Everyone is a critic, as well am I. I have been a student at RWC for four quarters and this qualifies me to give an opinion on my experience thus far with the faculty. I have taken a wide array of classes and experienced (or lived through) many different professors. For the most part, I have been influenced in a positive manner by my professors, although I have had some disturbing incidents, which I will get to.
I also would like to mention that through working on the paper I am able to work with teachers in an atmosphere outside of the classroom, and there too, the faculty has been exceptionally helpful.
The question I want to raise is who is watching over and regulating who teaches here? Is there a system implemented to encourage better teaching? I am aware of the questionnaires that are sometimes given at the end of a quarter, but two classes that I felt needed some feedback didn’t even administer those surveys.
The first negative experience I encountered occurred when I went to speak with my advisor for the first time, who shared an office with someone else. This person treated me very poorly for the two minutes that it took to ask a question. The person haughtily responded that I had mispronounced my advisor’s name and said that the hours are on the door. It was 11:05 and my advisor’s office hours said 11-12, so I stupidly assumed that my advisor might be there. My second mistake was asking this faculty member to take two minutes to answer a simple, mindless question for me. That was shocking to me that a professor could be so rude to a student that is making an effort to get an education. Okay, so maybe that professor was having a bad day or life, but nevertheless, students or, for that matter, people in general should not be treated like that.
The second incident was with a teacher who can hands down win the nastiest teacher of the year award. This professor is undoubtedly extremely knowledgable in [his or her] field but is somewhat verbally abusive towards [his or her] students. This is not fostering a better learning environment and discouraging students from approaching the professor.
I want to make it clear that by no means do I see school as a place where everyone must be cheery and helpful all the time. We all have serious life issues to deal with everyday, teachers and students alike.
I think a simple solution would be to make the student evaluations mandatory. The anonymity of the questionnaires relieves some fear of retribution from the professor.
Overall I have learned a great deal at RWC, and unfortunately one lesson learned is that not every teacher believes in shaping students in a positive manner.