States, Mitchell  

Dr. States is, among other things, a damn good prof. He doesn't b.s. his expectations of his students from the very beginning of the quarter. Bus. 382, Management and Organization Theory, is a difficult class. It does require that you study alot, and the tests and quizzes are difficult, but in the end, you will have learned alot that you didn't know before. States is pretty much an asshole as far as people skills goes. He is one of those teachers that you hate all quarter, but his cynisism starts to grow on you. He gives one midterm and a final and quizes about every other class period. Make sure you read the text for the quizzes, but know the lecture models for the tests. He will rip you a new one on the essays if you are bullshitting. All in all, though, he is what Poly needs more of: someone who will prepare you for the real world instead of trying to be your friend.

Mitch States- I took his course on Organizational Theory many years ago. At the time he worked for Diablo Cannon, which I believe is owned and operated by PG&E, as a consultant. I can remember Mitch making a statement how the world needed A,B,C,D and yes even F students. Somehow inferring your grade would be a reflection of where you fit into the world. Many years into my career, and earning exponentially more than Mitch, I would like to share with you how full of "@#$%" old Mitch is. Main Point- if you work for a utility you are essentially as skilled and motivated as a Cal Trans worker. I have been working with Utilities all over the United States for the past 5 years, as punctuated by recent events; this is not a place for those with even mid-level goals and aspirations. To be fare to Mitch he was right about one thing, Cal Poly grads are some of the best and brightest in the work force, and well respected. The bottom line -take his course, because it is the only one that fits your schedule, listen to a pompous windbag, who is one tier up from a system sucker, do your best and know you can achieve anything regardless of what Mitch might tell you. PS - the material is not applicable Peace -

Mitch is just not a nice person. He will make you and the whole class feel like you are idiots and treat people like crap the entire quarter, and then he fishes for sympathy when he gets a cold. You know damn right that if you were sick for a test he would take you over a barrel without hesitation. The bottom line is that he needs to work on his people skills for this little thing we call reality. Just because you live part of the time in academia doesn't make you better than anyone else, and the way he treats people, hopefully, will come back to bite him in the ass someday.

Mitch States is an awsome prof. He is tough and expects a lot from his students. Don't miss any classes. Read before every class because there are pop quizzes almost every night. Outline the chapters and know his models from lecture. Tests and quizzes can be challenging. Tests are part m/c, t/f, and essay. There's only 1 midterm 25%, 1 final 40%, and quizzes 35% (as the breakdown for grades). The highest score in the class becomes the 100% score. You will learn a lot from this prof. He's funny, energetic, and makes class as interesting as possible. Highly recommend!

States knows the material, I believe it is basically what his job is. He works for PG&E, and teaches one class every quarter. He tries to get students to ask and answer questions to guide the lecture, but he doesn't really foster an atmosphere that encourages questions. He is kind of intimidating in that way. But he presents material pretty clearly, as long as you go to the lectures you should be ok. He tries to make everything sound really hard, and he constantly tells us how much worse Cal Poly students are than others, but in the end it isn't that bad. Weekly quizzes are fairly easy if you read, that makes up 35%. Midterm is pretty hard, but he takes the highest grade in the class as 100%, which in my class was like 88 or so. So my middle C became a B+. Final is easier than the midterm, and same grading principle. Take his sarcasm with a grain of salt, and show up to class.

Really enjoyed the teacher. Had an old school way of teaching (aka gets irritated if you are late to class, if you are absent, or even if too many students are going to the restroom). I really enjoyed his lectures, he did not just quote word for word from the book. Midterms are m/c and short answers, which are easy if you went to all the lectures and understood the concepts. The text book SUCKED though. Could not read for over 4 pages without falling asleep and/or getting confused.

If you can, dont take States. I did enjoy the class subject and its contents but not due to States. He is a bad teacher. Even though he knows his material, he has no respect or any kind of sympathy for students. No matter what the students do, he already has a preconceived notion about us students. He will belittle you and he doesnt care about our concerns and/or future. I really dont even know why he is a teacher. He doesnt seem to enjoy it at all, that and life. He is a bitter man and teacher. Dont take him. But if you do, make sure to not let him get to you. And give him a hard time ha. O and also, getting an A in his class is hard. His quizes are the biggest percentages of your grade and his final is comprehensive, so good luck.

