PUB AFF 10
Social Problems and Social Change
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Introduction to social scientific approaches to study of social problems and their solutions. Using selected contemporary social problems as cases, and drawing on variety of sources (such as scholarly readings, video clips, and guest speakers), exploration of how social problems and their solutions come to be defined, roles that economic, political, educational, and cultural institutions play in perpetuating or solving social problems, and how individuals, social advocates, and communities can lead or impede social change. Letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - This prof. is very intelligent and well-versed in her policy areas, but is not a very good lecturer/prof. for undergraduates. I think this was her second time teaching an undergraduate class, and she just recycles assignments from her past classes rather than try to create new material to properly teach this class. She assigns readings but I didn't do any of them but still was able to do all my assignments. Her lecture slides seem to be organized, but she often goes off on tangents and the TAs end up explaining everything all over again during discussions. After the first few classes, I just ended up going to lecture just to sign-in for attendance points and then would just leave halfway through the class because it would be a waste of my time. I hope she does not teach this class again since it was supposed to be an introduction class but I ended up learning nothing. I heard somewhere she was good as a graduate level lecturer, but from my experience definitely not for undergrad.
Winter 2020 - This prof. is very intelligent and well-versed in her policy areas, but is not a very good lecturer/prof. for undergraduates. I think this was her second time teaching an undergraduate class, and she just recycles assignments from her past classes rather than try to create new material to properly teach this class. She assigns readings but I didn't do any of them but still was able to do all my assignments. Her lecture slides seem to be organized, but she often goes off on tangents and the TAs end up explaining everything all over again during discussions. After the first few classes, I just ended up going to lecture just to sign-in for attendance points and then would just leave halfway through the class because it would be a waste of my time. I hope she does not teach this class again since it was supposed to be an introduction class but I ended up learning nothing. I heard somewhere she was good as a graduate level lecturer, but from my experience definitely not for undergrad.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - This class is great with Amy! She's super inclusive and understanding that students have lives outside of school. She was flexible with deadlines, and it was really easy to approach her for more time. She challenges the power dynamic of the classroom, which I really enjoyed. This class didn't have any tests, but we did have to write a few papers but they weren't too much. She connected the information from this class to what is happening present day, and it was super interesting learning about the political scenes of other countries. I would definitely take this class again and would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy class.
Spring 2021 - This class is great with Amy! She's super inclusive and understanding that students have lives outside of school. She was flexible with deadlines, and it was really easy to approach her for more time. She challenges the power dynamic of the classroom, which I really enjoyed. This class didn't have any tests, but we did have to write a few papers but they weren't too much. She connected the information from this class to what is happening present day, and it was super interesting learning about the political scenes of other countries. I would definitely take this class again and would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy class.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - This was def my favorite class this quarter!! Professor Sherrer is great at what he does, making this class an easy and educational experience for his students. First off, all exams (midterm and final) are open note so long as everything is handwritten, which honestly helped me retain the information better. Sometimes the questions on the exams were pulled directly from the slides, word for word, so do take good notes. I'd say around 18/20 of the questions were based on the lectures while around 1-2 were pulled from the readings so make sure to skim them over and take note of the central argument. A tip I recommend is to put a Post-it note on each page of your notes and list all of the main topics you wrote about so you can go through them quickly when taking the exam. There is no textbook and you don't need to pay for class materials since he provides scantrons. The midterm average was 90% and the final was around 87%!! The topics you can expect to learn about are the movements relating to race, women's rights, environment, gun violence, healthcare, education, immigration, economic inequality, barriers to policymaking like the filibuster, etc. Super interesting lectures plus he's really funny. I highly encourage attending the lectures in person (he does post the slides after) since he sometimes did state a few things that were not in the slides but were present in the exam. There were only 3 homework assignments that consisted of making slideshows of a social problem of your choice. The first 2 assignments ranged from 250-500 words while the last assignment (a more research-intensive slideshow) was 500+ words. All of them were spaced out pretty well throughout the quarter and you had an entire week to do them. The first two assignments took me about 1 hour each while the last one took 2 hours. Shoutout to my TA Selena, she's super chill and made my discussion section engaging. All of the discussions extend to the assigned readings and there's really no pressure to participate but if you can, you def should. Attendance is mandatory for these and is included in your grade. Loved this class and will def take another class with him!!
Fall 2023 - This was def my favorite class this quarter!! Professor Sherrer is great at what he does, making this class an easy and educational experience for his students. First off, all exams (midterm and final) are open note so long as everything is handwritten, which honestly helped me retain the information better. Sometimes the questions on the exams were pulled directly from the slides, word for word, so do take good notes. I'd say around 18/20 of the questions were based on the lectures while around 1-2 were pulled from the readings so make sure to skim them over and take note of the central argument. A tip I recommend is to put a Post-it note on each page of your notes and list all of the main topics you wrote about so you can go through them quickly when taking the exam. There is no textbook and you don't need to pay for class materials since he provides scantrons. The midterm average was 90% and the final was around 87%!! The topics you can expect to learn about are the movements relating to race, women's rights, environment, gun violence, healthcare, education, immigration, economic inequality, barriers to policymaking like the filibuster, etc. Super interesting lectures plus he's really funny. I highly encourage attending the lectures in person (he does post the slides after) since he sometimes did state a few things that were not in the slides but were present in the exam. There were only 3 homework assignments that consisted of making slideshows of a social problem of your choice. The first 2 assignments ranged from 250-500 words while the last assignment (a more research-intensive slideshow) was 500+ words. All of them were spaced out pretty well throughout the quarter and you had an entire week to do them. The first two assignments took me about 1 hour each while the last one took 2 hours. Shoutout to my TA Selena, she's super chill and made my discussion section engaging. All of the discussions extend to the assigned readings and there's really no pressure to participate but if you can, you def should. Attendance is mandatory for these and is included in your grade. Loved this class and will def take another class with him!!
