Lefevre Latner, Christina Madeleine  

As one of 4 men in a class of over 30, I should have known right away that this would be a feminist nightmare. The teacher is nice enough on her own, but she is literally just reading from the slides, there would be absolutely no reason to show up to class except she takes mandatory attendance every day. She says feminist opinions as facts, and doesn't really listen when she calls on people, mostly using them to segue her own points. Class is easy enough if you actually read, though she assigns roughly 30 pages of reading a night.

Christina is a nice person. She has a background in psychology. She graduated with a Masters in public policy from CPSLO in the spring of 2014 and began teaching in the WGS department fall of 2014. The biggest issue I probably have with her is that her lectures consist of her reading off of her power points and occasionally she throw in a very brief personal experience that relates to the topic at hand. She is not very good with technology. other than that she's not a bad professor. Her midterms are not that bad. She gives a study guide online which is ridiculous in length. The class before the midterm, she will specifically outline some topics that will be on the midterm. You should do the reading if you want an A. However, you will need to do atleast some reading if you want to get a decent grade. All in All, Average and her inexperience shows at times.

She is awful. You literally won't learn anything and this class is the biggest waste of time. She is a psycho feminist and doesn't know what she is talking about ever. You are screwing yourself over by taking this class. Dont even bother reading for the class because its all BS.

I loved her as a teacher! I think she's super nice and friendly and really caring. I don't think she came across as overly feminist at all. She doesn't seem to have a huge background in this study though, but if you read the book and her power points for the midterm you'll be fine. Overall, super nice and helpful.

If you are a male in this class, prepare yourself. This class will make you feel singled out and especially if you are white. I felt huge racist and sexist undertones, but since its against white males, thats somehow okay? They also necessarily rip on STEM majors (I think) because they make more money than other majors. This class also perpetuates groupthink (look it up) like crazy. The "fully realized" feminist college women in this class literally steamroll over any possible opposition to their radical opinions that they take for absolutes. Also, completely and full-fledged liberal ideals are stated as if they were a physics equation. What? I am not right winged but I tend to be moderate so I felt very frustrated many times. I spoke up a lot in class to try to make discussions somewhat dynamic but I felt like I was just interrupting the women in class conversation. Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot in this class, some from the indisputable stats that were presented, but mostly not as a direct result of the lectures but from how to interact with radical feminists. After this class, I do not agree that everyone should be a feminist, but a humanist instead (moderation is key). However, if you suck up all your pride then this class is a breeze and an EASY A. Just be prepared to detach yourself from feeling. In the end, I feel like someone outside of the WGS department should audit this class and how it presents the curriculum. Christina, herself, is super nice, but really disposable to be honest. She reads, verbatim, off of her slides, which are just summaries of the book chapters. She did a poor job of regulating and facilitating class discussions. Six ladies would all say the same exact thing in response to an opinion question and she would accept each one as a new point. "Any disagreements? No? Good!" TLDR; WGS 201 is a Racist, sexist, and unnecessary GE class.

This class has potential for interesting discussion but you won't partake in any. The professor seems nervous and every time a student raises a point in this class the nervous Latner will shakily agree with them and start droning off on her notes again. She seems to be learning the material as we do, its pretty clear that the small WGS department is allowing anyone to teach this class.

While she is a very sweet lady, she isn't the greatest professor. Granted that I had her for her very first class that she lectured ever (she just graduated) so I will cut her a little slack. She didn't seem to be knowledgable about the subject because the entire 2 hours of lecture she read off of her lecture notes. She obviously tried really hard to make the class engaging by having lots of class and group discussion, showing videos, and having group presentations, but I guess she hasn't perfected her system yet. The class itself had a ridiculous amount of reading (around 50-60 pages of dry text book reading plus bunch of articles per class), but no one actually did the readings because she went over the important parts during lecture. I stopped reading after the first midterm and still got a fairly easy A in the class.

THIS PROFESSOR IS BEYOND STUPID!

