At SF State, students evaluate professors based on their organization, knowledge of the subject matter, clarity, and now, thanks to Ratemyprofessors.com, their “hotness” factor.

In a category that was added to the Web site in 2001, students can award a red chili pepper to those professors that they deem attractive. The rating is based on the total number of times a professor is rated either hot or not. The hot chili appears by the professor's name if their “hotness total” is a positive number.

Mark Griffin, an associate professor in the Anthropology Department, is one of 1,223 SF State professors rated on the site. He is also among 266 that have received a rating of “hot.”

Jordan Green, a 19-year-old art major, uses the site to find good or bad teachers, but takes the chili pepper rating with a grain of salt.

“I personally think you should not rate on looks,” said Green. “I always thought the chili pepper meant they were really good. I guess I have to go back and check it out again.”

Tomoyo Ohashi, a 20-year-old speech and communications studies major, also uses the Web site to find that perfect professor.

“(The site is) really useful for when I am choosing classes,” said Ohashi. “And, yes, I do talk about whether or not my professor is hot with my friends.”

Ratemyprofessors.com was created in 1999 after founder John Swapceinski had a “particularly dastardly professor” and wanted to warn other students about this horrible professor. Since its launch, the Web site has grown in visitors every year. In one month alone, 1.8 million people visited the site. The site rates over 600,000 professors from over 5,000 schools.

Griffin openly supports sites like Ratemyprofessors.com, and even posts a links to Ratemyprofessors.com on his school Web site.

“I encourage all of my classes to use (the site) and to also contribute their own reviews,” said Griffin. “In my experience most students take classes because they need the course ... but if they find the professor attractive that’s just a bonus.”

Roe Gallo, a lecturer with the speech and communication studies department, was listed as “hot” on with 11 "hot" votes out of her 17 overall.

“Let’s face it- the first thing a person notices about you is your looks,” said Gallo. “Attractive people seem friendlier, nicer, easier to look at and be with. But this reaction is temporary.”

Gallo went on to explain how this attraction could affect the student teacher relationship.

“When teachers are comfortable with themselves and their sexuality and they are playful and fun loving, they come across as sexy,” she said. “I think students love this because they are again learning how to be more self confident and how to interact with the world comfortably.”

Ziadee Whiptail, a 33-year-old undeclared post bachelor’s student, felt that this site is borderline sexual harassment.

“The stuff about how cute the professor is, well, is really silly,” said Whiptail. “I feel it is really inappropriate to sexualize our professors. They’re here to do a job. There’s a big difference between acknowledging you’re attractive and writing "nice boobs" on an evaluation.”

Griffin himself has gotten over 40 student comments and has a rating of 4.5 but he just laughs about all the comments.

“I don’t mind being rated on my looks,” said Griffin. “I certainly think it’s flattering to be rated as ‘hot’.”