Problems with this semester aside, Lang isn't a teacher. He's a grader. After about the 2nd week of class, group presentations start. The students in the group read an assigned section and present the material. Lang does not teach it! Do NOT buy the books, do NOT buy the coursepack. Find out what group you're in, what you're assigned to do. Then copy the info you need. The coursepack alone was $80 that I never opened. The books were probably close to the same. The tests are 100 question T/F which is nice but annoying to take. Many trick questions. There is also a provision in the syllabus that allows Lang to change the class however and whenever he sees fit. Unfortunately he's allowed to do this and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.



Now to this semester's issues. The class was going along fine until the class before our first exam. Lang had told us that he would review and go over the exam that class in leiu of a study guide. Class is starting and the TA is there - no Lang. We press for answers - we obviously want to know. For those of you bashing us, we paid for the class - we have a right to know.



The TA was tight lipped, not being helped by her lack of English skills. Many people left class, pissed off. She had the group scheduled that day present (they got a perfect score, by the way). When I pressed her for answers once again, she became combative. An e-mail was drafted to Lang about what happened. Before we sent it off, the TA finally told ONE student that Lang's best friend has passed away, thus his absence. We quickly changed the wording of the e-mail to express condolences instead and sent it off.



Hours before the exam, Lang posted a 15 page paper due in 16 days on ANGEL. This upset just about everyone, and I know a few people dropped the class. He told us prior to the exam that it was because of some rude e-mails he had received.



Take a moment here. You're in a class, day before one of 3 exams. You're told the professor will review that day. Instead, the TA shows up and offers no explanation as to the absence and won't go over the exam seeing as she hasn't seen it. You storm out of class, ticked.



What would YOU have done?



I'm not saying what they did was right, or justified. You have to understand their frustration. Some people can deal, some can't.



So many people pled their cases to Lang. He ended up dropping that paper down to a 10 page minimum as well as the next paper. Some people posting here are saying that we shouldn't have praised him. Listen: the punishment was going to stand, we had no outs due to the syllabus provision. It got knocked down and for those that didn't care, it helped you.



Presentations drag on through the weeks. He takes 'attendance' sometimes. By 'attendance' I mean 'makes you write your name on a piece of paper and throws it out'. I was absent once for a legitimate reason, asked about attendance and he laughed saying he didn't keep any of that stuff.



There is ONE paper that is assigned with the class to begin with. 5 page paper on your interactions with someone of a different race, ethnicity etc. about current events. You can bullshit it in about an hour or actually do it in 10 hours. Your choice, really.



All in all, I guess I can't really rip on Lang as a person. The reason I ended up rating him so low is because he never teaches the class, the students do.

I am going to be very thorough in my critique of Dr. Lang. This review will have three components: a review of the class, a review of the work, and the personality of Dr. Lang himself.



The class:

The class, itself, is a pretty easy class, as far as ISS classes go. As of right now, I have 103% in the class. There are two lectures each week (Monday and Wednesday) and attendance is not taken, so missing class really doesn't affect one's grade in a negative way. Occasionally, Lang will send around an attendance sheet and those who sign it will get twenty bonus points. He did this twice this past semester (hence my grade of over 100%). Dr. Lang does not teach the class; rather, there are twelve to thirteen groups who teach by means of PowerPoint presentations each Monday. On Wednesdays, Lang teaches - that is, he teaches if he actually decides to show up to class. On three separate occasions, I went to class, along with a handful of other people, and Lang was nowhere to be found.



The work:

Originally, we were supposed to have three tests (as stated on the syllabus) including the final examination, but Lang got pissed off at us for some reason and made us write two five-page papers without telling us why. The tests are 100 true and false questions that resemble trivia one would find in Jeopardy! or Brain Quest games. After the papers are turned in, he tells us that they would be used as a replacement for the test grades. Knowing that in advance would have been great, as I do take pride in my writing and I was essentially rushed to produce two papers of mediocrity. At the beginning of the semester, one is placed in a group of 10-15 people and you have to present the cities of a given region of the world. With the exception of three or four people in my group, it was a pain in the ass. But it's an easy grade, essentially, as Lang usually gives everybody 100%. Basically, you don't really need the textbook for this class.



