Taxonomy Help

I am building a professor rating system in which I am using the combination of Node Comments and Fivestar module. I want to allow users to add the profs in which they will be required to fill in the prof's name, and the department he belongs to.

The problem or my confusion is related to the department field. I am not really sure how to handle this. Should I create a new vocab and all all the departments by hand (ex: each terms: chemistry, engineering, etc.). Then allow users to choose the department from a drop down list? If I do this? I am guessing I will need Content Taxonomy module to create the field using CCK right???? Am I using the right method to approach my system?

I ran into a module called Term Fields (http://drupal.org/project/term_fields) but I am confused about what this is used for. Is the Term Fields module the right module for me or should I continue using the Content Taxonomy module?

Is there another method in which I can achieve what I am trying to do?