Long, Dianne  

Prof Long was pretty much a ditz when it came to talking about the subject matter. She goes off topic pretty quickly. She did have some surprising ideas often, such as "snack" time and "food parties." Her midterms reminded me of AP US History exams in high school. The best part of the quarter is that her final is just a chapter exam. I reccommend coming to class because she will base most exams on lecture (that is if you can stay awake!).

The class was pretty boring. However, she was a good teacher. The tests weren't too hard.

Professor Long is worse than all of my teachers in high school. I don't know how she is teaching at this level, let alone how she became the department chair. She does not teach, she merely shows videos for the entire duration of the class. These videos have nothing to do with the course material and are often geared more toward freshmen in high school than toward college students. However I did absolutely nothing in this class, I didn't even open the book once and I hardly went to class, and I still got a C because she tests on common knowledge. She cares about the subject but appears as though she doesn't have time to teach such a petty class.

When I first stepped into class, I thought it was going to be fun and interesting. She seemed pretty normal... just as normal as a clown smokin crack, that is! By the second day it was nothing close to fun and nothing close to interesting. First of all, she reviews nothing in class that has anything to do with what we are studying in the text. To be quite honest, she's a senile old woman when it comes to answering our questions. Then again if you love it when teachers give you answers to questions that were never asked... you should take this class and have all the fun you can. If you are someone, like myself, who hates it when teachers dont know answers to questions... you WILL get frustrated taking this class. Although I will say that the confused look on Professor Long's face was quite amusing as it seemed to stay on her face for the duration of the class. It kind of brought me back to my childhood as i would always stare at my dog fluffy's face. But anyways...in summation, if you're looking for an easy A... dont take this class... it's way too much BS. The tests come from absolutely nowhere... not the book... not the notes... not even the kindergarten videos she plays for us. P.S. Her Syllabus does not require a blanket and pillow... but know that they are more important than the rip-off books.

I think that Mrs. Long gets a bum rap. She is incredibly nice and fair in her grading. Just read the book, which isn't too hard. I think that she may have read all of the negative things written about her, because she made it clear that she was making an effort to tailor the class to our interests. To get a good grade: read and understand the chapters (which are not unbearable) and get to know her personally. Ask questions outside of class and have her take a look at your class notes. She's more than happy to be there for you. Caution, though: she does NOT answer questions directly, so consider them more as guidelines. Overall a good teacher and a rather simiple class.

don't really have to go to class... everything is straight from the book. she's a very nice person, just doesn't explain things well.

Long did a very poor job of teaching Political science. I never needed to attend her class because nothing was ever taught. We watched elementary videos every class and learned nothing. All that I learned, I learned from the book that we were tested on. The test material was, to say the least, surprising, and we all received poor marks on her tests. By luck, I made it out with a B-. If you are just looking to pass, take Long, but if you are looking to learn something, pass on this Poli Sci class. There is little homework but this class still wasn't worth it.

She is completely clueless and unfit to be a teacher. I learned absolutely nothing between watching lame movies with corny actors about the structure of the US government (Shouldn't we already know that we have a president and what the legislative, executive and judicial branches are?) and listening to her babble for fifty minutes about her new laptop and how the CPSU budget cuts are affecting her. As much as that should intrigue me, I hated the class. Also, it is full of immature kids who she cradles by taking thirty minutes to call roll and goofing around with them. It was a complete waste of precious time--do not take this class with this teacher!

She is a good professor and has had experience in the political process and knows what goes on. She used to work for Housing and Urban Development. We watched interesting videos concerning politics, including "Nixon" which was cool, along with some others concerning elections throughout history. If you read all the chapters that she assigns, and take the tests, you can get an A, thats what I did and I got an A-, because i screwed up the 2nd midterm slightly. She has a bum rap i noticed from all these kids who got bad grades in her class...but if you got a bad grade you weren't doing your work and it's your fault. Very straightforward class.

Professor Long is an awesome professor. I have no idea why her ratings are so low; her class is easy. If I didn't slack off, I could have easily gotten an A. She is super laid-back and really interested in the subject. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND HER. 5 quizzes, 1 short paper, and a participation grade.

TERRIBLE TEACHER... AVOID AT ALL COST

I learned that if I were to take up hunting, I should shoot deer, not bears, because a bear will hunt me back if I successfully wound it. Fascinating! I didnt know that the key to production and operations management was so brutally simple!

At the beginning of the quarter I had no idea what to think about this professor and I still feel a little wishy washy about her. We had 2 midterms (one of which she dropped), 4 half pg. to 1 pg. papers (single-spaced), 1- 2 pg. paper, and a 5 min. peacekeeping presentation. It seemed weird to me that she reformatted the second midterm... all based on what us students had to say. Though that was, it seemed like she should've already known how to write the midterms after already teaching the class before. One nice thing about her lectures, is that almost all of them parallel the readings so it makes the reading a little easier to understand. The comments she makes in class are nice.. goes to show me that she's pretty down to earth. Overall, she's not outstanding, but not horrible... just so-so.