HORRIBLE teacher and individual. He doesnt care about his students at all. I'm surprised he is even a teacher, because I'm pretty positive he hates students. He never smiles. He is a hyprocite. He is rude. He is a horrible example of a Cal Poly professor. He needs to be fired. And then after that he needs to go to a training session about how to be humane and caring.

He is an average professor. I never saw any of the behavior described below in the negative comments, though. But the class and his teaching style are nothing memorable. The text he uses is horrible - after every few sentences, the book gives an example and then just drags it out by describing every detail. After a few chapters, you learn to skip over the examples because they do not provide any benefit, nor are any of the examples on the tests or quizzes. The grading consisted of about a quiz a week, a MC/TF midterm, MC/TF/Essay final, and a group training session(presentation). This class is not a ton of work, but you do have to keep up with the reading through the quarter. He likes to talk about his work at PG&E, which is occasionally relevant, but I sometimes got the impression he was just doing it so he could talk about and show pictures of himself.

Mr States teaches this class like a real lecture class. Its less of the "learn by doing" stuff that all the other 387 teachers force us to do. There arent any group projects, or group quizes or anything of the sort. We have quizes randomly on the reading, that are pretty damn hard, then a midterm that is more reasonable and a final. He grades on a sweet curve that gives the person with the highest score on the test a 100% then everyones grade is based on that. Same with quiz totals. I hated him so much for the entire quarter, but in hindsight, I learned an amazing amount of stuff in his class. I needed a really good grade on the final to get a B- in the class, and i think he was generous with the grading. There are essays on the tests that are easy if you study hard. The quizes are really really lame, you basically have to study like each quiz is a test, they are very hard, really hurt my grade.

States....man, it's probably already been said before, but when you teach a training and development course for HUMAN RESOURCE majors, you can't teach one way and then belittle your students constantly and be a pain in the ass about everything. It's 6-8pm at night and we've been at school all day most of us...do you HAVE to complain if we try to sneak somethin to eat? I understand this guy wants us to behave in an "adult learning setting", but give us a break. His tests are weird, he never seems very prepared, since he comes in from his job at PG&E (that's why you'll always have class with him from 6-8pm), and he grades a training presentation you do (worth 45% of your grade) COMPARATIVELY. Yea, that's right, it means he grades the first group with no one to model after and with a month less time to prepare than the last group to go, against the last group who's had all the time in the world and six other groups to compare to. Doesn't seem like a very good evaluation process to me now DOES IT? Let's think this one through. Get a real grading scale then come back and teach HR majors. The College of Business really needs to get professors who not only teach the correct behaviors and knowledge, but also can MODEL them. Good riddance. You'll probably end up with a good grade, so it's ok to take this guy, but don't think you'll be able to count on anything for sure. It's like a walk through the dark.

Basically, I was irritated by this guy for a whole quarter because he was a HYPOCRITE. He is teaching a training course, and throughout the course did the opposite of everything he said. Case and point: he told us that when teaching a 2 hour training session (similar to our class!), you should provide a 10 min. break in the middle, yet our class never got breaks! He had the nerve to get mad at people for trying to step outside in the middle to use the restroom, or if someone brought in a small snack because it was 6pm! His tests were exhausting (long essays and m/c, t/f). Lastly, his presence in the room was always known because his clothes always smelled like cigarettes. Lastly, what the person below said about the project is true, how can you grade comparatively for groups when you set up the presentations like that?! AVOID HIM if you can and you'll be a happier person.

this guy is a moron. By far the worst instructor I ever had, and I went to community college for 2 years. He has no idea what he is doing. Mitch, if you read this, RETIRE. NOW. YOU ARE DOING MORE HARM THAN GOOD. I took two classes with you and never learned a damn thing.