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[helpful]

This is a good illustration of why you need a faculty union and a well negotiated contract that eliminates such ridiculous criteria for salary raises.

[crazybatlady]

Well, all of my courses are videotaped (by my boss), so at least I have boxes of evidence to dispute any negative evals. Hey, no pressure...

All of your courses?  Every day?  Are you teaching distance courses on tv?  How does this work?

No pressure indeed!

[caphd]

Hi Batlady,

Oh, how I wish I were a prime time professor (envisioning Emmys on my mantel)!! No, I am in the classroom with a lot of students and a camera pointed at me daily ... why??? I have absolutely no idea ... Oh well, it's good practice, eh?

At least the camera also occasionally catches a surly student.

It's not us, it's them!!!!!

:-)

[crazybatlady]

And your boss actually reviews the tapes of your classes?

This seems like such a waste of time!  And like too much pressure to teach "on" every minute of every day! 

I've never heard of such a thing.

[ludicrous]

I honestly thought that teaching evals didn't really matter at research universities.  Or at least they mattered marginally.  Aren't publications and generating grants more important at R1s?

I ask because there is this professor at my institution who was simply an awful, awful instructor.  I don't want to go into the gory details here, but the person definitely was not professor material--at least not in the teaching sense.  However, apparently this professor produces.  The person has publications, and apparently is quite adept at generating grants.  I'm guessing that this professor's ability to produce papers and $ will count much, much more (both tenure-wise and with raise implications) than what I suspect are less-than-acceptable teaching evals. 

[philoctetes]

This is a good illustration of why you need a faculty union and a well negotiated contract that eliminates such ridiculous criteria for salary raises.

helpful is right, I went to a school, as an undergrad, with student evaluations but they meant nothing. If they had the union would have shut the place down. A good school that taught values.

Let's be honest, if you are  enough of a jerk to be hated by the students, you won't make a lot of friends in faculty. Tenure is more about collegiality than most expect.

[caphd]

Yes, Bat lady, I had to buy about a dozen new ties for fear my wardrobe would be scrutinized ... glad I can still wear my grungy old socks. No one will ever know. And this after teaching for 23 years.

I wonder ... are those ties tax deductible???

[crazybatlady]

Yikes, caphd!

I don't know about tax deductible, but I do know about sympathy, and you have mine.

Is anyone else required to videotape all of their classes?