Munroe, Patrick  

I don't know what you guys are complaining about. I thought Professor Munroe was one of the best teachers I have had at Cal Poly so far. Yes his lectures at times were boring, but the guy made class fun. He can be hilarious at times. The teats were very easy, he even gives us 10 of the answers on the tests before we even sit down to take it. He helps you a lot on your advertising project,a nd is very easy to talk to. By the end of the quarter you feel like you are talking to one of your friends you would hang out with down town. I thought he was very cool, and if you need a class by Munroe I say you take him.

Prof. Munroe was one of THE BEST professors I have ever had at CAL POLY. His lectures were very interesting and he was very clear on which information would be tested on. The project gave us practical, hands-on experience. I would recommend him and Jour. 331 to anyone!

I would qualify this professor as ineffective and insensitive towards the subject matter and toward the treatment of his students. The class for the Fall 04 quarter was broken down like this: two midterms (which he called

Munroe is a horrible educator. I don't like bashing on this, but honestly he does not present anything clearly and his lectures are read right from the book! Going to class is not even necessary because he does not lecture on what is going to be on the 3 "quizzes", which are basically midterms. His grading scheme is what really got me. to get an A you have to get a 490/500 (98%) and to get an A- you have to get a 94%. On a slightly positive note he does offer some good examples of the advertising industry and we got to watch some funny commericals. I would say avoid Munroe at all costs but you cant... You'll make it though, just be prepares to add it to the list of pointless classes.

His tests are impossible and aren't curved. Even though the silly man told us they were curved and then decided at a later point in the quarter that he'd never said that in the first place. !!! Frustrating man, frustrating class. The only hope you have is reading the big, stupid, overpriced book before the tests. At least then you'll have something to go on. Presentations aren't that bad, but he marks you down arbitrarily and wants his modified version of perfection for "the book" at the end of the quarter. The class material could be much more interesting. Munroe could be much more attentive to students' needs. He's very diorganized and very disinterested. Also, if he says he can get you some information to help you with your project, you might as well look it up yourself because he'll never do it, even though he says he will. And this wasn't just me; this happened to almost everybody in the class. All in all: He's had his share of experience, and you can milk it out of him if you try hard enough. He's worse than Soares and Ramos and Allen, but WAY WAY better than Havandjian. On a level with Murray and Sosna.

I thought Professor Munroe was a wonderful teacher. He brought a charming spark to the class, and was always encouraging students to think and act for themselves. I learned a great deal in his class, and would be honored to have him as a teacher again. I heard horrible things about him beforehand, but i have to laugh, none of it was true. He was helpful, the course load is not impossible, and he graded more than fair. In fact he gave students the benefit of the doubt on the final projects. I would recommend munroe for advertising at least.

Very passionate and personable, but definitely foreign. He was an extremely nice guy. You definitely don't have to go to all the lectures. The first test was hard, but the second and third tests were open book. Basically, the whole class revolves around the project due at the end of the quarter. Don't slack off, and make sure your group has an equal share of work. It's a lot of work, but if you spread it out, it's not too bad.

Good guy, really interested in students and funny. First test wasn't too bad and the second two are open book. Class project will destroy your life. Get it done early.

I had heard MANY things about Munroe before finally deciding to take advertising this quarter. He passes out photocopies of newspaper clippings related to advertising and then... we don't discuss them! He probably destroyed the entire rain forest this quarter with all the paper he used. The project is a massive pain, especially if you have a terrible group. Regarding tests--he decided that if the class got at least an 80 average on the first test the two other tests could be open book... which was helpful if you had decided the second week of class that this course was a tremendous waste of time. Make sure you take this class with a friend so you can be miserable together.

This was actually JOUR 390 but for some reason he's listed as GRC. Munroe's a really nice guy but I've never been so confused by grading standards, class assignments, or how to work a computer program. I can't believe I got an A-...

A good man. Got like two easy A's off the guy -- rare at CP. I swear my last group project was the biggest joke ever. Anyone could tell we slapped a flimsy marketing campaign together at the last second. Ditch about half his lectures or more if you need time for other classes. You will learn ZERO; but by the time you get to him you are grateful for the breather. Not sure what they pay (paid?) him for though....