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - Overall, this class was enjoyable and provided a great introduction to public affairs. Professor Stoll was very passionate about the subject matter and tried his very best to make the class interesting and engaging. Grading Breakdown: The class is broken down into 2 policy memos (45% of grade), 2 midterms (40% of grade), one op-ed assignment (10% of grade), and discussion section attendance/participation (5%). This is a pretty fair breakdown and offers pretty good distribution across assignments. Lectures: This class was very lecture based with lectures focusing on public policy basics and sub-topic breakdowns (i.e. lectures on heath policy, economic policy, crime policy, etc). This provided a great introduction to future studies in public affairs. I will say, however, Prof. Stoll did get sidetracked often and sometimes only got through 3 slides in one lecture period, focusing instead on a class discussion or going over class logistics. We would try to play catch up but never fully covered all lectures. He also sometimes failed to show up for lecture and his slides were not the easiest to follow. Exams: The class consists of two midterms (no dedicated final exam although midterm #2 is week 10) that include true/false, m/c, short- and long-answer sections. In my opinion, the exams were fair and covered key concepts and gave case studies/scenarios that needed to be resolved. Exam grading was on the slower side but fair. Prof. Stoll was clear on what would be covered and the TA's held review sessions in discussion. Essays: The class consists of three total essays of relatively short length (500 words (op ed), 4 pages (each memo)) that were interesting to write in my opinion. He does change up the essay prompts so ymmv, but the first two essays we got to choose our topics while the last one was on Social Security. We had a long time to write each one and the deadlines were spaced out, but this is one of the main weaknesses of the class. Prof. Stoll failed to release assignment specifics (i.e. rubrics) until like 3-4 days before the due date and communication between the TAs and professor was weak. They often didn't know the specifics and failed to provide examples or even specifics on formatting. Also, your specific TA does not grade your papers, making it hard to know what is expected of the assignment. I definitely recommend working with classmates for peer review as the TAs are not helpful in that regard. Discussion Sections: Personally, I found the discussion sections to be the worst part of the entire course. Instead of focusing on diving deeper into the subject matter explained in lecture, we would review writing tips for the writing assignments, repeating the same key points each week. Even though my TA was very helpful and knowledgeable, he (and others) seemed to not communicate well with the professor, unaware of class logistics (i.e. due dates, assignment specifics, etc). Use caution with this and make sure to listen to everything the professor has to say. Conclusion: Despite these negative marks, this class still was wonderful. I enjoyed learning about the subject material and finding the policy areas I am most interested in. A good grade is doable if you take the time on the essays and review the lectures before the exams. If you are on the fence about pub aff, take this class! You will learn a lot about the field.
Fall 2019 - Overall, this class was enjoyable and provided a great introduction to public affairs. Professor Stoll was very passionate about the subject matter and tried his very best to make the class interesting and engaging. Grading Breakdown: The class is broken down into 2 policy memos (45% of grade), 2 midterms (40% of grade), one op-ed assignment (10% of grade), and discussion section attendance/participation (5%). This is a pretty fair breakdown and offers pretty good distribution across assignments. Lectures: This class was very lecture based with lectures focusing on public policy basics and sub-topic breakdowns (i.e. lectures on heath policy, economic policy, crime policy, etc). This provided a great introduction to future studies in public affairs. I will say, however, Prof. Stoll did get sidetracked often and sometimes only got through 3 slides in one lecture period, focusing instead on a class discussion or going over class logistics. We would try to play catch up but never fully covered all lectures. He also sometimes failed to show up for lecture and his slides were not the easiest to follow. Exams: The class consists of two midterms (no dedicated final exam although midterm #2 is week 10) that include true/false, m/c, short- and long-answer sections. In my opinion, the exams were fair and covered key concepts and gave case studies/scenarios that needed to be resolved. Exam grading was on the slower side but fair. Prof. Stoll was clear on what would be covered and the TA's held review sessions in discussion. Essays: The class consists of three total essays of relatively short length (500 words (op ed), 4 pages (each memo)) that were interesting to write in my opinion. He does change up the essay prompts so ymmv, but the first two essays we got to choose our topics while the last one was on Social Security. We had a long time to write each one and the deadlines were spaced out, but this is one of the main weaknesses of the class. Prof. Stoll failed to release assignment specifics (i.e. rubrics) until like 3-4 days before the due date and communication between the TAs and professor was weak. They often didn't know the specifics and failed to provide examples or even specifics on formatting. Also, your specific TA does not grade your papers, making it hard to know what is expected of the assignment. I definitely recommend working with classmates for peer review as the TAs are not helpful in that regard. Discussion Sections: Personally, I found the discussion sections to be the worst part of the entire course. Instead of focusing on diving deeper into the subject matter explained in lecture, we would review writing tips for the writing assignments, repeating the same key points each week. Even though my TA was very helpful and knowledgeable, he (and others) seemed to not communicate well with the professor, unaware of class logistics (i.e. due dates, assignment specifics, etc). Use caution with this and make sure to listen to everything the professor has to say. Conclusion: Despite these negative marks, this class still was wonderful. I enjoyed learning about the subject material and finding the policy areas I am most interested in. A good grade is doable if you take the time on the essays and review the lectures before the exams. If you are on the fence about pub aff, take this class! You will learn a lot about the field.
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