The Bowdoin Orient

December 8, 2000
Volume CXXXII, Number 12

Professor Evaluations: What we tell you

   It's that time again-time to fill out professor evaluations that, according to the College, are used in part to determine which professors are tenured.
   This is a time when students feel like they can make a positive contribution to the future of the College. It is a time when many students who have had wonderful experiences with professors can actively express their desire to have their favorite professors tenured.
  That's why many of us came to a liberal arts college: we want to be taught by professors who love teaching, inspire students, and receive "rave reviews" on professor evaluations.
   As much as students may praise professors in the evaluations, some professors still stay for a year or two and then leave. There are some professors who are not tenure- track but are only visiting professors.
   We understand the need to have fluidity in an academic department, and this may necessitate hiring a visiting professor to fill a vacancy when there is not time to engage in a full tenure-track search. Having professors who rotate through Bowdoin gives students the opportunity to take different classes that may be the speciality of a professor and would not be available to them otherwise.
   But at the same time, having too many professors rotate through Bowdoin has its downfalls. Aside from making it very difficult to get recommendations for graduate school from a professor who has left Bowdoin, students do not have the same opportunity to foster relationships with visiting professors as they have with professors who they can interact with for several years.
   Regardless of these purely selfish reasons for wanting to keep some professors around, we believe that Bowdoin also suffers a general loss when some great visiting professors leave simply because they have fulfilled the term that they were originally hired for.
   When such a professor is given wonderful reviews from his or her students and inspires students to major in the field, then that professor should be given serious consideration for a tenure position, even if that was not the original intention.
   While the research abilities of professors are important, students are not fighting to get into the class with the professor who wrote a book last year. They are fighting to get into the class with the professors who engage the class-the professors who inspire them. And we tell you who these professors are.