STS 2730

Professor Whitfield is a really interesting guy to get to know. Lectures are either a speaker coming in to present on how they use negotiation in their line of work, or Professor Whitfield going over a particular chapter in the textbook. Reading quizzes every week that can be a bit tricky. You'll have to read 20-ish pages every week from the book to do well on the quizzes. 3 midterms which weren't too tough and one term paper. If you're looking for a relatively low-stress STS class and are interested in strategies and techniques for negotiation, I would recommend this course.

This class is way different than any other STS. It involves only 1 class period a week that is slotted for 3 hours but typically only lasts 90 minutes. There is a required reading every week from a textbook (which gets covered from start to finish) and there is a quiz every week on them. Quizzes are very hard to do well on as they are incredibly picky and specific from the textbook. They are only worth 15% of the grade so I would not panic about them in the end. There are two exams, if you actually read the textbook they are not difficult at all, they are worth 15% each. There is one presentation worth 10% that is also easy if the readings get done. 15% is participation/attendance, which is straightforward and the largest chunk of your grade is a 30% essay due near the end of the semester. Do. Not. Put. This. Off. I wrote 13 pages to mine and researched a specific kind of negotiation. This class isn't hard, just requires decent amounts of reading.

This course seemed very interesting on the first day of class and I was excited about the discussion oriented aspect of the class. However, the class turned out to be a lot of textbook reading from 2 different textbooks and although this is very doable given that the class only meets once per week, the material in the textbooks are extremely dry and I began to lose interest in the subject and the class. On top of that, the tests were unnecessarily difficult and did not aim to test the student's knowledge and application of negotiations, a skill that is meant to be exercised not memorized. The tests would ask us to regurgitate very specific points from within 200 pages or so of content. For instance, it would ask about a concept and require that we list out and explain the exact bullet points that the author uses to explain the concept which is very difficult in a closed book exam. The course failed to demonstrate the topic of negotiations as it completely missed the mark. The class has one big project at the end of the year in the form of a 12-15 page paper where you write about a fantasy negotiation you draft yourself or real life negotiation experience you've had. The class is not too difficult (except for the tests which were just poorly executed yet meticulously graded) but too time consuming and boring.

Professor Whitfield's life was far more interesting than the class material. His approach to class was a little outdated and it is clear he teaches as a hobby of sorts but that not to say he doesn't care. I will admit its frustrating to get a lower grade in what should be an easy class, so be aware if you're looking for a GPA boost, this class is probably not the best option. However, the material itself was interesting a great change of pace from working with numbers and engineering software all day. There are just two exams and a paper as the only graded material for the class, but reading the textbook is crucial to doing well on the exams even though the class itself is mostly case based.