Dave Leach takes a break from baseball this year
Vagina Monologues rouses crowd pg. 7
T he G atepost pg. 10
T he Inde pendent Weekly Student Ne wspa per of Framingham State College Since 1932
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Excessive rain and flooding causes damage on campus Drake McCabe/The Gatepost
Ducks swim on the practice field.
Students turn to online feedback in making course selections
By Ngozi Nwabeke Editorial Staff Course selection can be a stressful time for both students and advisors. But these days, some students are putting more stock in an online rating system than meeting with their advisors. Rate My Professors, the online rating Web site where students can leave feedback and rate professors and courses, is considered essential by many college students when they make decisions about which courses to take. Students are able to rate professors on a scale of one to five in three areas: easiness, helpfulness and clarity. Stephanie Grace, a sophomore English major, said Rate My Professors is a central part of registration for her. “I have the tabs online open to the courses available, the undergraduate catalog and then Rate My Professors. So I look at it a lot and I kind of base my decision on what class I’m going to take using it.” Sophomore nutrition major Meredith
Sheehan also uses the Rate My Professors Web site when putting together her schedule for the next semester. “I try and plan out what classes I want to take in my mind, and then when I [see] they’re going to offer these classes, I pick the four I want, try and make them fit into a nice schedule that I like, and then I’ll go on Rate My Professors to check and see if I have decent teachers,” said Sheehan. Users are required to register with the site in order to post ratings, but site content can be viewed by anyone. Additional site content includes what courses professors teach, books the instructors use and how much they are selling for online. Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs Dr. Christopher Gregory, who advises many of FSC’s undeclared students, advised students to be careful when using Rate My Professors because sometimes they can glance over a rating and make assumptions about an instructor without reading the details.
“If you read some of the reviews commenting that a professor is difficult, you may want to read some of the further comments that say, ‘You know, if you just do what you’re supposed to do and ask questions, have an interest in the class, you’ll be fine - and you might even learn something,’” said Gregory. “So some professors may have a certain reputation but we have to look deeper ... and say, ‘Why is there that reputation and what is it about?’” Grace said, “I do realize that sometimes the only people that go on there are bitter and angry at their teacher, so they go on there and they say that they’re really bad. So I can’t look at it and take it at face value all the time.” Senior communication arts major Casey Lonschein said that she does use the Rate My Professors Web site, “but I don’t let it be the sole source” of information. “I think it is a good resource to take into consideration. However, many
-Continued on page 6
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Maple lots, athletic fields under water
By Lauren Byrnes Associate Editor Beavers are now swimming through what used to be the athletic fields and Maple parking lots, where FSC soccer players and student cars have been replaced by ducks and small aquatic animals. Due to the excessive rain fall and the flooding of the Sudbury River this past week, Framingham State’s athletic fields and Maple parking lots were flooded, and there were 61 reports of water leaks in buildings on campus, according to Director of Facilities and Capital Planning Warren Fairbanks. Athletic Director Tom Kelley was disappointed that the flooding of the fields prevented the FSC sports teams from practicing and playing. “It’s done a number on our spring schedule so far. We use our one turf field for just about every sport right now. “Baseball, softball and women’s lacrosse they use it at this time of the year because the natural surfaces aren’t ready. So, that’s kind of wiped out their practice schedule.” Football, Men’s Soccer, Women’s Soccer and field hockey were also affected because they hold off-season practices for the first few weeks of spring. Senior art major Josh Lewis said the flooding was “kind of ridiculous. There was supposed to be a game there [on the turf] for Men’s Rugby and we had to move it to the other team’s field.” Senior psychology major and softball player -Continued on page 3
Fall 2010 Advising Schedule March 29 - April 2nd Honors Program students and seniors April 5 - April 9 Junior advising April 12 - April 16 Sophomore advising April 20 - April 23 Freshman advising