photo illustration by Molly Tumanic

Hoping to give students an option to research a professor before registering for classes, UW-Milwaukee bought an online system to provide information about instructors.

The system is run through the site www.pickaprof.com, which allows students to access a professor’s grading history and read their peers’ comments about lecturers before signing up for a class.

Although there are more than 70 campuses nationally that work with Pick-A-Prof, there might be some resistance if someone wants UW-Eau Claire to participate.

“The site, as it is now, is fundamentally flawed,” said senior Craig Smith, Academic Affairs director for Student Senate. “It opens up the possibility for anonymous insults.”

While a student needs to attend a participating school to access the Pick-A-Prof information, he or she can post comments about a professor anonymously.

Due to this feature, Smith said students could make libelous comments about a professor without anyone knowing of the students’ background.

Susan Harrison, associate professor of mathematics and University Senate chair, said students who have bad things to say about a professor would find a way to say them no matter what. Her concern was whether students actually would use the system.

Eau Claire has spent much time and money in the past setting up similar evaluations online or at the library, Harrison said, and almost nobody bothered to look at it.

“People just didn’t spend the time to justify the expenses,” she said.

Other features on the Pick-A-Prof site include giving a professor’s grading history. A student could see how many A’s or B’s a specific professor has given in a class and how many students have dropped the class.

Milwaukee students don’t have access to the professors’ grading history yet, but they are expected to be up soon. The site obtains grading information through open-records requests.

Smith said he liked the idea of Pick-A-Prof because of the quantitative data provided by the site.

Some at Milwaukee think the posting of grading histories could cause some professors to inflate the grades they give out.

“I could foresee a professor in a class with low enrollment giving a few more A’s so more people register and the class isn’t dropped,” Smith said.

Harrison, however, didn’t see that as a potential problem.

“Professors with integrity wouldn’t do that,” she said.

About 75 schools use Pick-A-Prof. Milwaukee is the only campus in the UW System currently using it.

As to whether the system would work at Eau Claire, Harrison said the database is only as good as the students who use it.

“I doubt you’d get a student turnout to justify the expense,” she said. “In the long run, especially when we’re dealing with budget cuts, there are better places to put the money.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.