SG to tout Web site for teacher reviews

By Corey Garriott The Gamecock

Student Government President Katie Dreiling will make good on a campaign promise today by endorsing Teacher Reviews.com as USC's official class rating site, she said. She will promote the site with T-shirts and stickers in front of the Russell House.

"It was her No. 1 priority for the semester," said Kristin Andreano, SG's academic committee chairwoman.

Andreano said Dreiling campaigned to use SG money to create a USC teacher ratings Web site. The site would have allowed USC students to post comments about professors' performance for other students to see.

"Freshmen aren't very aware of who the teachers are. It would enable students to see the teaching style of the teacher," Andreano said. "It's a tool to help out the students."

But SG couldn't come up with the funding and chose instead to endorse TeacherReviews.com. Because USC already sends a lot of traffic to the site - USC students have posted the third-highest number of reviews - she said TeacherReviews.com was a logical choice.

"SG has a limited budget," Andreano said. "It was more cost-effective to endorse the site."

SG could not use the $200,000 it found in its bank account earlier this year.

The money came from student groups that did not use the money SG gave them; forgotten, it built up for two years. Because the money could only be used for one-time spending projects, said Vice President Zachery Scott, SG used it all in a single omnibus bill.

Second-year media arts student Chris Scott doesn't use the site. "I use RateMyProfessors. com," he said. "I've never heard of TeacherReviews.com, but from what I hear, ratemyprofessors is the best available resource," he said.

And second-year business student Reggie Price said the site sometimes ranks professors by how easy they are.

"That's the thing about TeacherReviews," he said. "They match the easiest teacher with the biggest grade."

Second-year education student Heather Casey said she had similar concerns. "The reviews were mixed," she said. "It would either be an 'A' or an 'F'."

But Andreano said she found the site's reviews positive for the classes she takes. "Nothing but positive reviews for the teachers," she said.

And Casey did find the site useful when shopping for the right history class.

"It's good to see if the teachers are good," she said.

Price also said he had a good experience using the Web site last semester to find the best psychology professor - "Well, not the best," he said. "The easiest."