Welcome to Issue #17 of The Naked Roommate Newsletter: Naked Professors (well, sort of). Let me start off by being clear, this issue does not include pictures of naked professors teaching class. I don’t have those types of photos and if I did I couldn’t share them because that’s not what this newsletter is about. But I bet if someone had a website called NakedProfessorPics.com, it would be an extremely popular. Instead, this is an issue that’s revealing professors in other ways. The truth is that most professors teach because they are passionate about helping students. And it’s the student who allows a teacher to touch his or her life who leaves college with the greatest education.

Before moving onto the nakedness, I’d like to make a personal appeal to you to participate in next week’s newsletter. See, next week marks the beginning of the 5th Annual Rejection Awareness Week. To help celebrate R.A.W. I’m looking for you to share the stories of how you took THE RISK and found love. You can email me your love story via the or via R.A.W. submission form or via Facebook (please join The Naked Roommate Group). As always, your support (especially for R.A.W.) is so appreciated! Happy almost R.A.W..

NEXT ISSUE: THE RISK YOU TOOK TO FIND LOVE
What risk did you take to meet your significant other? What did you say? What did you do? What went wrong? What went right? Share ALL the details! Sending your stories means that you grant Harlan permission to use your stories in The Naked Roommate Newsletter, online, in books, and anywhere else Harlan's writing appears.

THE STORY:
I'm the best at kissing butt to TA's to get an improved grade. Usually I go for the sympathy vote, but in this case it was the "flirtation method." During my sophomore year of college, I took a history class that had a teacher assistant lead the weekly discussion group. The TA was also responsible for grading our tests and reporting our grades to the professor, who only led the weekly lecture. My TA would have me stay after every week to talk about where I lived, my favorite food, my major, and every other topic you can think of. At the end of the semester, I was supposed to get a C+ in the class. When report cards came out, I had an A! The day after grades were released, I got an email from the TA asking me out on a date! Little did she know I had a girlfriend and I just kept leading her on in hopes that she would boost my grade! :)

Luckily for me, I visited the TA and told her I was leaving for the summer to go work at Mackinac Island (which was true, except I wasn't leaving for another two weeks). She graduated that semester, so I never heard from her again.

Naked Professors (well, sort of)

According to the Higher Education Research Institute out of UCLA, over 27 percent of students are too intimidated to talk to their professors. This stat has always bothered me. I mean, a professor should never be so intimidating that a student is too afraid to approach him or her. That said, I can see how a professor could be considered intimidating (especially a professor not wearing her top). Professors know more, they have more power, and they give out the grades. So much of what makes professors so intimidating is that what we don’t know about them.

If only there were a place where millions of students could talk about thousands of professors; a place where students could share nuances of a professor’s teaching and testing style and find out how to crack their shell and get to the core of knowledge that so many are too intimidated to seek. Like a driver on the interstate who flashes his lights to warn oncoming traffic of a cop lurking ahead, students finally do have a way to let the rest of the students headed down the road know what’s ahead. The place is RateMyProfessors.com and I think it’s one of the most amazing developments in the history of the student- teacher relationship.

If you’re not familiar with the site, here’s how it works. You create a free user account and create your alias. Then pick your school, select your professors, and share some vital information. Once you’re set up, it’s time to tell the world what you think of your professor without your professor ever knowing it’s you. Profs get a score of 1 to 5 in the following categories: E = Easiness | H = Helpfulness | C = Clarity | RI = Rater Interest. Not only are you communicating with other students, in a way you are communicating with professors. In addition to rating each professor you can also share comments. It’s the comments that offer the greatest opportunity to give some valuable feedback to your professor.

Absolutely LOVE your professor, and want the world to know that your professor rocks? Just post your comments, “Professor Jagger is a rock star. Bring underwear to class to throw.“ Have a problem with a professor, but don’t want to make the relationship uncomfortable by saying it to him or her? Post your comments, “Wish Professor Chat A'lot listened as well as she lectured.” Have a professor with horrendous bad breath, but can’t find the courage (or oxygen) to offer a breath mint? Post your comments, “Loved class, hated Professor Stinky's breath. Would have asked more questions during office hours, but couldn’t smell the answers.” Think your professor is hot? There’s even a hot teacher ranking on the site.

What surprised me most about RateYourProfessors.com was that the comments were mostly respectful. I would have expected a lot more bashing. Of course, it’s hard to know who’s writing the comments and what the motives of the author might be. A few professors have suggested students who post reviews be required to share the grade they received in the class– this might provide greater context to the students offering harsher comments. My greatest criticism is that for some professors, there are only a few students’ comments. It unfair for a few comments to represent the whole body of work (and this is why it’s crucial to corroborate what you read with students who have been in the class). What I do like about RateMyProfessors.com is that it provides information that can help remove the mystery. The more a student knows about his or her professor, the less mysterious that professor will become. The less mysterious a professor appears, the greater the likelihood that a student will approach that professor. No student should be too afraid to approach his or her professors. Hopefully RateMyProfessors.com allows students feel more comfortable and encourages professors to be more accountable.

Dear Harlan,

I've recently become very attracted to my married professor. The problem is that he's falling for me too (though he is trying very hard not to). We have had some deep conversations outside of class and send really thoughtful e-mails to each other. I have no idea what I'm doing - I have a wonderful boyfriend whom I'm about ready to be in engaged to, and within weeks, I find myself falling for this other man. I'm so confused; I can't get the professor out of my head, and I find myself anxiously waiting to hear from him or to see him ... yet at the same time I can't even look at my boyfriend the same way, cause I feel like I'm cheating on him, even though I'm not. Will this attraction ever go away?