Professors, professors, professors

There is nothing more frustrating in a university setting when you need to take a class for its credits, it’s the only one still open, and it’s only available with a professor all of your peers have told you is downright terrible. You have no choice but to endure the slow and painful semester, taking a class you would actually enjoy were it not for the completely inept educator rambling incoherence at the front of the class. I don’t understand why universities continue to allow these incompetent professors to teach when there are much more qualified people who haven’t been given the opportunity to teach simply because there are no job openings. At FIU it is practically impossible to find and upper level English class with a professor who has received good ratings from students in either the trustworthy university reviews, or the student led “ratemyprofessors” website. Professors can hate the website as much as they please, but I can say with confidence that most of the reviews found of the website have been completely true. So, in my search for a wonderful English professor for my upcoming semester, I turned to both databases and inputted in the course search criteria the last names of professors which received outstanding ratings. Imagine my despair when I find that name after name, all of these professors which students have raved about, all teach the same subjects; English 1101 and English 1102. A good 60% of the English department is filled with professors for just those two classes. I understand that freshmen classes are very large, but is it totally necessary to employ so many of these good professors just for those two classes? Not only is it not fair that only freshmen, and maybe the late transfer student, can enjoy English classes the way they’re meant to be taught, but it’s also not fair for the freshmen and transfer students who took AP English courses in high school, loved and understood the subject of Literature and Language so much that they passed the tests with 4’s and 5’s, and therefore received the credits for ENG1101 and ENG1102. So then all of the English majors are stuck taking classes with mostly mediocre professors, while every freshman that opted out of taking challenging English classes in high school get to appreciate literature and understand how to read and write from passionate and worthwhile professors. I really wish FIU would pay more attention to their English program and provide professors that actually know what they’re doing, no student should suffer through an English course when English and literature is their passion.