Dr. Lang himself:

Dr. Lang is the worst professor that I have had here in my two years at Michigan State. He shuns the basic responsibilities of a professor, doesn't show up to class half the time and gives us no prior notice nor reason for doing so, frequently changes the syllabus, is extremely moody and irrational when it comes to making decisions. He once told us that his department, the department of Urban Studies, was cut but he's still teaching here. As a tenured professor, I think he's just riding out his time until retirement and he doesn't really give two shits as to whether or not you learn anything. My big beef with him comes with the fact that yesterday, the last day of class, he decided not to show up, thus leaving the class in the dark in regards to what would be on the final. Rumor on the streets has chapters 9-13 on the final, but nobody knows. He never communicates with the students via email and he is poorly organized as a person. But he is friends with Snoop Dogg's "auntie," as he once told me, so if you want to be a couple of degrees away from Snoop, then by all means befriend Lang. The TA doesn't do jack shit in the class except proctor exams, exams for which Lang doesn't even show up. I give this class a 0.5 when I should give it a 0.0; the 0.5 is bonus because I'll walk out of here with a 4.0 but, because I've learned nothing, I can't give it a higher grade.

READ THIS



why are all of you bitching about the group presentations teaching instead of him? who cares if it comes from the groups or him, it's the same material. and he still teaches 1 day out of the 2 days per week. There are 13 groups. you are in 1 group. you present 1 week during the semester. the other 12 present the other weeks. the earlier you present, the easier he grades because you have less time to prepare. so dont do a half ass job in group 10 and expect a good grade. i saw kids in late groups reading from notecards like a book, monotone, standing still like a log. prepare or stop bitching. sign up for the earliest group available. groups present 1 day of the week, lang teaches the 2nd day of the week. simple. you then have 3 tests. They are out of 100 t or f questions each worth 1 point. he will put about 110 or 115 questions on to give you a chance to get a higher grade. so you have about 100-115 questions but the grade is only out of 100 questions. those extra questions help can help your grade, they cant hurt you. now all of you are bitching about how hard the tests are. WELL GUESS WHAT, you dont need to study that hard, or even at all. here is what i saw from the results of the tests:



Test 1: there were 115 questions. 81 were true. thats 81 out of 100- 80%

Test 2: there were 110 question. i didnt count how many were true but it was somewhere in the 70's.

Test 3 (final exam): there were 110 questions. 80 were true, 80/100, 80%.



see how the extra 10-15 questions help you.



lang told us before test 1 he puts a lot more true than false on the tests. he doesnt feel like sitting around turning true statements false, so there arent a lot. so even if you didnt study and just filled in true for the tests, with your group presentation included you could end up with a 80%. now thats a 2.5 on his scale, but dont let that scare you. thats a 2.5 for barely doing anything in a 300 level course. if you just study a little bit, you could find at least 10 false questions on his test then fill in the rest true. thats a 90%. he gives extra credit. im my class it was 30 points. so on my tests i got low 80%'s on all 3. i didnt even study, i just filled in true and picked up some false ones i remembered from the presentations. so thats a loss of about 50 points. add in my 30 points extra credit and i have the 4.0 in the class. now if you actually take this class seriously and study regularly, you should get over 100% overall.



my point is, you can do nearly no work in this 300 level iss course and get a good grade. just know how to play the true's on the tests and apply yourself in the group presentations. if you actually study for the tests and find 20 false questions to give you a 100% on them, then you could get a lower grade on the presentation but still get a 4.0 overall when extra credit comes around. DONT LET HIS GRADING SCALE SCARE YOU. WHEN YOU TAKE ALL OF THIS INTO CONSIDERATION, THE GRADING SCALE IS FAIR.