Dr. Munroe is, hands down, THE WORST professor I've had at Cal Poly. Unfortunately, I was forced to endure him as a professor twice, because of the journalism department's lack of any sort of faculty. JOUR 390 (Visual Communications for Mass Media) was an exercise in frustration. For 3 hours every Monday and Wednesday, the class had to endure his pointless lectures, which never really taught us anything. Sometimes he didn't lecture at all; other times his point was so difficult to comprehend that sitting in class was a waste of time. For the rest of the period, we were to work on our projects. It regularly took him 20 minutes just to get around to answering any questions I had during this time, and even then, his answers were usually gibberish and didn't help me at all. I finished all my projects (and received a B in the class) using solely the information I'd already learned about the subject in high school. His tests were ridiculous, covering inane pieces of information, most of which he hadn't covered in class. I remember specifically one test question, about the best way to make a word bold. No one remembered this ever being covered in class, and he acted as if the answer was common knowledge. Turns out it is common knowledge - for the GrC students he used to teach, not for us journalism students. This just added to my opinion that he doesn't know what he's doing. Even though these 6 hours per week were pointless and usually spent accomplishing nothing, Munroe never allowed students to leave early, even if they were done with their work. Yet he regularly stepped out of class for long periods of time. In addition to JOUR 390, I also took him for JOUR 333 (Contemporary Advertising). This time around, I only had to endure him for 50 minutes a day, four times a week. Still, I ended up skipping most of the class periods, because all the lectures consisted of were Munroe reading straight out of the book. Yes, I'm serious. That's all he did for 4 hours each week. I managed to get an A in this class because he hands out study sheets telling you almost exactly what will be on each test. If you're looking for an easy A, 333 with Munroe is a good bet - although extremely boring and pointless. I would not recommend taking him for 390 for any reason, though - a complete waste of time.

He spent too much time flirting with the sorority girls in the class, instead of presenting course material or answering questions about the projects that students were forced to fumble through. His tests covered very specific points from the lectures he barely gave. Although I recieved an A plus extra credit on the cumulative class project, I ended up with a C in the class. Go figure : just another wonderful addition to the journalism department faculty.

Munroe is a walking argument against tenure. He knows nothing about journalism and his lectures (when he did speak for about 5 minutes before leaving class to do God knows what) were completely irrelevant and convoluted. Unfortunately, he's the only one who teaches Vis Com because he isn't qualified to teach anything else in the journalism department. I now see why GRC wanted to be rid of him; now it's journalism's turn to make him another department's problem.

When you take jour 390 with Munroe plan on teaching the programs to yourself through a point and click method because he's not a good lecturer and spends most of the lab time with the loud mouths in the class. You know, the ones who ask a question every five minutes and can't figure anything out on their own. I gave him another chance in Jour 331 (because I needed to graduate and it was the only elective available) and he completely SUCKED! He lectured straight from the book, literally you go over it with him with a highlighter. He knows nothing about journalism, has no critical perspective on the subjects he teaches, and is completely devoted to the beauty of advertising. Just ask him about his Lexus. I'm sorry to those of you who like - he's a nice guy - but, he's an idiot.

Let's see.... he can't deliver coherent or interesting lectures, his tests are needlessly hard, and without fail, he ducks out of the lab every class session to seemingly wander the halls (though it's not like he's any less spaced out when he's in class). My big gripe with his class, however, has been in how slow it's gone. We've spent all quarter designing a page, a project that probably could've been finished in two-three weeks with a competent professor. I think of all the cool things VisCom could have included- like web design or photography- and it makes me sorry for the people who have to endure Munroe in the quarters to come. Be ready for ten weeks of frustration.

this man is a chemically imbalanced, narcissistic, manipulative and incompetent waste of resources. He's evil. Don't expect to learn anything from him. Teaching is more of a nuisance and chore than a career to Munroe. It's a shame that he's tenure (no wonder we can't get rid of him) because the J. department would certainly benefit if they could use his paycheck elsewhere. If you want to learn about visual communications, take a GrC class. This class was a waste of time.

Like many J. seniors, I waited until my last quarter to take this useless, nagging excuse of a whelp to satisfy my major requirement. Yes, like the others say, he is difficult and completely disorganized. His quizzes are actually impossible tests. What you are tested on are the small, insignificant details he rattles off in class. While working on your project, asking him questions will either get him to do it for you or insult you publicly. Good luck and thank the God you pray to because this man is retiring after spring!