DO NOT TAKE LEFEVRE-LATNER. She isn't knowledgeable in the slightest on the course material, and makes it nearly impossible to stay awake. She's a nice young mom-type woman and I didn't dislike her, but she couldn't answer a single question, and misunderstood nearly every point students would try to argue. Tests were so specific to textbook material that we never covered in class, and she always gave us incorrect information on what to study and what the format would be. I didn't hate the class or her, in fact I found it very interesting as a GE, but I have no idea who let her teach it.

Cal Poly should be ashamed and embarrassed to have this teacher working for their school. I took this class, knowing this teacher had bad polyratings but i thought it would be an easy GE. I regret taking this professor so much. The topic of womens and gender studies actually has the potential to be interesting. However, this class was beyond boring. Her class is so disorganized. She loves to hear herself talk. She will talk for 2 hours and all she does is reads off the slides because she has no idea what she’s talking about. Occasionally, she will talk about how she did research and studies of certain thing because she wants her students to believe she is smart, but in reality, she is the complete opposite. She taught 4 lectures this quarter, and we were the last lecture. You would think she would somewhat know what she was talking about after teaching it three other times within the past 2 days, but she never did… or tried to be better. The students in my class were way smarter than the teacher. This lady loves to waste your time: you never learn anything in her lecture because she has no idea what she’s talking about herself. she assigns these super long readings she expects you to do. they are like 60 pages of SUPER DRY text for each class. No one does them.. and then for the exams, she chooses random sentences within the text that you have to fill in. Even the readings that i did do, i didn’t remember the answer to, because they were either so specific or because they were from months ago. her projects are so stupid. she makes you do them and then barley even grades them, or she has other people in the class grade you, or you grade yourself (you grade yourself on participation because she never tries to get to know you). she gives a study guide that turns out to be around 30 pages for each exam. she makes it a google doc so the class can work on it together. Two problems with this: 1. a few people get stuck doing it, and sometimes you rely on answers that are wrong. 2. the questions on the midterm have nothing to do with the study guide. doing the study is a waste of your time!!! just know the key terms and you will be fine. do not do the hundreds of questions she gives you. Anyways, the midterm is really easy. the final is a little hard because she tries to trick you with the readings. the projects and the paper are pretty easy but a total waste of time because she is so lazy with grading. She is also really fake. She has this huge smile on her face all the time, but its evident thats forced. she told us on the first day that a majority of the stuff we do in the class was stuff she would never want to do as a student and thats why she makes us do it. I don’t care if you think this class is easy, I’m telling you to stay away from this teacher!! four hours with her a week was too much for me to handle. This is the worst teacher i have had at cal poly thus far. Its sad that i walked away from this class without learning anything.

She's not a very good teacher. She takes her lectures from some website online, along with her tests and study guides. As long as you look through her "lectures" online or pay attention in class you'll pass. The extra passages in the book she has you read too which becomes pain because they're like 50 pages each time, but she does test on that, and those will kill you midterms and final grades if you don't know them. She has you write an essay and I'm not sure how she ended up grading it but it was very much BS along with all the little exercises she has you do with her study groups. It's a lot of filler, just read the book, participate a little (she agree's with everything honestly) and you'll be fine. It's just a long and annoying class.

If you could take another professor instead, I would highly suggest that. Professor Latner was unorganized and said "um" in between every single word while she talked at us for 2 hours. She only taught through power points and mostly read off the screen. It was a waste of time because I could have taken it as an online course and gotten the same affect. She is a nice person, but not a good teacher. Also, her tests were pretty easy and I got A's on them but then she practically failed everyone in participation last minute so my grade dropped dramatically. And I actually participated a lot... so if you want someone interesting to listen to and a consistent grader, Professor Latner is not for you.

When I was looking for a general education class I was extremely intimidated to take this course because of this professor. She had a terrible poly rating but I needed the class in order to be a full time student on such late notice. She got me into the class which was extremely nice of her considering I was a week late. I agree with other comments on how she had a hard time presenting to the class but she does post all the lectures on poly learn that you can go to and study. She does lecture the whole two hours but my advice is to try and participate as much as you can and give real life experiences to try and engage in with the topic. Her midterm was easy. She does post a LOT of readings but even if you read them they are somewhat specific on the test so there really is no point as you are probably not going to remember. I just read the chapter readings and studied the key terms on quizlet and got an A. The more you write on the essay portion the better. Just try and connect the topic to everything and you will be fine. Her assignments are not too bad just don't procrastinate. Start the policy paper research two weeks before and you will be way less overwhelmed. This class is isn't that bad and that is from someone who is more math and science based.

