Least favorite Professor

travman23 · 08-31-2008, 08:30 PM

Originally Posted by hawkeye_t

Mr. & Mrs. T. They were a little evil and the easily the first thought that popped into my head when I read the thread title. Any idea where they are now?

Same here, hated those 2 and I had to have Mr. T 2 times, her once. They both couldn't teach worth a lick, once in Mr. T's class the average score on 1 of the exams were just over 50% so basically over half the class failed. He ripped into us and someone called him out for not preparing us properly in lecture when some of the material on the exam we hadn't even gone over yet or barely did enough to understand it. Needless to say that got him riled up pretty good but it was the honest truth!

Cyclone62 · 08-31-2008, 08:58 PM

If anyone had Carl Herndl, he was awful. Guess what Herndl, no one gives a crap that you got your doctorate before most of us will get our BA. We don't need to hear you tell us we're dumb every class.

jtwilson · 09-02-2008, 03:57 PM

Art Gautesen for Math 166 (Calc II)

After a full 2/3 of his class FAIL (yes FAIL) the first exam, he said "you guys are a bunch of idiots, your algebra skills are worse than pathetic, I'm not curving the class"

I went and complained about him to the math department, where I proceeded to learn 2 things.

1) The math department sucks and does not care that their students don't understand math
2) It's nearly impossible to fire a professor with tenure...

And he rarely ever taught, just complained about how much he hated working and wished he could be in FL with his girlfriend.

Clonefan94 · 09-02-2008, 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by flynnhicks03

Quirmbach was terrible. He took attendance in a 150 person lecture hall. Ridiculous.

I had an Art History prof. do the same thing. Only he didn't tell anyone that he was making a seating chart of where you sat on the first couple days of class. Well, I didn't find out until a week in that I had friends in the class. I moved down by them. He never moved me. He threatened to fail me for lack of attendance. I remember saying, First of all, don't you have to tell people that attendance is mandatory, second, Do you find it at all ironic that I was here for every one of your pop quizes? Thirdly, did you ever notice that I switched seats about a week in? All in all it worked out, but, the guy was claiming I missed most of the year. The only days he had me checked for attending were quiz and test days. If he'd have only put 2 and 2 together and noticed that after the first week my tests were from the front of the Auditorium as opposed to the back, we'd have been OK. Oh well.

I won't post names, even though this was 16 years ago, I know he's still there and I'll give anyone the benefit of the doubt in changing over time.

CrossCyed · 09-02-2008, 04:33 PM

Rouse in the journalism department.

The Greenlee school is a joke with some of their staff. A few good ones, and then one like Rouse.....she's a complete joke.

clintr · 09-02-2008, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by jtwilson

1) The math department sucks and does not care that their students don't understand math

So true! I should have never passed 2 of my 4 math classes, but since 2/3 failed both times, they had to push somebody through.

There use to be a Asian Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering between 2000-2003. Her name escapes me now, but she received her PhD from China and came here to teach. She is no longer at Iowa State.

I'm not sure if it was the language barrier or not, but anytime we asked questions in class she got the "deer in headlights" look and failed to respond approximately 95% of the time. She pretty much read the book and any deviation from that left her in rough shape.

Mid-semester between 2002-2003, the entire mechanical engineering department email list receives an email from a very disgruntled husband calling a lair and a cheat. Essentially, he said her degrees and credentials were a fake. Honestly though, most of us ignore it. It didn't take a questionable email for us arrive at the conclusion that she was not qualified to teach anything in the mechanical engineering department. I ceased going to her class and just showed up for the manufacturing tests.

Rep points to anyone that can actually come up with her name!

mjones34 · 09-02-2008, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by aeroclone

I'm pretty sure some of the other engineers on the board have had the pleasure of EM 324 with Leroy Sturges. By far the worst professor I ever had. He gave the most boring lectures I ever had to sit through (quite an accomplishment for an engineering prof), and he graded like something had crawled up somewhere and died.

To top it all off, he had a fairly significant thread going on this site a while back bashing on him. For a professor to set off that much discussion on a sports message board, well, that probably puts him strongly in contention for public enemey numero uno on campus.