and he lets class out halfway through the scheduled time. stop bitching or else go sit in another 300 level iss course, take notes the whole time and have a class average of 65% on your tests. whatever, i got my easy 4.0, you decide what you want

Alright let me set the story straight as to why it is that this man had something like all 4.0's and then a dramatic change to all 0.0's. Basically Professor Lang is a really nice guy. I honestly do believe that the man means well., but there are some real spoiled students in the class that need to grow up or just withdraw from MSU. Some of these kids are the ones that just think they should be handed a degree because they are apparently special. Its the same kids whose parents gave them a BMW on their 16th birthday, only to crash the car and total it before the month was up. The same type of kids that have no hope in life and should just kill themselves.



Everything in the class was going well till the class right before the first exam. The issue arose when Dr. Lang said that he would go over the material on the exam the class before the midterm since he wouldnt be giving out a study guide. Yet unexpectedly, his best friend died the day before we were supposed to have this review class. So instead of Dr. Lang being in class, his TA is there. And she didnt tell anyone why Dr. Lang was not there, so what ends up happening is more than half the class just decieds to leave. This pisses off the TA. To make matters worse, some of those students who left early decided to email the professor and call him stuff that I wouldnt call my worst enemy. Again keep in mind, the professor is not there because his best friend has just died; a very important piece of information that the TA forgot to mention. I am also certain that people wouldnt of emailed these emails if they knew the mans best friend had just passed away.



So, then before the first exam Dr. Lang was so mad at the emails he received he assigns two extra term papers for the course. Each of these papers are to be at least 10 pages long. To be honest, I cant say that I blame the man. Further, I guess as of now, the TA has caught some students plagerizing.



It seems like everyone is putting a lot of extra and undue blame on Dr. Lang. But seriously, if your best friend had just died and you had over 35 students emailing you telling you what kind of a jerk you were would you really stand for it? Ultimately he is the professor and I think its absoultely insane that some students would honestly have the nerve to write a professor such emails regardless of the situation.



Overall, Dr. Lang is a pretty good professor. If it werent for this whole miscommunication situation he probably wouldnt have received a single 0.0. His exams arent really that bad. They are 100 True/False questions. You have a 50/50 chance of getting those right if you know the material or not, and he grades the presentation pretty reasonably.



I think I am more amazed that students would email a professor telling them that kind of stuff to upset someone to the point that they would assign two extra term papers.

1) He did less than 5% of the actual teaching in the class. The rest of the material was taught by the groups he assigned. Good way to learn 1 portion of the material, but you really dont learn shit from the rest of the groups because its so boring.



2) He is very opinionated, and tries to push his own opinions on your own and will shoot them down and make fun of you publicly if you go against his opinion. Don't take his class if you are a practicing Christian.



3) Impossible to get a 4.0 (95% or above). No curve of course, and you'll be damn lucky to get any extra credit. I put hours and hours and hours and hours into this class to only pull a 3.0. And for me, that was tough. I think I deserve a better grade than a 3.0 for the amount of work I put in.



4) All tests true and false. The probability of getting a 95% on one of his tests is freakishly small.



5) Working with groups is rediculous. 2 out of 7 members in my group didn't do their part, and MY grade suffered because of it, and almost 30% of my grade was group work. I got an 80% on two projects, of which both combined I put around 20 hours of work in.



