I was trying to get them to get rid of all of the "she" comments on my profile. I told them I didn't care how they handled it. Get rid of all of my ratings or all of my ratings with female pronouns or all of my ratings before a certain date...I didn't care. Naturally, they strung me along--"We're looking into it"--and I stopped asking.
One thing they did do: get rid of one remark that qualifies as a personal remark rather than a comment on my teaching. It was a highly obnoxious comment that had bothered me for a couple of years. When I was pre-transition, some students left RMP comments calling me "he," apparently recognizing that I had a male name and a masculine presentation. One student, however, took it upon him/herself to declare that this professor DEFINITELY IS A WOMAN, DESPITE WHAT OTHER STUDENTS HAVE WRITTEN.
A teensy bit hostile, are we? Anyway, that comment is now gone.
But the other "she" comments remain, and I suspect that they always will unless I completely change my name again. I don't think older comments "fall off the map" after a certain length of time, so I'm praying that someone hacks the site and RMP has to start over again afresh.
Well, I can hope.
Hi there,
I had them remove old posts about me.. so it is possible. It's hard enough dealing with young people in the classroom let alone them having issues with your past.
Michelle
There is no way past gender comments will ever be removed from my record. One reason I'm not FT at work. I'll always be the guy in the dress to many.
I was speaking to a 'cleaning lady' who does not know about me, and she made a comment about cleaning in the ward of the little bald men in nighties. The SRS unit. What hope have I :'(
Cindy
Quote from: Caseyy on July 03, 2011, 03:39:20 AM
Ouch, and how rude of her to say...
Reality face on. Sadly
Cindy
I find it interesting that, those that have set themselves up as the intellectual superiors of contemporary humanity have so much difficulity with an issue as basic as personal choice.
It's particularly intersting that, many of those that seem to aquire titles that differentiate them from the rest of us, do tend to adopt an outlook innate superoity.
It was about 30 years ago that I decided I didn't want to go to university. I'm still trying to figure out a downside.
intellectual superiors of contemporary humanity have so much difficulity with an issue as basic as personal choice
Rate my professor is students doing the rating, not professors. The professors I know for the most part could care less about other people's personal choices to the point of coldness. Besides, all you have to do anymore to be an intellectual superior of contemporary humanity is turn off the TV once and read one book.
Quote from: tekla on July 03, 2011, 08:55:53 AM
intellectual superiors of contemporary humanity have so much difficulity with an issue as basic as personal choice
Rate my professor is students doing the rating, not professors. The professors I know for the most part could care less about other people's personal choices to the point of coldness. Besides, all you have to do anymore to be an intellectual superior of contemporary humanity is turn off the TV once and read one book.
I apologise if I got the wrong end of the stick.
I assumed, from the wording of the post, that Arch was dealing with something based upon professionals, rather than fickle users, who can often seek to be offensive.
The trouble with that rating stuff is two-fold. One it's easier, and secretly people like it more, and it's not a secret that people are more motivated, to write bad reviews. Second, time, after time, after time, it's been proven that student ratings of professors are directly tied to the grades. So the whole deal tends to slide downward.
Quote from: tekla on July 03, 2011, 09:35:56 AMSecond, time, after time, after time, it's been proven that student ratings of professors are directly tied to the grades. So the whole deal tends to slide downward.
I find this very interesting because both RMP (last time I looked, which was years ago) and my uni (not to mention other unis) claim, time after time, almost the opposite. I have done my own anecdotal investigation into some of my colleagues who are KNOWN grade inflators. They get consistently high reviews and positive comments. It's possible to maintain a reasonable standard and still get high reviews, but (in my experience), those reviews are not as high as the ratings given to the profs who I KNOW award higher grades.
It's also possible that some of the folks who award higher grades are just better teachers with a genuine gift, but this clearly isn't consistently true. I've seen some of the essays that a couple of my much-loved, highly rated colleagues give passing grades to. With one guy, the essays shouldn't even have gotten Cs, but he was giving them Bs. Oookay.
On the positive side, I was telling one of the assistant directors that in official evals every quarter, a few students complain that I grade too hard, and my ratings fall as a result. She said, "Actually, that's good. The director wants that. In fact, if you don't get a few of those from time to time, you go down the rankings every year and are less likely to be rehired." Of course, I still have to reapply every year; a few instructors with a limited version of tenure are known grade inflators, as I mentioned. I don't know what's being done about them, but the director seems to want things to change; he lectured about grade inflation at the last meeting, and the assistant director seems to think that something will happen in the near future. We'll see what happens.
Quote from: michelle_h on July 03, 2011, 03:18:00 AM
Hi there,
I had them remove old posts about me.. so it is possible. It's hard enough dealing with young people in the classroom let alone them having issues with your past.
Michelle
Maybe I haven't hammered on them hard enough, or perhaps I haven't found the right approach. May I ask what your situation was and how you pitched your case to RMP? You can always PM me if you don't want to post about it here.
Quote from: Cindy James on July 03, 2011, 03:27:05 AM
I was speaking to a 'cleaning lady' who does not know about me, and she made a comment about cleaning in the ward of the little bald men in nighties. The SRS unit. What hope have I :'(
This is just...well, ouch.
She should really watch what she says. For all SHE knows, you have had a friend or a relative on that ward, or...horrors...you're one of those folks yourself.
I was transitioning on the job, but hadn't officially announced it at the time of the posts. I emailed RMP, explained the situation and asked to have specific posts removed. The posts weren't based on my teaching ability and they were a bit disrespectful so they had no business being left up. If new students read those posts I was afraid that would change their view of me and become a distraction in the classroom..... and the students certainly don't need anymore distractions.
RMP removed the posts right away. This was about 7 years ago. The students at that time for some reason went on a "rating" spree with many profs in my department. Since that time to this day they haven't bothered with RMP for the department I work in.
Hope RMP helps you out.
Michelle
Well, the comments I want removed are very respectful, and they don't get personal. The ONLY problem is that they use a female pronoun. So I guess that explains why RMP won't remove them.
Sometimes I do wish I had changed my name much later. Then I wouldn't have this history, this connection of my current name with my past. I did get rid of the problematic contest site (I entered a contest years ago and had a personal statement in which I talked about being trans), but there's still a press release about the contest that I have to deal with (male name, male pronouns, but a reference to transgender stuff). I did find a site that links to the old contest page, and I don't know what can be done about that. But I would feel a lot safer if I could get RMP on board.
I kind of wish some of my students would go on a "rating spree" because then the old comments would get more and more buried. But I don't have that many recent comments.
We are supposed to get rated after each lecture series. I rarely bother. It is used by my Uni for promotions, and I don't think I need any more of them.
Cindy