How Do You Get a Bad Professor Fired?
We've all had at least one them: the professor who looks at teaching as something that interferes with his research, the professor who's never seen the course material applied in the real world, and the professor who simply can't teach. Some of us have more extreme stories: the professor who would fall asleep during class, or the professor who missed a whopping 30% of lectures, or the professor who would actually yell at students for asking questions.
The point of all this: there are, at RPI, professors who should be investigated and potentially reprimanded, and the students don't know how to go about facilitating this. That has to change.
An avenue does exist for the removal of these professors. Today, I ask: what is the formal process for initiating an investigation into whether the removal of a professor is warranted? Seeing as we're paying $31,000 for a service, isn't it only fair that we be told how to make the most of it? Shouldn't students have a recourse in the face of people who may very well decide their futures with the stroke of a grading pen? Tell us what you know.
The point of all this: there are, at RPI, professors who should be investigated and potentially reprimanded, and the students don't know how to go about facilitating this. That has to change.
An avenue does exist for the removal of these professors. Today, I ask: what is the formal process for initiating an investigation into whether the removal of a professor is warranted? Seeing as we're paying $31,000 for a service, isn't it only fair that we be told how to make the most of it? Shouldn't students have a recourse in the face of people who may very well decide their futures with the stroke of a grading pen? Tell us what you know.
posted by Bernstein at 11:37 PM
2 Comments:
The short answer is that once a professor has tenure, it's virtually impossible for student complaints to get that professor fired. If the professor isn't yet tenured, then it's quite possible for unhappy students to write letters to the tenure committee outlining their complaints and asking that these complaints be included in the tenure file. In my experience, serious complaints from a large number of students can kill a tenure case as surely as poor performance in research.
There is a Promotion and Tenure Committee that reviews professors throughout the year for promotions to various levels. Student input is included in this committee as each year one professor is elected by the students to serve in the role of "Student Representative." This year's selected professor (they must be tenured) was Curt Breneman (Chemistry department).
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