Swapceinski
said.

“Its a form of freedom of
speech,” stated Morton. “As
long as the comments on the
site are not targeting qualities
of the individual that are irrele-
vant to teaching.”

One thing all
three seem to
agree on is the
merit of being
able to criticize
a professor.

Swapceinski
said the focus
of the Web site is on the stu-
dent not on the teacher. “It’s
not a concern of mine if pro-
fessors like the site,” he said.

“Professors, by virtue of the
job they have, legitimately
open themselves up to that
kind of feedback and criticism,”

said Morton, noting the site

could serve as an alternative
or a compliment to the institu-
tional course evaluations.

Ducusin says the site can
offer one thing course evalua-
tions might not be able to -
comfort.

“You almost feel because
you’re being evaluated by your
professors, that you can’t be
as open as you'd like to be,” he
said.

The Web site has had mixed
reviews from professors.

“Some professors have writ-
ten in and demanded to be
taken off,” admitted
Swapceinski. “Others write in
and jokingly complain that they
have no chili pepper [the sexi-
ness symbol].”

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