I am a feminist, I am a WGS minor, I intend to dedicate my life to WGS-related career moves. But this class... Yikes. YIKES. She does not have a background in feminist theory or WGS, and it shows. I cringed my entire way through the quarter. I really worry that people interested in WGS, taking this class for the first time, will be steered away. That breaks my heart. She's a nice person and all, but this is nooooooooot her strong suit. I wish Poly took the time to hire more experienced faculty, especially in the WGS department.

Professor Lefevre-Latner is not as bad as everyone says she is, and she definitely does not deserve a 1.2/4 on here. She offers a really basic level of women's and gender studies that I feel is really accessible to those who have never heard of feminism, or are curious about what feminism is and what to learn more. That being said, this class is extremely easy for anyone who has some sort of background in WGS (i.e. WGS minors). She starts of the class giving you a thick syllabus and a thick packet of details about the big assignments of the quarter, which definitely freaked me out. Overall, though, the class was extremely manageable. She only holds you accountable for readings on the exams, but even then, the questions are usually so nitpicky about readings that you wouldn't know the answers if you had read. She manages to talk for a whole 2 hours, but if you actually engage in the class and try to actually understand what she's saying, the class is not that bad. She is also extremely helpful in office hours when it comes to your student-led discussion and your final policy paper. And if you are actually interested in the course material, go talk to her! She gets really excited to discuss course topics outside of class, and she actually has a lot of knowledge. If you want a fairly chill GE, I would definitely take Lefevre-Latner. If you are a WGS minor that is looking for a super engaging class that challenges your intellect, WGS 201 (any WGS 201) won't really give you that, but Professor Lefevre-Latner really cares and will want you to succeed.

If you go into this class agreeing with her opinions, you'll be just fine. Unfortunately, that's all this class ends up being - her opinions. All information presented is arbitrary and lacking in evidence. The class makes assertions and generalizations out of thin air to come to conclusions. The class is fairly easy on the whole, and it should not be too hard to pull an A with a little effort. If you would rather, you can sit through class tallying how many times she says "right" (got over 100 once).

Ok so first of all this class is heavily bias and so is the book(author has the intellect of a pancake). Like extremely. Professor Latner is a very poor teacher although she means well. Her teaching style consists of reading off a power-point. if you ever get bored in her class try counting how many times she says "Um". I reached close to 200 in 15 minutes. As for the midterm and final they are both relatively difficult. They study guide she gives is useless. Just know all the key terms/ concepts and skim through the book and read the portions that say " in the reading by Blah Blah Blah". She tests on the readings a lot so try and have a general idea about each one. Good luck!

While Professor Lefevre Latner is a kind lady, she was NOT made to be a teacher. If you have any genuine interest in women and gender studies, do NOT take her. She took away all of the interest I had coming into this class. She reads DIRECTLY from her PowerPoints, but adds in information that isn't on the slides, so you should go to class (and she grades attendance too).The midterm was much easier than the final. The final was very tricky and both are filled with multiple choice, t/f, fill in the blank (with no word bank), and short answer (also there is extra credit). She assigns an OBSCENE amount of reading. Like seriously, this is a GE. She also tests on the reading too. I didn't do many of the readings and did fine, just be familiar with the general idea of them. There is one paper in this class, and 2 group projects which are fairly easy. Professor Lefevre Latner is clearly not meant to be a teacher, she just has a master's degree, so Cal Poly thinks they can hide her in this class. Unfortunately, her bad teaching cannot be hidden. She is not meant to teach this class, or any class for that matter.