Ok for those people that wrote crap about Dr. Long you are all crazy!! She was the best teacher ever. She realized that after the whole class failed the first test that the class was too hard, so she dropped it, and started all over. She really gets the material across, and lets you re do your papers for better grade. She dresses awesome and has us read current newspaper articles for the first half of the class. Its so simple and straight forward, just make sure you come to class, cause she will raise your grade just based on participation!! I wish she taught every GE I needed!!!

This was a good class because of how relevant the subject matter was. It was refreshing to show up to class and actually deal with topics that matter from the debate reader, textbook and newspapers/current events. A very worthwhile class with a wonderful professor for anyone interested in politics who needs the GE units.

Personally Dr. Long is a very kind woman and in no way do i want this comment to appear as an attack on her. But, I must say that POLS 338 was absolutely the most poorly taught class I have taken at Cal Poly. The lectures were quite dull and unimaginative, the powerpoints were god-awful, the books were very dry, the tests were terribly poorly written, and the assignments were easy but mind-numbingly boring and painful. If you are forced to take this class be aware that it is not nearly as interesting as the course title suggests. By the end of the quarter, half of the class stopped bothering to show up including myself. On a positive note, overall its a pretty easy class and does not require a difficult amount of effort to secure a high mark. I simply hope future students heed this recommendation, do yourself a favor and avoid this course if you value the quality of your education, and two hours twice a week of your life.

Dr. Long went on semi-retirement with the school recently, meaning she only teaches a few quarters a year, However, in Dr. Long's mind, she went into full retirement. The class was a total joke, and I cant recall 3 times in which the class consisted of an actual learning experience. Most of the the time, we discussed the newspaper, had "self-quizes," or talked amongst ourselves about issues in politics. She usually will not respond to emails in a timely manner and she does not give out her office number, so have fun trying to contact her. I got three emails alone from other students asking what the final assignment was because Long wouldnt respond to theirs. As for her tests, I personally love how when 99% of the class gets a question wrong, Long construes that as our problem and NOT a failure on her part. She also tends to blow off students who pose a debatable question. What an arrogant bitch! By the way, when this class was over, I drop-kicked that "Taking Sides" book so hard that I actually hurt my foot. This class is bullshit. Take it for an easy A, but be prepared to be highly annoyed twice a week!

This is the kind of class that give political science a bad name. I love political science, but Long\'s teaching style is annoying and ineffective. Very ineffective. If she manages to keep you awake through the snickers she makes after her own little \"jokes\" about outcomes and outputs you\'ll be thinking of ways to kill yourself within the first few minutes of class. With that said, the class promises to be one of the easiest I have taken here, because what she does \"teach\" is nothing outside of any high (maybe middle) school government class. But the lectures are so painfully boring you are left feeling like you\'re getting stupider by the second, you can literally feel your head empty. The only hope you have is of early dismissal which happens often, but it is seriously not a reason to take the class. If she didn\'t take attendance and it didn\'t count towards the overall class grade, there is absolutely no way in hell i (or anyone) would show up to class and she totally knows it. I seriously cannot believe I have seven more weeks of this.

I am currently taking Dr. Long for POLS 338 and came here to say pretty much the same things that the person before me said. I took the class despite the bad reviews because I figured that it would be easy and I could deal with an obnoxious professor for a quarter. I was WRONG. It\'s week four and I want to put a bullet in my head 20 minutes into every class period. Her lectures (and everything that comes out of her mouth) have absolutely no rhyme or reason and make zero sense. I don\'t want to repeat everything other people have said, but I really do feel like I am losing IQ points with every word that comes out of her mouth. I am an A student, a liberal, politically knowledgeable, and usually get along with (or at least appreciate) quirky liberal professors here at Cal Poly, but I really cannot stand her. DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS! I didn\'t listen to this advice and am paying the price of leaving school on Mondays and Wednesdays angry and with a headache because of this woman and her terrible class. Again, DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR! Unless you really like confusing yourself about things you already understand and want to meet the woman who truly might be the worst teacher in the world. Don\'t get me wrong, she\'s nice, and probably is very intelligent, but that does not show in the classroom.

Worst teacher of my life.

I did like and appreciate the light work load in the class. However, her teaching style is just ridiculous. She takes 5 minutes to utter a five word sentence with "um, uh, uh," every two seconds. I wanted to rip my hair out listening to a Ph.D. try to complete a sentence. It's a little irritating too that we have to have group discussions every class period--not to mention that it was par for the course that NOBODY ever really knew what she was asking for. Somebody mentioned that she gears the class towards kids (or idiots--could be reflective of how she views students) and she does. She showed freaking elementary school level videos to us!! I feel bad that I feel like this, but she should not be teaching. She also never answers student emails which is incredibly rude.

