Well, Im too lazy to explain the situation, so ill post a draft of what I sent our department co-ordinator a while ago. it more or less sums up the issues I had this semester. (Brad = my teacher, Annette = department co-ordinator)
Myself and many of my peers had great difficulty with Brad this semester, namely the lack of attention he gave certain students. At the beginning of the semester I told Brad that I needed continual help to fully develop my ideas. Beginning that day, I did not talk to Brad for nearly four weeks, almost until the mid term review. I was in studio every day until at least 4:30, so it was not a lack of attendance on my part which caused this, rather it was nearly 2 hour long conversations with certain students during studio time.
Many times throughout the semester, Brad told me I had not produced enough work since previous discussions. This is because he never took the time to look at the work I had done. I have a file with over 80 individual CAD drawings, and numerous sketch models to show that I did in fact produce a good amount of work.
I understand that now is not the time to bring up these issues, I should have discussed this with you during the semester. What caused this apprehension was the fact that during one particular studio, Brad alluded to the fact that someone had raised issue with him to someone else in the department, and proceeded to more or less yell at us for nearly an hour.
Overall, I was very disappointed at this semester as a whole. We had a wonderful project, that I was not allowed to design. Rather Brad designed my building. He never let me explain my design ideas, rather forcing his own upon me. In one particular instance, he gave me some criticism on a model I made. I made changes to my design to reflect this, and then proceeded to expand further on his ideas. When he saw that I had gone further with the design instead of doing exactly what he told me, he said “If this was a firm, you would be fired for not listening to me”. This is school, this is not a firm. As far as I know, this is the place we, as students, get to explore our own ideas of designs, instead of being forced into someone else’s.
I apologize for sending you such a long winded commentary, but these are issues that I never got to address. Brad is a very talented designer, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for his ideas, but I think the way he conducts himself in the studio is completely inappropriate. The reason I share all of this with you Annette, is that you have always presented yourself as very open to us students.
Again, I am very displeased as I truly believe that the work I did this semester is not C work. I believe firmly that my grade is a result of a total and complete lack of communication between myself and Brad. I can honestly say that this semester, I did more work then I ever have before. I made every attempt to put forth my best effort, in fact in most reviews, I was usually one of a very few students who had completed all the requirements in terms of drawings and models, and received comments about this from Brad himself.
I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to read all of this, and again, I apologize for not bringing up these issues with you earlier in the semester.
Thank you