6) Test questions can be rediculously trivial. Part of the problem is that students write a significant portion of test questions. The groups will make a presentation of the material, submit a written summary which the whole class can read, and provide exam questions, which he will use to study from. So you will base all your knowledge from terribly boring presenations and terribly written summaries. No study guides of course, as he would say "This is a MAJOR BIG 10 RESEARCH UNIVERSITY! I'm not telling you what's on the test, because then what's the point of testing you on it?" Because that way we learn WHAT'S IMPORTANT, rather than trying to cram tons of useless information... Example test question: German Americans had to get rid of what the New York Times called “the smell of the swastika,” which meant to get rid of the attachment to their German ancestry. -False (“the odor of the swastika”)



8) My biggest gripe though: 4 of my friends took this exact class with a different professor and they all say that it is BY FAR one of the easiest classes they've ever taken. NO homework, 5 multiple choice tests with EASY answers, and enough extra credit to be worth an ENTIRE exam. None of these friends are getting less than a 4.0 in the class, and none of them are any smarter than the average Joe College. One of my friends says hes only lost 1 point in the entire semester. Their professors name is Yoganand Sinha.

This man is a joke. Though that should be enough to make you not want to take his class, I'll do a little more convincing.



I consider myself a good student. I have a 3.7 cumulative GPA, and I study pretty hard to keep it that way. I read the bad ratings about this man's classes, but I thought, "how hard can ISS be?"



The class itself is not hard. You don't do any work except for a joke powerpoint presentation, and 3 exams. He hated our powerpoint (even thought it was no different from any other groups' powerpoint), and gave us an 80% on it (which is a 2.5 in this class). On the exams, I got 91, 85, and 75. Though the exams ARE only True/False, the questions are all about nitty gritty details from the book and his notes.



If you scheduled yourself for this class, do yourself a favor and get out of it. You will NOT 4.0 this class, unless you plan to study about world urban development for 3 hours every day (trust me, you won't). And that is not an understatement; I studied for each of his exams for about 3-4 hours, and that got me a 3.0 for the class.



Marvel Lang, thanks for fucking up spring semester 2008 for me. I don't wish death upon people, but I hope that when you DO die, that you go to the deepest layers of hell, and get to watch snoop dogg fuck his auntie for eternity.



beadle out.

Dr. Lang makes it almost impossible to get lower than a 3.5, but he's what I would call a poor professor. To start, he cancels more classes than any other prof I've ever had; on the days he doesn't cancel, he tends to let out class very early. Since the class is divided into ~13 groups, each taking an entire class period to present material, over half of his classes weren't even taught by him or any other faculty member. This leaves very little time for actual lecture, and Dr. Lang frankly seems to not care whether students learn anything about urban systems.



Tests centered not on urban concepts, but on the presentations--you'll find yourself drilling trivia like "what is the tallest building in the world?" and "what is the science capital of India?" into your head. Further, every test is 100 T/F questions, and most of the questions on these tests are written by students and turned in on the day of their presentation.



I guess to sum it up, I 4.0ed the class, but I spent countless hours doing mundane assignments and memorizing trivia that's better suited to Jeopardy than to a 300-level class at a highly regarded university. Take this class if you want an easy grade, but avoid it if you value your time and come to learn.

Worst class I've ever taken. Worst professor I've ever had. He doesn't even teach his own classes or grade his own papers. Oh, and he changes his syllabus depending on his current mood, and his grading scheme follows the same agenda. By that I mean, on the first paper he gave everyone I talked to 100 percents...On the second one, he gave everyone failing grades. I probably talked to 6 or 7 different students and the grades ranged from 45 to 65 percent. Maybe his TA graded the second ones and he just gave everyone one hundred because he didnt wanna grade or vice versa. I don't know. But I am a reasonable good student. I am a reasonable person. I have had a 3.8 up to the this point in my college career, although I am only a sophomore. Hes the worst prof I've ever heard of. Too moody. Likes to assign random extra stuff, changes his mind on point numbers and if the assignment will actually count after you do it. Also, he likes the bash the Bible but that doesnt bother me quite as much as the unpredictaability of the class. He may seem funny at first...but hes awful. haha Obviously i feel strongly...please take my advice and run.

This is a decent class. He is just a lazy man who would rather have the students teach the class. If you're interested in a class with no homework, then this is a good class to take.