For the love of fuck, DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS(ES)!!! I knew I shouldn't have because of the ratings here, but I did anyways, and omg.

This Lady is the biggest airhead I know!!! Man, she goes off on stupid tangents...I can not believe she is a department head...I took a class on Public Policy...and when it came to the subject of crime..all she did was mention one bill and talked about how she leaves her keys in her car...because she is not afraid...the papers in this class are horrible...she wants a 4 page ans a 7 page paper..single spaced!!..excuse me but that is a sr project..not a term paper...AVOID HER AT ALL COSTS

Very nice and understanding. Definitely knew a lot about Public Policy. Class is three small tests and one VERY large paper split into two parts. I would recommend Dr. Long.

Big idiot. Learning does not take place in her classes, it's just a bunch of incoherent babble. Don't waste a quarter of your life, her classes might actually make you a little dumber.

Dr Dianne Long is a excellent professor. She loves was she does and you can totally tell it in the way she presents her material to the class. She is always willing to make extra time outside her normal office hours and she gives great advice. I personally saw her mare as mother type than a professor type.

Horrible fashion. Rude person. Bad ethics. Lazy professor. Stay away from this poor excuse for a dept. head.

Dr. Long has an amazing background to draw from and her enthusiasm for what she teachers is obvious. She's had a ton of experience in the "real world" making a difference. I'm amazed that people think she's a ditz. Just because she shows enthuasism while she teaches doesn't mean that she's an airhead, it just means she loves to teach and doesn't believe in conducting a boring lecture class. She expects her students to think and participate. Her tests are fair and she spends a lot of time in class on how to do the papers she assigns, there's no mystery to them and they're really easy if you attend class and see what she has to say about them.

I am an undergrad and this class was graduate level, so I was nervous and had no idea what to expect. Professor Long was so nice and friendly on the first day of class and she made everyone feel welcome. The class was based soley on three essays on which we picked topics at random to write on. I found this to be a little strange, because to get a good grade in the class you essentially only had to know about three concepts. At the same time, it made the class much easier. This class was one of those where you get only what you put into it. If you wanted to do the reading and learn all about public finance you could, but if you wanted to only learn about your topics and not pay attention to the rest you could do that too. I would recommend this class to CRP undergrads because it wasn't that hard, professor Long is really nice, and if you want to you can learn alot.

Dr. Long is a difficult professor to figure out. While her lectures are often random and hard to follow, she does attempt to break down concepts to make them understandable. However, her failed attempts often go unappreciated because of her habit to talk over her students' heads. She seems to have partial treatment toward male students, being much more open to their comments and often givng them better grades. The textbook reading for this class was incredibly boring and hard to comprehend. The reading assignments were often a lengthy chapter or two each week. The three papers we had to write were the basis of our grade. Although the papers seemed easy enough, Long did not spell out a criteria of what she wanted, which made the grading appear arbitrary. Going to her office hours were little help as she provided little guidance. If you can avoid taking this professor, do so at all extent.

Honestly, i think that Professor Long is the nicest person that i have ever met in my entire life. she's super mellow and very helpful and is INCREDIBLY concerned about how her students do in the class. The bummer about her is that she is not a very good teacher. in my class, it appeared as though she barely knew the topic that we were covering and was very unprepared to teach us. also, she spends WAY TOO MUCH time covering super easy things because one moron can't understand it and then wastes a lot of class time where you could be learning more helpful/advanced topics. Her classes are easy though, lots of little tests that you can always get a B on if you read. However, it's tough to get A's on them because her questions are very subjective and tricky. they are not difficult, just very opaquely worded so that you sometimes do not know what she is asking. another problem with Dr. Long's tests comes when she asks your opinions. frequently, she would ask opinion questions on tests, but only give you credit if you agreed with the books view on a situation. if the answer is quantitative, this makes sense, but if you are asking for a side of an arguement, you have to hear both sides. despite these petty squabbles, dr. long teaches a class that is a gauranteed B, if you try a bit you'll get an A. TAKE IT

Dr. Long is an incredibly supportive, informative, and engaging lecturer. She is always available for students and will take the time to go into detail about a particular subject that you may be researching. She is one of the best teachers I have ever had, and I have had many. I think she is underestimated. I urge students to take her classes. You will come away with an in-depth understanding of the subject matter. She treats students with respect. She doesn't just feed information, she engages us in thoughtful discussion about difficult issues. I left wanting more. If you are a Political Science major, Dr. Long is our greatest advocate. I have the highest regard for her and believe she is the consummate professional.