Website talks for students
by Andrew Graham

Print date: Nov. 11, 2001

Does your professor suck?

If you would like to make sure your next professor is not the pretentious bonehead you encounter in your nightmares, log onto myprofessorsucks.com, where you can view student reviews for professors all over the country.

"MyProfessorsucks.com is an evaluation website for college students to post either positive or negative evaluations of their professors," said Kasey Kerber, president of the site and University of Nebraska graduate student.

Kerber said a less-than-pleasant encounter with one of his own professors led him to create this site.

"I had a really bad class as an undergraduate," he said.

"I can remember coming home, plopping down on the couch and wishing there was some way I could’ve known what I was getting into."

"Word of mouth can only help so much," Kerber continued.

He said several other professors offered the class in question, and he simply had the misfortune of choosing the worst one.

His first intuition was to spread the news of his horrible professor around campus, but then the idea for a website hit him.

The site has been online since the middle of August to correspond with the school year, he said.

"We had our beta launch in June, and things have really grown leaps and bounds since then," Kerber said.

Kerber also said the site has had over 17,000 visitors since its launch and about 2,000 evaluations have been posted.

"I know right offhand that there are about ten schools that have evaluations for 50 or more unique professors."

And he only anticipates more evaluations and visitors.

"It’s really still in the emphasis stage, but it’s growing everyday. We’ve been really pleased with the progress," Kerber said.

Not only can students carry out a nasty vendetta against a professor they believe to be evil and subhuman, the site has some other alluring features.

Visitors of the site are just a few clicks away from online clothing outlets and a hilarious editorial column where visitors can post a question to an individual known only as "Ross."

"We tried to make this site to be one that people would come back to," Kerber said.

"We didn’t want people to just visit once at the beginning of the semester when they were signing up for classes," Kerber said.

"‘Just Ask Ross’ is a section where visitors can post a question and Ross will give a humorous reply. I think it’s hilarious, but I guess it just depends on your sense of humor."

There were little problems with getting the site to function properly.

Kerber said he was enrolled in "that horrific class" in February, and the site was fully functional by August.

One thing Kerber was concerned about, however, was how people would interpret the name of the site.

He said no disrespect or animosity towards professors in general was intended.

The reason for the name was just the shock value.

"We just wanted a name that people could remember," he said.

story originally published by Daily Vidette, 2001. All Rights Reserved.