Agrarian

Stories from the Last School in the West

If Rip Van Winkle woke up today, he would notice changes in just about every institution. Except education. In the Fall, he would see students planting. In the Spring, he would see teachers weeding. And in the Summer, he would see schools closed for harvest.

Professor Reviews for:

EE 100A SEC 005, J. Sanchez

Review by Kathleen, Class of 2023

Easiness: 2/5

Workload: 2/5

Clarity: 1/5

Helpfulness: 1/5

Overall: 1 star / 5 stars

Comments: She is BY FAR the WORST professor that you could ever take in Engineering. She is very unorganized and highly condescending. The exams are tough but they’re nothing you can really study for and nothing like the problems worked on in class. Please avoid her if you can. Also, shout out to Nathan for being an awesome TA and helping us all through it.

Review by Jason, Class of 2024

Easiness: 2/5

Workload: 1/5

Clarity: 1/5

Helpfulness: 1/5

Overall: 1 star / 5 stars

Comments: Not very helpful or easy. RIP your GPA if you’re EE.

Review by Maddy, Class of 2023

Easiness: 2/5

Workload: 3/5

Clarity: 1/5

Helpfulness: 1/5

Overall: 1 star / 5 stars

Comments: The class isn’t as rough as others in the major, but it’s still pretty bad with Professor Sanchez. She makes a ton of mistakes in class and on exams. And on the midterm and final exam, she drops the problems that a lot of students get wrong but it's really a toss up when it comes to what you get as a final grade. If you need to take the class: just study the text, teach yourself everything, and avoid letting her confuse you.

-

When you write one of those end-of-course evaluations, there’s always the sad sneaking suspicion that it won’t go anywhere. And in most cases, you’d be right. Ain’t nobody got the time to be looking through those forms. And given just how political things are in higher education, none of them really affect who gets promoted or fired.

But, that all began to change in Spring of 2022. You see. The university was turning over a new leaf and that was bad news in particular for Dr. Julia Sanchez, an Electrical Engineering professor at West University. Remote learning had opened the doors to new possibilities and the ability to see college education in a new light. Many of the things we did, we realized we didn’t need to do. And many of the systems we had in place weren’t really doing nothing but hurting kids.

That’s at least how the Department Chair felt about it.

But not all folks felt the same.

Monday, January 3rd, was the day before the semester would begin and also the day that the Department Chair had scheduled to meet with one of those folks, the notorious Dr. Sanchez.

“Good morning, Dr. Sanchez. I’ll keep this quick out of respect for your time and to give you enough time to prepare for tomorrow. We’re going through the course evaluations and we’re a little concerned about some of the comments that students have made.”

“What is the problem?” Dr. Sanchez replied.

“Well,” as he turned his computer monitor towards her and scrolled through the reviews. “There seems to be a common pattern of disorganization and a lack of overall care for your teaching role.”

She paused for a moment. “There must be a mistake. I have a presentation prepared for every lecture and an office hour every week… These students… Ay. You know them. They’re just lazy and angry. 18. 19-year-olds.”

“The teaching role needs to be more than just lectures and office hours.” He sighed. “It’s much more than that! Yes. They’re young. But we’re seeing a lot of alarming concerns like just overall continuity in the class? Having final questions that can even be scored properly?”

“The TAs are supposed to check the final before I give it out.”

“Julia…” A deep breath filled his lungs as an ill feeling went up and down his spine. He knew, deep inside, that it wasn’t going to get him anywhere if he kept on his way. “This is an upper division class. These are future leaders in the field. Our future colleagues in this department. We need to be putting together a stronger program.”

“Well. If you tell me what to do, I’ll do it.” She shrugged. “What do I need to do?”

He thought long and hard about his next words as he reclined back into his chair.

“I want you to think about one change… One meaningful change that you can make to your class. Starting tomorrow. You don’t need to tell me what it is. But when we check-in later or at the end of the semester, I might like to know.”

It wasn’t too much to ask for, but nothing that Dr. Sanchez had ever been asked to do before. In all honesty, she believed that she had taught the class exactly how it was supposed to be taught and near identical to how she was taught the same information when she was their age.

The semester began with a quick review of circuits, followed by applications in transistors / integrated circuits, and concluded with implications on signal conversion. The homework was worth 15%. The midterm was worth 30%. The final was worth 40%. And students would need to come in six times on their own to complete the required labs for the remaining 15% of their grade.

There was really nothing that could be changed in her eyes. Maybe a 45% Final and a 25% Midterm? She thought. One less lab? More homework?

As she left the Engineering building and made her way towards the parking structure, she noticed a group of students huddled at the main campus intersection. They held signs and circled the middle of the intersection as cars waited at the red light. Many of their faces had been covered with masks. But from his long black hair and horn-rimmed glasses, she was able to identify one person in the group. It was her TA, Nathan Liu.

“Nate!” she called.

As the red light turned green and the students left the intersection, he ran towards Dr. Sanchez with a sign held to his side.

“Hi, Dr. Sanchez. How are you?”

“I’m great. What’s this all about?”

“Oh. This is for the Graduate Student Protest that’s been going on for the last few months. For most of us, this is our only source of income and so we’re protesting for better contracts and fairer wages.”

“And you’ve been out here for months?”

