STS 4810

Professor Archer is one of the most disorganized professors I have had at UVA. He does not give a clear description of what we should do every class, and when we come in he expects us to have done something completely random which he barely emphasized the class before. He cracks jokes about assigning midterms, which is actually very stressful especially during midterm season. One class, he started saying that the midterm would be the next class (a one class notice) and for a while the whole class could not take him seriously. He never had mentioned a midterm before, and a midterm date was never set on the syllabus. It is so unnecessarily stressful and I really don't appreciate how he thinks he can joke around about these things and not give students an organized class structure. He is also very passive and when you try to talk to him personally, he shoves you away and does not give you any importance, which is upsetting. He does not respect his students, and if he doesn't like one part of your answer when you participate, he will try to question you until you don't have anything else to say. I would definitely try to take it with the other professor if you at least want to feel good walking into class. I was actually really interested in learning the content of this class and I feel like it could have been taught beautifully to engineers, but my experience in Professor Archer's class was just extremely disappointing.