I understand how people could hate this guy. His grading scale is really hard, the tests are all tricky true/false, and he isn't much help. But I got a 4.0 by doing the presentation (I don't know of anyone in my class not getting a 100%, but maybe there are some groups out there that did not do well), getting a 82 and a 79 on the two midterm exams, a 90 on the final exam, and then 29 extra credit points. All of this ended up at a 95%, which is his lowest 4.0. I know, that is crazy, a 95 as the lowest 4.0, but it's obviously do-able. I never went to class and never studied.



So if you're going to take this class, make sure you and a friend maybe alternate going to classes and always know if there is going to be an extra credit opportunity, jump on it, and your grade will be fine. I know I would not have a 4.0 without this extra credit, but other people say he is known for giving out a lot of it. I did well in this class, but maybe I was lucky.

Marvel Lang is a nice guy, who is personable, humorous and friendly. The problem is his class is structured in such a way that leaves a lot of room for improvement. You're graded on three tests which require a ridiculous amount of studying and memorization of minute details to do well on. Even then, they're all true and false and ask sometime ambiguous questions. Another part of your grade comes from your group project but this is essentially graded on how well it's presented often by only 3 or 4 people. That means that these people are doing all the work to determine the grades of the other 8 or 9. You're also graded on your reviews of other groups but you could probably right down just about anything on the review sheet and get credit for it. Lang cancels class or doesn't give notes at his discretion but you still may have to know the material. For some reason he sets his grading scale at 95-100 for a 4.0, 90-95 for a 3.5 etc. He essentially let's the TA who you only see once ever do his grading for him. Along with Bratzel, he's one of the biggest slacker teachers I've ever had.

If you're looking for an easy 4.0, take this class and go to all of the lectures to earn bonus points. If you're looking for a class where you'll actually learn something, find a different prof. How Dr. Lang actually gets paid to be an MSU professor is beyond me. Students did all the teaching from the group presentations and had to put a summary of their project online. The only point in going to class is to hope for some bonus points or see if he gives out a random assignment that he pulls out of his ass and changes the criteria/points it is worth at least 3 times. I used the class time to do other homework because there is no point in paying attention. Even when Lang has discussions they are based on personal opinions- and therefore irrelevant to his 100 question true/false exams. Don't even bother reading the book, only the chapter summaries for the tests. But like I said if you don't mind sitting in a room doing nothing for a few hours a week, then you'll get a good grade.

Worst Prof I've ever had at MSU so far, and that says alot.



95% = 4.0. All of the exams were 110 questions out of 100, T or F, easy right?

F. None of the material on the exam is anything you can study for. The lectures are terrible. For the ones he teaches he uses overheads and merely reads what is on them. For the group presentations, it's amazing how many groups used dark black text over dark red power point slides.

that's besides the point. Anyway, from what i read here before, those groups make T or F questions and then he uses that for the exam. My group this semester didn't do that, so i assume he just recycled last years exam, and none of the information from the projects.



I recommend this class to anyone who wants to play emulators on their laptop during class.

(ps if you're reading this after you signed up for the class and cant get out of it, go to class, and he might give extra credit for attending (he gave us a 30/0 point 'quiz')

WOW..it seems like people are being Harsh on this Prof. He was wonderful to me..he gave every opportunity for anybody to at least pass the class...I got a 4.0 easily in this class..his tests were fair and went through all the material that we learned some questions were also common sense. The group presentation we had to do was also pretty simple. The only downfall was that it was so hott in the classroom every session..but that wasn't his fault.



Obviously since he was an African American teacher he might have different viewpoints than some people but he did allow class participation..so u can't knock him for that.

So in my opinion take Lang for a good grade and to learn some good information because I had taken this class one time b4 and the teacher was crappy and the tests didn't make any sense. So your best bet would be to take this teacher if you decide take this class. :=)

By far one of the worst classes offered at MSU. Professor Lang will hopefully be fired after this semester is over. His class revolved around group presentations of cities around the world and tested on irrelevent true and false questions from these presentations and the text book. He maybe lectured three times besides talking about how it was sunny outside and how his lawn had been mowed for the second time. I only got a C on one test and pretty much aced everything else including the project and I'm still going to get a 2.5. Lang is racist and favors the African American students who come in late and give him high fives. Kill yourself before taking this class because a quarter of the way through it you will want to... so you might as well get it over with. PLEASE DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS!