“Yep. You didn’t notice that we were all gone from class? I believe that they also sent an email out for professors to make arrangements.”

Dr. Sanchez laughed. “Hah. No. I just thought that you were all out getting drunk or too lazy to come to class.”

A look of disgust filled Nathan’s face but Dr. Sanchez hadn’t noticed. The wheels of her brain had begun to turn as an idea dawned upon her.

Nathan hadn’t gone to all the classes because he was drunk and lazy. She thought. But perhaps he had gone to enough classes to help her figure out the one change that she needed to make for the Department Chair.

“Nate,” she asked. “I was wondering. If you had to change anything about how the class was taught this upcoming semester, what would you change?”

“Like change overall? Or like change in topics covered?”

“Anything… But just one thing.”

“Hmm,” he thought for a moment, placing his hand on his chin. “Well. I think that all the content fits in the course. You have a wealth of knowledge on the subject matter. I just think that there are moments where things don’t connect as well? I remember a lot of students asking about the capacitors and inductors in the series-parallel diagrams that you showed in Week 2. I just think that you could definitely zoom in on parts of the circuit to help calculate individual components in class? I do that during my discussion section. If you want, you could borrow my slides‒”

“No! I don’t need to borrow any slides. My computer does not do well with the online sharing slides or anyone else’s slides… Are they that different from my slides anyways? You say you just zoom them.”

“Yes, but‒”

“See. They’re the same. If I need to move faster or slower through them. Or zoom and unzoom, I will. But, I am not changing slides.”

A silence filled the air between them. A silence that Nathan didn’t have the capacity to address anymore. But luckily for us and the sake of this story‒

“Good bye, Nathan. And good luck on this event.”

She left Nathan on the street corner and proceeded down the street to the parking structure.

The sun had fallen just below the clouds and a cold breeze had drifted through. She could feel the temperature drop through her velvet jacket and the cold as the vapors of her breath dissipated in front of her. Through the dead trees, the wind sang a cold wail into the branches and to the lonely desolate sidewalks.

In the distance, she saw a silhouette of a young woman running towards her.

“Hi, Dr. Sanchez.” The young woman called out. “Hope you’ve had a restful break!”

“Sorry darling. Who are you?”

The young woman stopped and jogged in place next to her. “Kelsey Chandler. I was in EE100 with you.”

Dr. Sanchez’ eyes widened. “Oh Kelsey! I remember. How are you?”

Dr. Sanchez didn’t recognize Kelsey in the slightest but from first glance, Kelsey seemed like the type who would do well in her class. Maybe she would have a better idea than Nathan on what to change.

“I’m doing alright, Dr. Sanchez. Just trying to exercise before I can’t this semester. How are you?”

“I’m doing wonderfully. I actually have a question for you.”

“Sure. What’s up?” Kelsey took her earphones out and stood beside her.

“I’m looking to make some changes this semester to the EE100 class and I would love your input.”

“Well. I filled out a course evaluation last‒”

“Yes. But I want more guidance than the things people wrote there. Can you help me?”

“Well,” she thought. “The class was pretty hard as is but the tests were a lot tougher and seemed different than anything you showed in class. I remember that there was one question on applying an equation we had learned. But we only practiced proving it and never applying it? So I just wasn’t sure what contexts to use it in. Other questions just seemed really out there like the… remove sensing one? I know that I could have definitely worked harder but I just wasn’t sure what to look for sometimes. It would be nice to have some of the stuff shown to us,” she laughed. “Especially for all the tuition we’re paying.”

“But your tuition doesn’t go to just me.”

“No. I know that‒”

“You’re not paying for just me. Your tuition goes to the tutoring center and the library and all the other places on campus.”

“No. I know. That was just a joke‒”

“This isn’t High School. You have 90 minutes twice a week with me and four-and-a-half days outside of class to understand it all. Please keep that in mind for all your classes this semester.”

Kelsey couldn’t find the words to respond to her but a deep feeling of regret had begun to sink‒

“Good bye, Kelsey.” Dr. Sanchez said abruptly. “Oh. And good luck this semester.”

Night had fallen by the time Dr. Sanchez was half-way home. On the freeway, the red bumper lights covered the horizon just above the dashboard, but the moonlight on the hills filled the sky. The night felt warmer than most and what light had perched over the mountains shined against the pink and white cherry blossom petals as they blew in the soft wind. As she turned through the curved roads and pulled her car into the driveway, she could hear change in the air as crickets and owls emerged to move in the night.

She opened the front door to her quiet home and made her way to the office on the first floor. She turned her desk light and computer on, and began to peruse through her course materials. Through the syllabus that she would introduce tomorrow. And through the diagrams that she would go into later that week. She began to look at the series-parallel circuit diagrams that Nathan had mentioned and the final exam problems that had caused Kelsey so much grief.

And as the last lights on her street began to turn off one-by-one, as did hers. She turned her desk light off and the fans in her computer had spun to a stop. She changed her clothes for bed and went to sleep smiling on her pillow, knowing that she had made the one change that was asked of her.

The only change that she could see fit.

At the top of her syllabus and assignments. And on the first slide of each of her lecture presentations. She had turned Fall 2021 to Spring 2022. And as the seasons changed, she was ready for yet again, another semester.