When pre-registration results are released this weekend and the unlucky among us scramble to find courses to complete our schedule for next semester, RateMyProfessors.com will likely see an increase in traffic from the Hilltop. A new study suggests that students will be flocking, it turns out, to a relatively accurate product.

In a November issue of the e-journal Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire psychology professor April Bleske-Rechek and her student Amber Fritsch published a study that considers the value and accuracy of the reviews on RateMyProfessors.com.

Testing the assumption that student ratings were unreliable, the study (PDF here) considered a data set of 366 professors at a large, public university who had between 10 and 86 reviews on the website. 37 percent of the professors were from the humanities, 28 from math and science, 18 from social science and 17 from pre-professional majors.

The study found that the number of ratings had little effect on the degree of variance of the professor’s overall rating: “Instructors with 10 ratings showed the same degree of consensus in their quality ratings as did instructors with 50 ratings.” In other words, student reviewers on the website quickly reach a consensus about a particular professor. The study also found that variance is even lower for professors who have very high or very low quality ratings. Everyone agrees about the best and worst professors.

For professors with more than ten ratings on posts, the study’s “findings suggest that with at least 10 ratings instructors may be able to extract crude judgments — exceptional, adequate, or unacceptable (McKeachie, 1997) — of students’ perceptions of their clarity and helpfulness.”

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Georgetown University Professors are paid more than any in the area, according to survey data from the American Association of University Professors as reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education last month.

Georgetown ranks first paying its full professors $158,900, AU ranks second, and GW ranks third.

The Hispanic American Center for Economic Research recently awarded former President of Colombia and controversial Georgetown professor Alvaro Uribe its Simón Bolívar Prize.

The prize was given to Uribe for “his work on promoting liberty, security and democracy in Colombia and the Americas,” according to HACER’s website. Former U.S. Ambassadors Otto Reich and Robert Noriega attended the ceremony.

HACER commended Uribe for leading efforts against the FARC, which controlled nearly two-thirds of the country when he took office, but has now retreated to the less populated parts of the country. The murder rate also dropped significantly during Uribe’s term.

Uribe’s presidential tenure as president did not come without controversy, however. Activists accuse him of violating human rights in order to achieve these results; critics point to incidents such as the “false positives” scandal to illustrate the alleged abuses his administration carried out. Since his appointment as a Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership by the University, protesters have demonstrated outside his on-campus speaking engagements.

HACER, a non-profit organization, promotes the study of “personal and economic liberty, limited government under the rule of law, and individual responsibility” within Hispanic populations.

Photo: HACER

Lisa Heinzerling, the Environmental Protection Agency’s associate policy administrator, will step down at the end of the year and return her teaching position at Georgetown Law.

As one of the EPA’s strongest supporters of greenhouse gas regulation, Heinzerling previously worked as EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson‘s senior attorney for climate policy. She is gained popularity in environmental circles after authoring the winning petitioners in Massachusetts v. EPA, the 2007 Supreme Court case that allowed Congress to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

Heinzerling, who began working as a Georgetown University Law professor in 1993, took a two-year leave of absence to join the EPA in 2009. She previously served as the Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts.

Photo: Georgetown Law

Clinical Professor Todd Edelman will be sworn in as a D.C. Superior Court judge this Friday at the Moultrie Courthouse.

Last March, President Barack Obama nominated Edelman, who is currently assigned to the Civil Division of the Court, and Superior Court Magistrate Judge Judith Smith for the positions.

The nomination came after a long career of serving D.C. both in private practice and on District courts. After his graduation from NYU Law School in 1994, Edelman came to Washington to work as a law clerk, and later spent eight years as a trial attorney with the D.C. Public Defender Service. In 2003, Edelman received the Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowship from Harvard Law in recognition of his public service accomplishments.

Edelman, who has worked at Georgetown Law since 2004, teaches criminal law and procedure, in addition to supervising students and post-grad Fellows on Supreme Court criminal cases.

Photo: Bredhoff & Kaiser

For many Georgetown Law professors, orientation activities are an easy way to introduce law students to D.C. These activities probably seem familiar to anyone who remembers New Student Orientation: trips to the monuments, visiting Capitol Hill, and those painfully-awkward icebreakers.

But, Associate Professor Pete Wales bucked the trend, leading his class on a scenic bicycle tour of the city.

“Bicycling just seemed like a fun alternative,” Wales said in a YouTube video that chronicled the ride. “It’s not obvious when you first come here that bicycling could be a way to get around.”