No way! LeRoy was the man. People just mis understood how to approach him.

mjones34 · 09-02-2008, 05:33 PM

Anyone who has had Robert Gregorac will agree that he is the worst professor ever. He would mumble, facing the board for 50 minutes and when you asked him a question, he would say "go home and learn it"

mjones34 · 09-02-2008, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by IcSyU

I think there is a Jan Duffy in the College of Business if that's who you're talking about?

I doubt it's Jan Duffy....I know her and she is very nice and laid back.

IcSyU · 09-02-2008, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by mjones34

I doubt it's Jan Duffy....I know her and she is very nice and laid back.

I'm aware...just throwing out a name

dornstar44 · 09-02-2008, 05:47 PM

Originally Posted by mjones34

No way! LeRoy was the man. People just mis understood how to approach him.

+1

LeRoy was fantastic 1-on-1 if you attempted the homework and made an effort to learn the material before you went to ask him questions. He wasn't about to teach you from scratch, but he was great about helping you get over hurdles.

That being said, he did come off as a jerk in lecture, and he was quite boring (I'm not sure I ever stayed awake through one of his lectures). But you learned the material as a result of his class.

htownclone · 09-02-2008, 05:48 PM

Wow...I've never seen this thread somehow.

Warren Blumenfeld...hands down.

mjones34 · 09-02-2008, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by Bader

I would say Dr. Angelici, but I think I hated his class more than him (Chem 167), yes that's right, Chemistry for Engineers who don't need Chemistry.

But easily David (F)Atwood, had him for Phys 221, horrible horrible lecturer and the written problems he assigned were absurd. Plus those freakin pre-flights (quizzes you had to take before the lecture testing you over the material he was going to talk about in lecture)

ATWOOD RANT:

I once took a quiz and missed a point because I did NOT label a number midway through my calculations. I DID label the final answer and the number was right. I argued him for 20 minutes in the middle of recitation, and his only defense was "If you don't label along the way, you'll mess up the answer"....I said "I GOT THE FREAKING ANSWER RIGHT!" He wouldn't budge though.

/End Rant

IcSyU · 09-02-2008, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by htownclone

Wow...I've never seen this thread somehow.

Warren Blumenfeld...hands down.

It's been brought back from the wayyyyy dead..I think I started it last spring.

I stand corrected by myself....6/13

travman23 · 09-02-2008, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by jtwilson

Art Gautesen for Math 166 (Calc II)

After a full 2/3 of his class FAIL (yes FAIL) the first exam, he said "you guys are a bunch of idiots, your algebra skills are worse than pathetic, I'm not curving the class"

I went and complained about him to the math department, where I proceeded to learn 2 things.

1) The math department sucks and does not care that their students don't understand math
2) It's nearly impossible to fire a professor with tenure...

And he rarely ever taught, just complained about how much he hated working and wished he could be in FL with his girlfriend.

If you see this guy your first day of math class promptly leave and see if you can get into another section he is not teaching:

Ananda Weerasinghe

I have yet to hear 1 good story about someone that had him for a class. I and several others were completely lost in his class because you couldn't understand him plus his teaching methods are all over the board. It's sad when even his TA's would tell you in recitation to ignore what he said and do it another way which they'd then teach you. Sadly I failed his class and re-took it the next semester (I don't see him on the staff list now but his last name was Hummer which got some chuckles) but the way that guy taught the same material I was lost on the first try was soooo much easier to comprehend and I got a solid B/B+ I believe to replace the F with.

Nearly had the exact same thing happen with another prof when I took calc but dropped the class after bombing the second exam and took it at DMACC over the summer where a HS math teacher was way better at teaching the exact same material that I was confused and lost on when I dropped the class. Funny how especially in math that different teaching styles can make such a big difference. Had the same thing happen to me in HS to a lesser extent. HS math teacher retired after my sophomore year and up to that point I had been doing fine. New guy comes in who ironically claimed to have tutored the ISU men's basketball team around the same time Kenny Pratt was academically ineligible and concidentally math grades in our class also dropped with the teacher change and parent complaints went up.