Although this is a GE course, the professor had an extremely sub-par range of knowledge on the topic she taught. Almost all of the class time was spent lecturing, as this professor would simply read each note straight off her slide, indicating her lack of in depth knowledge on the topic manner. The class consisted of 2-3 group projects that were worked on throughout the quarter along with a midterm and final. Minimal homework was assigned and I barely studied or read the recommended reading and got an A in the class. Just be prepared to deal with harsh grading without necessarily knowing why, and unclear instructions. Overall the class was not extremely hard to manage, the professor was just unclear and less knowledgeable than a professor should be.

Women and Genders studies is a really sensitive topic but I was really passionate and excited to be learning about it. Latner, however, is awful. She tries to be sensitive but she fails many times. Her in class exercise to acknowledge white/male/cisgender privilege just makes those both with and without privilege feel bad. She sometimes doesn't realize her humor is insensitive as well. She also assigns FOUR HUGE projects and over 50 pages of readings between every lecture. She fails to see that a lot of students have an already large work load and really is not a good professor. When someone says an answer that is not what she wants to her, she kind of just brushes it off and says they're wrong. I would no recommend her especially for such a sensitive topic like Women and Gender Studies.

BE PREPARED! The amount of reading she assigns for this class is INSANE! On average you need to have read 70 pages in the textbook and additional readings posted to PolyLearn by the next class... every class. She treats her class as if it's the most important one you're taking, even though most of us are probably taking it because we need the D1 area covered. Also, on top of that, there's a major paper due and little assignments along the way. The amount of work for this class is way over done and it's difficult to keep track of everything which is due since it's so unorganized on PolyLearn. As a lecturer, she's kinda terrible. She reads from the slides and from a, I guess word document (?), and the discussions in class are very one sided (if we even have a discussion). On the first day of the course, she said participation is 10% of your grade, and if she doesn't know your name by the middle of the quarter you probably wont get the full 10%, but she seems to have favorites in the class and will always call on them first (this might just be my class but it's still irritating). But she probably wont know who you are anyway because she doesn't seem to care, so why bother-- it's week five and she still doesn't seem to know anyone's names. Like previous posts have stated, if you agree with everything she says you'll probably be fine on the midterm and stuff. The test is also kinda insane for a GE. The test administered to us was 50 MC, 2 Short Answer, and one Essay with an extra essay for extra credit.... to be done in two hours.... Overall I don't think she's a bad person, but as a professor she's not the greatest. I would avoid this class all together to be honest. The textbook readings are more interesting than her lectures. If you're interested in this subject I would just buy the textbook and read it in your free time. You'll learn more than listening to her talk since she just talks about the highlights of the chapters and the things she finds important.

The instructor is a nice lady. Her assignments are fair in regards to grading and letting us know what is required. Unfortunately, she isn't great with the subject. I'm a feminist and thought all the bad reviews were just men who didn't agree with her and so I took the class anyway. I was wrong. She clearly didn't know what she was talking about, and misunderstood many student comments. She seemed uncomfortable addressing race/trans rights and focused a lot on "white feminism"; she was very congratulatory and wouldn't address that there are still problems and imbalances in the world. Not an intersectional class. A lot of people in the class felt as if they knew more than her. I definitely didn't learn anything, and there were several instances where she was teaching things that just straight up weren't correct or representative of feminist movements.

Stay away from her at all costs. She is not fun or enjoyable at all. She is very boring and reads straight off her slides. While she gives the class work to do she goes on her phone and won't look up. The tests are unbelievably hard for a GE class!!! Midterm was every type of test: multiple choice, marching, true/false, shorts answer, AND essay question. Also an extra credit free response but that doesn't make up for how much work the test is and how hard it is. Every other WGS professor is so much easier, nicer, and interesting than her. When she says she will do something like grade something by a certain date or bring in our exams and essays, she won't do it. She is TERRIBLE. SUCH A PROCRASTINATOR!!!!!! Also theres multiple group projects/presentation and an essay. Also the points are messed up in this class. And she takes attendance EVERY day. It's terrible. Lets hope i pass the final and the class......

idk what everyone else is saying, but i thought this class was easy. I liked the professor, she would just lecture for about an hour and then you would do a small group discussion. the midterm wasnt terrible (multiple choice, matching, easy free response, one short paragraph answer) she gave us a study guide (just make a google doc with people in the class). we had to do one group project at the end of the quarter but it was super easy and you make a brochure on whatever topic you chose. im more on the conservative side and i was a little worried about how i would like this class but i actually liked it. some of my classmates were a little different than people i would normally hang out with but they had cool perspectives. if you take everything personally and get upset after hearing views that dont align with your thinking, probably not the class for you.