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Dr. Matthew Levy, an associate professor of general pediatrics at Georgetown’s School of Medicine, was recently chosen to join a federal health policy program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and supported by the Institute of Medicine.

Levy, who also serves as the medical director of community pediatrics at GU Medical Center, will spend a year working with the White House and Congress, advising officials on health care policy.

“I hope to bring to Capitol Hill all the experience I have gained working at Georgetown and provide an understanding of the real challenges our children and families face in reaching care and achieving better health,” Levy said in a press release.

During his time at Georgetown, Levy has established multiple programs aimed towards improving access to health care for high-risk children, including the KIDS mobile medical clinic, a medical student-staffed clinic based out of a homeless shelter, and a community-oriented mental health program.

Photo: Georgetown University

Georgetown’s faculty includes ex-presidents, foreign policy wonks, politicians … and artists. This fall, in fact, three D.C.-area shows feature work from the University’s very own art faculty. Below, we’ve compiled a run-down of the places to see their art.

• The on-campus Spagnuolo Gallery, located in the Walsh Building, is exhibiting 25 works from 14 current Georgetown professors. The exhibition includes video installations, paintings, prints, and multi-media installations produced over the last two decades.  The exhibit, which closes on October 16, is open from 12 to 5 p.m. every Tuesday through Saturday.

• Professor B.G. Muhn isn’t content with just one exhibition. In addition to work featured at the Spagnuolo Gallery, Muhn is also being honored with his own show, “Love Affair of the Empress,” at American University’s Katzen Arts Center. Open through October 17, Muhn’s first installation work displays imagined portraits of ancient Chinese empresses. (Unfortunately, however, Muhn is away on leave for the semester.)

• Art faculty work will also be exhibited throughout the year in the ICC Conference Room. Currently the room features John Morrell’s “From the Ground Up,” a selection of forest-inspired drawings made by the Art History professor. The exhibition, which was previously shown at the Savannah College of Art and Design, encourages the viewer “to experience the scene from his vantage point, sitting on the ground observing the woods around him.”

• At the National Gallery, professor Elizabeth Prelinger co-curated “Edvard Munch: Master Prints,” which features Munch’s iconic “The Scream.” Hurry though, because the show closes on October 31. (A discussion of the “Master Prints” is also available online.)

Photo: American University

Fr. Scott Pilarz (COL ’81), the man famously known for bringing Jack the Bulldog to Georgetown, will become Marquette University’s 23rd president.

After entering the Society of Jesus, Pilarz returned to his alma mater in 1996 to teach as an English professor. Before he left to become the president of the University of Scranton, Pilarz also served as interim University Chaplain.

While at Georgetown, Pilarz got involved in the “Bring Back Jack” movement, which led to the purchase of Jack the Bulldog in 1999. (Later that year, the Class of 1999 awarded Pilarz the Edward B. Bunn, S.J., Award for Faculty Excellence.)

As Jack’s caretaker, he ultimately brought the dog with him to Scranton when he left in 2003. Jack, now 11, is set to move to Marquette with Pilarz next summer.

The University of Scranton thrived under Pilarz’s leadership, launching a $125 million capital campaign that led to the construction of new residence halls, a student center, and a science building. And despite the distance, Pilarz still maintained a close relationship with Georgetown; he received the Alumni Association’s highest honor, the John Carroll Award, in 2009.

Pilarz will replace Fr. Robert A. Wild, who will step down at the end of the 2010-2011 academic year.

Photo: Marquette.edu

Alvaro Uribe, the former President of Colombia who ended his second term on August 7, will teach students in the School of Foreign Service during the 2010-11 academic year.

Uribe, who the University named as a Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership, will hold seminars, conduct “programmatic activities,” and work with faculty members.

“We are looking forward to having President Uribe join our university community,” President John DeGioia said in a press release. “Having such a distinguished world leader at Georgetown will further the important work of students and faculty engaging important global issues.”

After being elected as President in 2002, Uribe gained popularity for his successful campaigns against drug trafficking and armed guerilla groups, such as the FARC and ELN. The conservative leader was re-elected in 2006, earning more than 60 percent of all votes.

Backed by overwhelming public support, Uribe attempted to run for a third term, but the Colombian constitutional court struck down the public referendum in February. (He was re-elected after a similar referendum amended the country’s single-term limit.)

“It is a great honor to participate in this prestigious Georgetown University program, sharing my experience with younger generations,” Uribe said. “My greatest wish and happiness is to contribute in the continuous emergence of future leaders.”

Uribe’s courses are not yet listed on MyAccess.