From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:14:48 +0000

>Anyone who has taken a look at Rate My Professors knows that opinions
>vary all over the map. One will often read assessments of the same
>professors that are miles apart. So, which students are we to
>trust--or administrators or other students should trust? Does majority
>rule here apply?

One could register the same concern and ask the same question about book
reviews. And the answer is not that "majority rule" applies, but that
seeing the range of responses to an offering (whether it be a book, a
movie, a professor's class, or the services offered to authors by a
journal) can be tremendously helpful and informative to someone who is
trying to decide whether or not to take up the offer. Will all the reviews
be equally intelligent and reasonable? Of course not. Will they be
subjective? Of course. But if you're going to make a value proposition in
a competitive marketplace (which is what every author, publisher,
filmmaker, and professor is doing) the subjectivity of your potential
buyers is a given. People who wish to succeed in a competitive marketplace
will pull up their big-boy pants and deal with it.

---
Rick Anderson
Interim Dean, J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah
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