College students are using MySpace.com for more than keeping in touch with familyand friends, networking and love connections.

Collegiate MySpace users can now access the website to view comments and grade professors at their college or university. MySpace offers the professor grading database for all colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada.

Tom, everyone’s first friend on MySpace, sent out an email on Aug. 17 entitled “Backto School?”.

The e-mail informed all users of the professor reviews available on MySpace forviewing and comment posting.

This database is encouraged to be used as an aid when trying to decide which classes or professors to take for an upcomingsemester.

This link can be beneficial for a college student, but what about the professor? Theshock factor is of course, not many professors know this database exists.

Dr. Jane Brown, an English professor at A&T, like other professors interviewed for the story was unaware of the professor grading and reviews, however, she one of the “honor’s professors.” Her students graded her with all A’s.

A student she had in her technical writing class in 2006 said, “This lady is a hoot. You will leave her class with valuable information that you can use in college, in your career,and wherever else. She will make you work and work and work until your assignments are right. If you want an A, you will work for it but it’ll pay off.”

Dr. Brown’s teaching philosophy follows the guidance of advice someone told her when she first started teaching.

“First you make them love you and you love them, and then you teach them.”

Dr. Brown believes, “If you can make the students feel like the class is worth it and you’re interesting enough to listen to, then they’re really going to learn.”

As her students commented, she is very funny. In the interview I was laughing hysterically.

I walked out of her office wishing I had had the opportunity to have her as a professor. While Dr. Brown was pleased to know her students graded her with a perfectA, other professors in Aggieland would be highly upset having received F’s.

Kossi Edoh and Sheila Littlejohn did not recieve F’S but they did get C’s.

Both of these professors teach in the mathematics department.

A student who had Edoh in 2005 for algebra and trigonometry stated, “He’s cool, I just don’t like the way he teaches.”

A Math-112 student he had in April stated “He sucks at teaching.”

After seeing his report card Edoh said, “This is not official, so they can say whatever they want. If it’s official, I’ll probably take it seriously.”

When Edoh says official he’s referring to the university course evaluations studentscomplete at the end of each semester for the professors they’ve taken during that semester.

Littlejohn also mentioned the official university course evaluations. According to her, the comments on her most recent evaluations were “very positive”. “I’m not happy with the results, I’m really not,” says Littlejohn.

She said math is a “troublespot” and a “national problem.”She also questioned thecredibility of the students givingthe grades.

“Typically the students whodo poor tend to give a poor response,those who do well givea more positive response.”

Most students would agree the professors they take for certain classes matters andthey solicit the opinions of their peers who’ve taken the class or professor in the past.

Romano Meadows a senior Journalism and Mass Communication major said, “Normally, I ask around first and if nobody’s taken the class, I just hope for the best.”

Mahdi Lee-Toney, a junior visual arts major said, “Majority of the time I end up takingsomebody I don’t even know. A lot of times when I go to fill out the form all the classes are full.”

On the other hand, there are those students who must work their school and work schedules around each other making it difficult to take the classes and professors they’d prefer. Such is an issue for sophomore psychology major Nicole Moore.

Moore knows about the professor grading database on MySpace, but says she’s neverused it. It may be fair to state both professors and students are equally unaware of the professor grading database on MySpace.

Some professors had no more than seven comment posts from former students.

There’s no indication of how long MySpace has offered the database. At press time, Tom had an away message stating, “I’m not taking mail right now.”

Reading the reviews is open to all, but when writing a review or posting a commentTom reminds college MySpace users to “give honest, real feedback. The better your contribution, the more valuable the database for all MySpace users.”

Professors are graded on lectures, homework, tests, fairness, grading and accessibility.

These grades are combined to give the professor their final grade.

• Larrissa Clavon