Valle, Victor  

He is very passionate about what he teaches and he provides a cultural perspective in his lectures. He encourages class participation. I liked the way he put feeling into the information he talked about instead of following a set lesson plan. I think that demonstrates a better understanding of the material by the professor. He has also done real world work related to ethnic studies, so he doesn't merely babble on about rhetoric without experience to back it up. Grading was done pretty fairly and I enjoyed his class.

Although some lectures and topics were not interesting enough to keep awake for the time, there were some that were very interesting. He does show vast knowledge of the subject. Even some personal experiences that relate to the topics at hand. One major problem that I had with the class was the load of reading that was asked. The books were also very bad. I tried to read the assingments a few times, but only to end off dozing after a page, if I was lucky to get that far. Eventually I just said forget it, and didn't bother reading anymore. Most of the tests are drawn from the text, the grading was a little funny. 100 points for the whole quarter, homeworks, group discussions, and extra credit were only 2-3 points each. Little off balance if you ask me. I would not taske the class again, not because of the teacher, just because of the material. I did not feel right or comfortable in that class. I should have dropped it at the beginning of the quarter.

Professor Valle is easily one of the worst teachers I have EVER had. If I had known how insanely stupid this class was going to be, I would have definetely taken ANYTHING else in place of Racism in American Culture. Professor Valle wastes everyones time by blabbing on forever about things that have absolutely nothing to do with the material on his tests. He speaks in a very confusing manner and won't let you ask questions during tests even though many of the questions on them are wordy and unclear. He also assigns TONS of reading and ends up asking questions about the most obscure topics just so people will get the answer wrong. Going to this class was pure Hell...please,please,PLEASE do not take this class, it is not intersting and really has NOTHING to do with racism. He may fool you on the first day by making it seem like you will learn about cool stuff, but it is just a ploy to get people to stay in his bullshit class. This man has no teaching ability whatsoever and should definetely not be at Cal Poly or any other school.

I disliked this class for many reasons. Professor Valle, although a nice guy, was extremely confusing. His lectures were so unorganized that you had no idea what to right as notes. The subject matter was extremely boring and the textbook for this class was even worse. His tests ask way too many numbers which is just plain foolish. He does not tell you what is going to be on the tests, but he does provide extra credit. Even though I got a B, I learned absolutely nothing because I got fed up with his teaching style because it was so unorganized. He just ranbles on about certain unimportant topics. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't take this class.

This class bored me and everyone else in it. Valle is an enthusiastic lecturer, but he tended to go on for long lengths of time on one topic. The tests were pretty difficult, as the questions drew from all the readings and class material and were often very specific. The other assignments were easy, and overall a decent grade in the class is attainable by keeping up with all the readings. Otherwise, it's the class where the clock never moves fast enough.

If you take this class, be prepared for lectures, that are not only incredibly boring, but also that don't pertain AT ALL to the tests! In my opinion there is no possible way to prepare for his exams, except maybe by praying. His tests are largely based on facts and charts, and obscure details in 30 page articles he assigns for homework every night. Do yourself a favor and take another class for your cultural pluralism requirement. You probably have a better knowlege of racism already just from experience and living life, than you will learn from this pointless class.

Prof. Valle is an interesting guy. He will laugh at his own little jokes that no one understands, partly because everyone is already asleep. The title of the class makes you think it will be an interesting class the satisfies the USCP requirement, but no. Very monotonous and digresses often. TAKE ANOTHER CLASS!

Professor Valle is very passionate about his teaching. He's a journalist come teacher. In normal circumstances, his class is not tough. However, he uses a very constrictive grading method. There are 100 total points in the class. Basically, 1 point = 1 %. Recommendation: If group work is your knack and you don't mind the grading system, take Valle. Otherwise, choose otherwise.

ES 114 is the worst class I took at Cal Poly, THE WORST. I only took it because the other classes I took for USCP turned out not to fit the requirements. But this class is disorganized and does nothing to promote positive race relations. The class is full of people who are just trying to graduate and are bored and Valle does nothing to promote discussion. If you have to meet USCP do what you have to, but this class is a big waste of time otherwise.

As many of the above statements above attest, Valle wastes a lot of time on hearing himself talk. The class DOES NOT follow the sylibus. There are many group projects that aren't hard in themselves but they do not lend to the overall direction of the class. He assigned a group presentation for everyone in pairs that in most cases hinges on his lectures. The later he lectures on it, the later the groups can begin developing their presentation. This turns into a problem when he lectures as pointlessly as he does. His midterm is takehome but that is no conselation. It was confusing, wordy and worst of all covered material we hadn't even read yet. The paper was a minimum of 6 pages. This creates an added strain on those with presentations when the midterm is due. I know this because I have experienced it. One week to put together a wordily prompted 8 page essay with accompanying 20-30 minute in class PARTENER presentation as well as preparing a 7 part 6 page essay all due on the same day. Keep these in mind when scheduling for this guy...

