PLIR 4500

This is the worst class I have taken at UVA thus far. The readings are dense but do not provide the knowledge needed for this class. The professor expects you to somehow already know about all of these topics and be experts on them. He asssigns points to everything, but no matter how well you incorporate the readings into your answers on weekly blog posts or how well you do on your midterm presentation or interview strategy, you will at most get half of the points. I'm assuming that he will have to curve at some point, but everyone in the class is receiving at most a 50% on everything. His expectations are insane, especially given that one requirement for full participation points is to get a job in this field. He is not available for office hours because he is adjunct and actually lives in DC. He appears to just be doing this for fun and thus posts the questions for our weekly blog posts late yet expects us to answer them immediately whenever he gets around to posting them. If i wasn't a 2nd semester 4th year I would have dropped this class so fast, but I need it to graduate so please learn from my mistakes... DO. NOT. SIGN. UP. FOR. THIS. CLASS. He drones on for hours not allowing anyone else to speak and then will take off for you not participating.

I was very excited to take this course as I am very interested in humanitarian aid. However, this class has been horrible. The professor has very unrealistic expectations about class. The grading scale is very confusing and I everyone in the class receives failing grades. The participation grade for the class includes speaking in class and responding to online forums with at least 3 long well-thought out responses (which is totally fine). The problem is we never know when he posts the forums and we must constantly be checking in order to respond. Worst of all, he NEVER answers his emails and he has very few office hours because he travels from D.C. Part of the grade is applying to internships and jobs within the humanitarian field which is not fair to some people if they aren't looking to go into that field. He lectures us in class and never lets anyone else talk, and then marks you off participation points. I'm so confused by the 30 page syllabus and confusing grading scale that I honestly don't even know how I'm doing in this class, even though I have asked him several times. I had to take this class to finish my minor or else I would have dropped it.