This class is just painful to sit through. I'm interested in the content and I want to enjoy learning about it but she makes it very hard to do so. She may care about what she's talking about but she doesn't show it. She gives 50-100+ page readings every class, she lectures straight off the slides, she talks very quietly and even though the discussions can be fun, she's just not good at presenting the material in any sort of interesting way. The worst part is that her tests are cumulative. They have True/False, Multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer AND essay portions and any material from the course might appear on the test. That means you might get tested on vocabulary, information found on slide, information found in the hundreds of pages of readings, information from OTHER PEOPLE'S GROUP PROJECTS, anything. I spent as much time studying for this class as I did for thermodynamics and I still don't know if I'm going to get a good grade. Oh also the projects. The projects are giant, she doesn't give you enough time to work on them (our class was a bit of a fluke but we had one day between the rough draft being peer edited and the final draft of a 7 page essay). There's a really big essay, a group presentation, another group presentation about your essay, and random writing assignments. ALSO the syllabus is insane. It's not your typical few pages of info, it's like 5 separate documents that you need to scour through in order to find important information, but you'll be well equipped to do so after you've done all the other reading in this class. I don't feel like I've learned anything in this class, I would have preferred going deep into a few really interesting readings than skimming a bunch of essays every other day.

I am not normally one to write poor reviews for professors, but please do not take this class. I thought about dropping it on the first day and looking back i wish i did. She is a nice lady, but does not facilitate class discussion well and her tests are ridiculously hard for a GE. she pick the most SPECIFIC information from over like 300 pages of reading that it doesnt even help to read for the tests. In addition, the class is incredibly long and boring because she just reads verbatim off her slides and repeats the same thing over and over. She has a pretty biased point of view and a lot of times i didnt participate because i felt my values didnt line up with she believed and i would be put down for it. anyways, please avoid this class, and this professor. take history instead, its a better use of your time

I'm gonna be super honest, this is the worst class ever. She assigns unnecessary projects/homework, she can't look away from her notes, she says "um" a minimum of 500 times in each class, she is vague and explains nothing, and she will not allow you to express your opinion in opinionated discussions. Although this does fulfill a USCP credit, it is a class I dread going to. Good luck if you are in this class, at least it's only 10 weeks that you'll be suffering. 0/10 would not recommend.

I took this class to fulfill a D1 GE requirement which was a big mistake, there are much easier classes to take that fulfill this requirement. The amount of reading required for this class is excessive (around 50-70 pages a night) from two different books and other online articles. She also expects you to know intricate details from the readings on the test, such as specific statistics stated in them which is a little ridiculous considering there are over 100 different readings assigned in the class. On top of the reading, you also have a policy paper, three group projects as well as a midterm and final. The class is broken up into two parts (before the midterm) the history of women's suffrage and (after the midterm) current issues facing women today. I found the current issue section of the class to be much more interesting. Overall Professor Lefevre Latner is a super monotone and boring lecturer who has an unrealistic expectation of what students can remember on her tests.

She is terrible. She is not a feminist, she is closed minded and judgemental.

I was originally excited about the subject matter, but Professor Latner ruined it for me. Going to class was the biggest waste of time because we would just go over things that everybody already knew/suspected. Latner would read straight off of her slides, so there was not point in having her there. I went into her office hours 5 times throughout the quarter and every time I went in, she had no idea who I was. This class was horrible mainly because of the professor, so if you have Latner I suggest you drop this class. You'll end up hating it.

Fine teacher, but a little dry in the presentation. I wouldnt suggest having her at 8:00 in the morning, might be difficult staying awake.