Valle is probably the worst teacher that I have ever had. He is definitely the laziest. He totallly redefines "low energy." The worst thing about this course was at least good for me: It's te only "A" that I ever got without putting out any meaningful effort.

Victor Valle is by far one of the worst professors I have had since I have been at Cal Poly. Normally you see people ripping professors because they received a bad grade, but this guy actually does suck. His class has no structure. He basically stands in front of the class for two hours and listens to himself talk. Do yourself a favor and grab a bucket of coffee to keep yourself awake for the time you're there. This guy won a pulitzer prize and grades as such. He is more interested in editing your paper than actully reading what you are saying. Oh, and he also likes to jump in and out of spanish, so unless you are bilingual you will miss out on some of the points in lecture. He is very proud of his mexican background, which is fine, but he also shares some sentiments regarding those of a lighter skin color in that they may not really understand the material due to the lack of pigment in their skin. Well I thought that was his job to help us learn the material. My mistake. Anyway, this guy is terrible and I would avoid him at all costs!!!

dear lord this class has no structure. the syllabus means absolutely nothing, as he will assign readings one day and then never mention them again. i can't even count the number of times he would say "read ____ then answer ____", so i would, then he would forget he said it and not mention it ever again! that being said, i got A's on all the essays/responses/papers without much effort but i know a lot of people who were not liberal arts majors struggled as he is very into grammar. nice guy, tries to help students and answer questions...just unable to. rambles all the time, taking the most circuitous route in his "lectures"...DO THE EXTRA CREDIT.

Good lord where do I begin. This has got to have been the biggest waste of time I have ever had the displeasure to have been forced to endure. The man is in no way shape or form qualified to be a teacher, however you will hear several times each class that he "used to be a reporter." Not only that, he is one of the worst people to have a conversation with. In class I tried to give an answer to a question he directly asked me, and was unable to give my 2 sentence answer for over 20 minutes because the man kept deciding he had something more important to say and would interrupt me before letting me finish more than 3 words. Not only that, he is physically incapable of staying on topic for longer than 5 minutes, as he constantly drifts in and out of what class he seems to be teaching and goes from a general review of a book that we were forced to read and will suddenly talk about how there was more than one genocide in history, and give little to no explanation as to why he brought it up other than an awkward laugh. I deeply regret taking this class without reading the poly rating, and I wish there was some way to give this man less than 0 stars.

Valle was a good professor filled with passion. Sometimes the content of the class seemed to sway from what I would call relevent to the course, but it was still fairly interesting. Also, I think sometimes he was a little too smart for us normal people, and was hard to understand. However, the class was interesting. His assignments were a lot of work and related to somthing really out there in the communitty, so they were worthwhile. He is innovated and creative. Overall, it was a good class to take. His exams were confusingly worded and tested on only a small part of the material to be covered, but there were enough opportunities to earn points to even it out.

He's a nice guy, just not cut out to be a professor. We had two lectures actually related to Mexican American issues, most of the class was either him rambling about incomprehensible theories or us compiling research for his next book. I felt every minute of the two hours I spent in his classroom in excruciating detail. Easy class to ace, not worth the time you'll spend hearing the same inane things over and over and over again.

This guy is a terrible professor. He is incredibly redundant, boring and doesn't understand his students in the slightest. The class consisted of 40% actual ethnic studies, 30% of him digging way deeper into the material than was necessary, and 30% of his own research. Speaking of, this guy thinks you care way more about his research than you should. That being said, you should definitely take this class if you want an easy A. 25% of the points came from putting a word document on a cd.

Valle is nice guy but a horrible teacher. I wasn't able to access this site before I registered but if I would have read what others had read about him...I definitely would not have taken the class with him. He loves to hear himself talk and he thinks he knows everything. If you ask him questions for clarification he doesn't answer them directly...leaving you even more lost. The last thing I want to say is that in my four years of school I have never had a teacher not pass out evals. He said it was not life or death if we didn't get to fill them out...meaning he knows he sucks but he has ten year so what does he have to worry. So listen to what people say...do not take the class you will want to cry every day you go to class because it's just that bad.

IT'S A NIGHTMARE...i had him at Cuesta for a drama class, and he sucked. and, now he's at Poly teaching ES becuase he's a Chicano. I am Mexican-American, too, and he doesn't do us a favor with his lousy teaching; send him back to Cuesta.