EGMT 1530

For the love of god drop this class if you get placed into this engagement. Jalane is an absolutely horrible professor. Don't even bother sending her an email - she certainly won't read it or reply to it. I'm writing this on December 23rd. Grades were due December 19th and the class ended on December 6th and we had no final, so you would assume we would have grades in, right? Nope. She doesn't give any feedback at all throughout the semester and ignores deadlines. The class itself is also frustrating. There's definitely a lot more work to do compared to any other engagement. It's supposedly about UVA's relationship with the city of Charlottesville, but it feels less like we're learning about that and more like we're learning how to become activists for Professor Schmidt's cause. There's also little room to disagree with her. Every class she monologues for an hour, saying "you know" about 50 times, and whenever we speak its only an opportunity to agree with her. Not that I particularly disagree with a lot that she's saying, but I don't like the way she runs her classroom, making it extremely uncomfortable to say anything to the contrary. #tCFfall22

Yea no, take another class. This is BY FAR the worst UVA/Engagement class you can take. The professor does not specify assignments, she is always late, and her syllabus is never updated. Classes are boring with her just going on and on not letting discussion arise; and if it does, it can only be one viewpoint. She expects us to do around 10-12 readings before class, which is just not doable for an engagements, let alone a 2 credit class. You work in groups, but she doesn't assign them so if you miss one day of class you are screwed. Her grading is so harsh, and she expects you to almost want to join city council after this. She never has any idea what is going on!!!!

For an EGMT class, there was a lot of work involved. Each week, there were around 5-6 readings per class, plus a discussion post reviewing what you'd read. Additionally, directions were very unclear. Professor Schmidt seemed to have different instructions every class period, so you never really knew when or how to complete assignments. The syllabus was no help, as she rarely updated it to show accurate due dates.
However, the class material was very interesting. You learn a lot about the interactions between the town of Charlottesville and UVA, along with the ways that UVA has historically made some poor choices. While the topic is extremely interesting, Professor Schmidt did teach heavily from one perspective, and there was not much room for class discussion if your opinion differed from hers. Feedback was not provided on submitted work, so it was sort of a guessing game as to when and how assignments should be completed. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this class. There are other Engagements that may be more worth your time.

This class definitely felt like it was addressing a very strict agenda that Professor Schmidt had. It basically read as UVA is screwing over Charlottesville and that the University is at fault for many of the injustices within the town. While this may be true, there seemed to be no room for other opinions in this class. It felt like an echo chamber of the same few ideas and no room for the actual growth of ideas. There was no dialogue- you needed to agree with Professor Schmidt or else your opinion was wrong.

Additionally, the class itself was an absolute mess. The assignment's due dates were wrong and while you were stressing over getting a project done in time, it turned out that you had an extra week to do whatever you were working on. She never graded any of the work that we submitted, so the grade for this class is really up in the air for when she decides to look at your work. It feels like this class is more of a way for Professor Schmidt to get her feelings out about the University than it is to teach you anything. Overall, I would not recommend this class.

This class was Town and Gown. I thought the material was really interesting but the class was very disorganized and frustrating. You learn a lot about the untold history of Charlottesville and UVA and the things they've done to harm the Cville community. You'll separate into groups focusing on specific issues – housing, income inequality, minimum wage, racism, etc. – and do most of your work on that. Groups write op-eds, petitions, etc. relating to the issue, which is fine. The readings could be very long and Prof. Schmidt would assign lots of them. The syllabus would often change but she wasn't very good about communicating the changes to us; we'd never know when things were due. She never answered her email, either. This class was first quarter; it's December now and she hasn't yet put a single grade in the gradebook, which is super frustrating.
One bright spot is that she brings in interesting guest speakers to the class, like a City Council member to talk about housing regulations or a nursing professor to talk about healthcare. But still would not recommend an engagement with Prof. Schmidt

ya no. choose another class. this class wasn't essentially hard, but super frustrating. They give no feedback on why you got the grade you got and do not hand out great grades. They will criticize your group for doing the best work you can try to do and bash your project. there are better ones out there which I wish I got to take

#StayWoke was too much work for a 2 credit class. Every assignment is graded very harshly and the expectations were very unclear, which was pretty unfair. Prof. Schmidt was also rude at times when you tried to ask questions or clarify instructions for assignments. You definitely can do well in this class but it's just too much work and an A is not guaranteed. Take literally any other EGMT 1530.

#StayWoke was also taught with Professor Press. For an engagements class, this course required constant work. The midterm and final, both of which are presentations of the topic of your choosing, were graded pretty harshly. Both professors want students not only to learn about social movements, but really apply what they've learned to their own causes. You need to be an expert on your issue because they will ask you every single possible question about it, and if you can't answer it, they'll essentially embarrass you. I personally enjoyed reading about these different social movements, but classes were basically lectures. One person from each group would present what the group discussed for the week, and then the professors would spend the next hour talking between themselves about the topic, without allowing for any engagement with students. Two discussion posts every week, and you have to show you really engaged with the material. The material is interesting, but the structure makes it pretty boring. It's not a difficult class, but for an engagement, it's way harder than it needs to be and it's not an easy A. #tCF2020