Mark Grebner said it's time professors were graded, too.
And with the release of his booklet "Grading The Profs" on Monday, Grebner said students will be able to see professors' ratings based on 200,000 student surveys taken by MSU during the past three years.
"The answer is yes. I really do know what I'm doing," said Grebner, a member of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners. Grebner created the first pamphlet in 1975.
After a dozen editions, this year's version is the first to employ the Student Instructional Rating System, or SIRS, and Students' Opinion of Courses and Teaching, or SOCT, forms distributed by the university.
In the past, Grebner relied on his own surveys for data. "With my own surveys, I only got 10,000," he said.
But using MSU's information yielded a much higher student response. In fact, it brought in 190,000 more responses.
SIRS forms are not available to the public, but the SOCT forms are available online.
Accessing the surveys was no easy task. Grebner said he had to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the university and wait about a year before he was able to begin the booklet.
When he began the pamphlet 28 years ago, "the university didn't like it," he said. "It was a scandal."
After a year of a team working steadily on the booklet, 100 copies of the first edition in six years made its way to the Student Book Store, 421 E. Grand River Ave., for $5 each.
For Grebner, it's not about making money.
"As soon as I sell 1,300, I'm breaking even," he said. "It's kind of a rat race. If this were a business, it would be a pretty bad one."
After Monday's release, professors sounded off on their rankings.
Kinesiology Professor John Powell, who placed in the bottom 10 percent, said Grebner might not be looking at the results of the surveys properly.
"I don't know where he's getting his information from," he said. "It's just another way of looking at things. I don't know where he broke it and how he looked at the numbers."
Powell said his ratings within the department were on the higher end, and he's not concerned about the booklet being available to students.
Agricultural engineering Professor Brad Marks, who ranked in the top 10 percent of professors, said the information should be available to the students in some form.
"It seems like it's the advantage of the students to have that info," he said, but he isn't sure if Grebner's tactic is the right way. "It's one of the ways."
But micro and molecular genetics Professor Donna Koslowsky, who also ranked in the bottom 10 percent, said the ratings don't matter.
"I've had students come back and thank me," she said. "And that's more important than making them like me at the time."
Students' grades often swing their opinion of professors, Koslowsky said.
"What you need to do is look up the SIRS forms and look at the average (grade-point average) of the class," she said. "Students are not a good judge because they'll grade the professors based on the grade they got in that class."
Mechanical engineering and kinesiology sophomore Jerrod Braman said he's seen an old edition of the book, and he only used it to look up professors he had previously had just to see what it said about them.
"It's a good guideline to start from, but until you go to that class and make your own decision, you won't know," he said, adding he would think about purchasing a copy. "I might split it with a few people so we could take a look at it."
