The chili peppers just got a little spicier on RateMyProfessors.com.
Once a website that collected student reviews of professors, RateMyProfessors now invites students to upload images of their professors, turning college classrooms into the hunting ground of would-be paparazzi.
And 8,000 professor photos have already been uploaded to the site since the feature was added nearly two weeks ago.
But is this new feature an invasion of privacy?
Of course. It was one thing for professors to be subject to sometimes hurtful and demeaning comments posted by irate students, but allowing them to post pictures of their professors without their knowledge crosses the line. Professors are not public officials; they deserve the same control over their likeliness as any one else.
And while there are safeguards in place -- like website administrators who police uploaded material -- there are already far too many photos on the website to monitor. Professors who are uncomfortable having their likeness posted on the Internet have little recourse once the pictures hit cyberspace.
The only weapon professors have to fight back is the option to flag indecent photos, criticize students in a new forum or beat them to the punch by posting their own photos -- all options that seem to distract a professor from his or her real job: teaching.
RateMyProfessors clearly tapped into an unanswered student need when it first hit the Web, allowing BU students to share experiences with professors in a university where word-of-mouth recommendations are hard to come by. But the website should not become a venue for slander, complete with unflattering photos.
And while it is not clear whether students snapping covert shots of their professor on camera phones are an illegal invasion of privacy, it does raise the issue of how far they should be allowed to go to get an incriminating photo.
It was a natural progression for RateMyProfessors, following in the footsteps of Facebook, to include a photo feature, but the website serves a function completely different than networking websites.
Facebook is a networking website that requires registration before users can post pictures and information, while RateMyProfessors asks for no such consent from professors before information is posted about them.
There is some merit to RateMyProfessors. It can be a useful tool to research prospective classes, but the physical appearance of a professor should have absolutely no bearing on a student's decision to take a class, and it only serves to undermine the credibility of the website.
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