Action Article: A “military dictatorship” on campus? No way. Yes indeed.

Problem: Students have no say in how professors get hired and when a professor cannot teach, they often are unable to do anything. We pay far too much money for our education to let this happen.   A researcher is simply not a  "professor."  When they try to put on the facade of teaching we argue that it simply ridicules the prestige and honor behind this time honored profession. Potential for a real professor to inspire and motivate is lost- people are becoming stupider as a result.

Issue in detail: It is unfortunate that the university system in the US keeps employing people who don’t really have a desire to teach, let alone a personality. We have all experienced it. The class where the “professor” is a researcher and not a teacher. An individual who cannot articulate the material in a halfway stimulating manner. An individual who looks like he or she does not even want to be there. This raises an interesting question: Who the hell is employing our professors and staff? But more so, how? Why do we as students, have ABSOLUTELY NO SAY say in who the hell teaches us?

We complain about our classes and university (for those that doubt that we do complain, please see ratemyprofessor.com). We pay for much of the maintenance of the university and we help pay for those whom it employs (i.e. the professors). Yet we lack the inherent right to have a say in the midst of all of this mayhem.  Some professors and administrators even have the nerve to tell us that as students we are not entitled to take part in who educates us. They will claim “who the hell are you-a lousy, pot-smoking, beer drinking undergraduate sex fiend kid- to tell me what I- a big time professor with a big scary piece of paper (Ph. D)  - should do? You know nothing. I know all.  Shut up and sit down!”

The system of hiring professors at big time research universities in the US looks at the idea of a democracy (i.e. the balance of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches---roughly translated into our terms as a joint decision between the administration and students) and fucks it up the ass, arguing that the masses (the students) are not entitled to have a say because they are not responsible, not intelligent or quite simply “not enlightened.” There you have it: our system of choosing professors is analogous to the way a dictatorial, totalitarian regime makes a decision: without consulting or seeking the approval of the masses. The ultimate question is this: will this current dictatorship on campus be wiling to incorporate a bit of democracy, a bit of democracy that actually works (o hello IUSA!)?

Ideas for Action:
1. Creation of a student commission to help oust professors obviously recognized as “researchers” and not teachers. This however, must not have sole authority; it must be checked by the administration.
2. Movement to require research universities to hire not based ONLY on research, but teaching quality. This means that the idea of a student commission to evaluate a prospective professor must advocate to the university that the professor in question, can or cannot teach.
3. The recommendations we fill out at the end of the year don’t really make a big difference for us. Rarely are they read, especially when the class is over. We must enact an administrative policy that requires "professors" to hear feedback  weekly, or bi-monthly regarding the quality of teaching, informally or formally, in paper or in person. Why? So that problems can be recognized and that the professor can act to alleviate the problem while there is still hope.

Next step:
1. Coordinate via our blog the location and time of an open meeting for all students interested in putting into action these policies. Or alternatively, in offering other types of solutions. 

We bid you good night, farewell, and happy pissing off tenured professors!

Sir Appletown McDonkeye