Dr. Marvel Lang might seem cool for the first several days of class... when he actually makes an attempt to teach and his sense of humor shines through. After that, though, it's all downhill.



Each class is dominated by student presentations. I had never fallen asleep in any class in my life prior to this one (now it's a normal occurrence). Dr. Lang seldom contributes to the class aside from his five minute preface to the group presentations. Sometimes he will ask for students' opinions on his own lazily crafted questions.



Also, be sure to take only the liberal argument or risk having him drown you out by shouting incoherently. He actually freaked out the class once during a seemingly benign discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.



And yes, his tests are all T or F.

Dr. Lang didn’t really teach after the second week of class. The whole course was taught by student group presentations. That is not necessarily a bad thing but the tests were ridiculous. Most of the questions had unexcitable grammatical errors which lead to increased difficulty to determine what the question was asking.



Dr. Lang is a nice guy and he is very helpful when you ask him for it. But if you manage to upset him (like our class) you will receive huge assignments added to the syllabus after the date to drop which required me to decrease my work schedule to keep up with the workload of the class.



Over all I would not recommend this class to anyone and it is my opinion that almost every other student that took the class would agree with me.





But the tests are easy

What a hack! He is the laziest professor I have ever had in my 3 years as a college student. He lectured twice the entire semester and even then all he did was put up definitions of things that aren't even on the exams on the overhead. The rest of the class was inefficiently taught by the students who were assigned to groups of 15 people and assigned a chapter to present. This class was worthless! He is a HORRIBLE professor. I learned absolutely nothing except that world urbanization blows and Lang should be fired.



Oh yea and it is impossible to 4.0 this class. He doesn't give extra credit and his exams are 100 questions T/F. I am a 4.0 student and I will probably end up with a 2.5.



DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!!! I'm not even being dramatic.... it's the absolute truth.

What a hack! He is the laziest professor I have ever had in my 3 years as a college student. He lectured twice the entire semester and even then all he did was put up definitions of things that aren't even on the exams on the overhead. The rest of the class was inefficiently taught by the students who were assigned to groups of 15 people and assigned a chapter to present. This class was worthless! He is a HORRIBLE professor. I learned absolutely nothing except that world urbanization blows and Lang should be fired.



Oh yea and it is impossible to 4.0 this class. He doesn't give extra credit and his exams are 100 questions T/F. I am a 4.0 student and I will probably end up with a 2.5.



DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!!! I'm not even being dramatic.... it's the absolute truth

I got a 3.0 and I knew more about the subject matter than Marvel Lang, so he gets a 0. I never went to class because it was USELESS, student made powerpoints that may or may not cover the exam material and a professor who DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING, and this is a fact because whenever someone would ask a question, he would mumble a half-assed answer that wouldn't make sense and then try to pass the question off to a student to answer. He is NOT a nice guy, he seems nice but if you try to talk to him about any problems that arise (usually from his incompetency), he is very bitter and rash. If you are willing to take the chance, take the class and guarantee a 3.0 but you will never forget how MSU has failed you by paying this man your money.

As a person...super nice and considerate. As a teacher...a little extreme when people are mean. The class is easy you just have to go and listen to student based groups present the reading material. The test is 110 true or false questions....and if you went you know which ones are true or false. He's not a 4.0 prof because he did assign two HUGE term papers out of spite....but he was willing to help with the topics if you had any questions. Best advice...do take this class because it's easy...but don't be disrespectful and just force yourself to sit through an hour and half of lame presentations. DONT BUY THE BOOKS OR COURSEPACK. You dont need to read them because all the groups summarize the required reading assignments.