The administration does not love the idea of disseminating information about teacher rankings. While the class evaluations are publicly available in the library, you can only read them at the service desk, and photocopies are not allowed. On the front of the booklet is a disclaimer that says “we would appreciate it if students don’t copy this information.”
Students talk. We are generally vocal about which professors we like and whom we do not, so do we really need to publish this list? Are we just shaming those professors who get bad grades? The professors know what they get on their student evaluations – they don’t need a public reminder that they scored poorly on it. In other industries, performance reviews aren’t published in the office for all to see. Furthermore, the vast majority of professors get somewhere between a 1 and 2 (1 is highest, 5 is lowest), which suggests that students mostly really like the professors at U of T Law. This list then just singles out those few professors who students don’t gel with.
On the other hand, this is something that students really care about. We pay enough money to come here and receive what’s purported to be the best legal education in the country. All of our professors should be good. In 1L, students have absolutely no choice in which professors they get or which classes they take. It seems unfair that some people will love their small group and others won’t get anything out of theirs. Having a bad teacher can be the difference between loving and hating a subject.
There is also a clear demand for this kind of information, and publishing the administration-run course evaluations is a more accurate indicator of how good professors are than online forums and word-of-mouth. The school’s course evaluations are filled out by the (often vast) majority of the class, and because they are “official,” students take them seriously and are honest about what they think. This makes professor evaluations much more useful than websites like ratemyprofessors.com, where those who bother to post are often only those who really hated or loved a professor.
Thus, while professors might be sensitive about their evaluations, teaching is a very important part of their jobs – and the part of their jobs that matter to most students. UT Law students pay $30,000 /year for the privilege of learning here, and it is UV’s mandate to provide them with the (public) information they need to get the most out of their experience.