I have had Munroe for two classes (390 & 331) and I have given up questioning the department's motives for keeping him around

in four years, munroe is the worst and most offensive professor here at cal poly. as a vis comm teacher, we sit in lab 2 times a week for three hours and play on myspace because we dont know what to do. there is not only a lack of instruction, but he himself does not know how to work the programs. He cant even help our class of only FIVE students! the other day, i asked him how to move an image in the web program "dreamweaver"...after 45 minutes of him fiddling with it, he still didnt have an answer for me. i had the median grade on the midterm, and got a C- (to put it in perspective, ive been on dean's list 3 quarters in a row). his project grading is completely subjective--when the class asked him for feedback, he became defensive and never really answered any of our questions. the only reason he is even here is because of his tenure!!! as a person, munroe is rude, racist loon. he is black, and only talks to the black girl in class. even she doesnt like him because he is all flirty/touchy/feely with her. i came in late to class and he said (and i quote) "next time you are late, i am going to string you up by the neck and toss you over a tree." soooo ridiculous!!! he treats faculty just as poorly as students. he took it upon himself to belittle the tech guy and the other vis comm teacher in front of the class, (both of them have personally told me that they think he is a complete ass). my advice: munroe is ok in the advertising class, but stay away from vis comm at all costs. he has no respect for anyone. if you have to take him, dont expect to learn anything.

Charming spark? The review below me is SO obviously Munroe. I urge you all to factor it out of your considerations. I don't even know where to start with this guy. I was really looking forward to learning the programs in 390. Brady's class gets to learn all sorts of stuff, but Munroe's class spent the entire quarter - and I do mean the ENTIRE quarter - on ONE 11x17 layout. It was fucking ridiculous. We were bored out of our minds. He obviously hasn't learned anything about computers since the '80s, so we ended up teaching each other about the programs. Every time we asked him a question he'd come over and fiddle with our pages until they were so screwed up we had to start over. One girl asked him how to make a line curve in Photoshop. He tweaked everything but the line, eventually turning her page purple before giving up. Tests were based on the pages and pages and pages of handouts he'd give us because he didn't know what he was doing. Most of the test questions were on subject matter none of us had seen or heard of before. And about detail-y shit that doesn't matter in the real world. (One such question showed pictures of four similar cursors. You know, those arrows that represent the mouse moving on the screen? The question asked us to identify which one was the cursor for the crop tool in Photoshop. But none of us could recognize it becauss the cursor pictures were all from Photoshop 2.0. Talk about antiquated.) We spent two class periods on Dreamweaver, that's four hours of him talking and two of us "putting together a page." What a joke. None of us knew what we were doing, mostly because Michael (the tech guy) had to come in and show the students what to do. I think Munroe hates Mike. He sure acts like it, yelling and stomping his feet at the poor man. He throws a tantrum every other class, and I just don't know how Mike handles this sad, sorry excuse for a teacher. Munroe tries to validate himself by putting everyone else down (including the students), but he just ends up looking like a silly jackass most of the time. To phrase it nicely, I hated this class. Specifically, I hated taking it from this professor. He has nothing to teach us. He's only here because he's tenured, just like most of the department. Anyway, steer clear of advertising and take Teufel for VISCOM or you'll regret being born. I'm SO not exaggerating.

Munroe is BY FAR the worst teacher I've ever had at Cal Poly. I went into Vis Com excited to learn Photoshop and Quark but he didn't teach us how to USE the programs at all! He expected us to figure out on our own how to use them, and then lectured for maybe 10 minutes on visually appealing ads even though he didn't show us how to make them visually appealing! Because nobody knew how to do anything, we just sat around waiting for help and going on facebook. The people that didn't go to class got the same grades as the people that did. His grading is rediculous and there is no way of really being able to control the grade you get. It's all up to his whim. Don't take him!! You learn NOTHING.

This class could have been independant study. Munroe structures the class around learning different design applications but he doesn't know how to use them himself. I used an online tutorial to create my final project in Dreamweaver. On top of that, his tests are impossible. He finds the smallest details in the numerous handouts he gives you and expects you to be able to recall them. Don't take him for 390. If possible, take Brady Teufel's section. I wanted to take it with Brady, but his section filled up during priority registration. Good luck if you are stuck with him. Just be prepared to teach yourself the entire syllabus

Munroe, as known to his fellow students, is one of the worst professors I have had at Cal Poly. I am writing this evaluation due out of disappointment, not disrespect. After a year of classes with him, I found his lectures inaccurate, and his respect for students nonexistent. Though I achieved A's in all 3 of his classes, his inconsistent grading policies are absurd. Imagine handouts with mispellings, content on tests that was never covered, and no office hours--thats Munroe!

During this entire quarter all I could think about was how this professor reminded me of that small little dog that runs through the back of scene 23 in The Incredibles by Pixar. Seriously, if you look it up you will only be able to see it...