Western Kentucky University / P / Cassandra Pinnick

This class was absolutely terrible! The professor was, by far, the worst I have ever had! She is very demanding, rude, and irrational. DO NOTTTT take her! I made an A in the course but have no idea how that happened. I definitely deserved an A for putting up with her for 8 weeks though. She doesn't explain the material well and if you have a question about ANYTHING she will not answer it. Instead of simply answering your question in a yes/no manner, she will fuss at you for asking the question in the first place and blame you for not reading the material and thinking critically about the problem. Our entire class, (11 of the 20 who stuck out the class) banded together just to try and make the course tolerable. The final was the biggest slap in the face ever! We had to do the longest and hardest assignment of the course in two hours (we normally had 3 or 4 days to do an assignment). During the duration of the course, Dr. Pinnick constantly reiterated the point of taking time to write your position papers. She stated that multiple days and hours need to be given to the paper. Heck, it took me an entire day to just figure out what the heck she was saying. She loves to intimidate you with her vocabulary, so you will probably have no clue what she is talking about. Oh, and did I mention the course had nothing to do with medical ethics! We never mentioned Abortion, pharm. companies, end of life decisions, stem cell, insurance agencies and health care, etc. In fact, the biomedical ethics course was taught with the same syllabus and readings as Dr. Pinnick's traditional ethics course. So basically, it was a general ethics course, not a biomedical ethics course. Stay away from this professor at all costs! Like I said, I don't know how on earth I made an A, but truly deserved it for putting up with the professor!

Before I post my MANY complaints about this class, I'd like to start by saying that I am a hard worker, and generally never complain about classes or professors. I'm a junior at WKU and double majoring in Nursing & Spanish, as well as a member of the honors college. I have an almost 4.0 (one B) and have mustered through some truly difficult classes with my head above water. That being said, I feel that I have credibility when I say that Dr. Pinnick is the WORST professor I have EVER had! Yes I did get an A in this class (only by the grace of God), but this class has been a true thorn in my side.

It's not that the material is difficult, it is 100% that the professor is terrible. She will make your life painful. She is the rudest, most unapproachable woman. For an online class, one would assume that the professor would encourage communication through email since there is no chance to ask questions in the class room. Not so with her. Don't ever send her an email. It's truly pointless as she will never actually answer your questions, and will instead insult you and go on and on about how you need to try harder, read more, etc. (even if you are just asking a general question about grading or something like that). Expect no help from her at all. She actually taught this class from Hawaii, so don't count on trying to go see her in her office!

Her teaching methods are ridiculous. Your whole grade will be based on 2 essays! That's it! She will give you the opportunity to do an "optional essay" at the beginning of the semester. I recommend doing it, just so you can see how she grades (and also I think that puts you on better terms with her, and I think her grading has a lot to do with how she feels about you... so try to stay on her good side). For the first graded essay, she will give you the prompt three days before the essay is due. You then have three days to advocate for the position that she gives you. Her positions take forever to figure out (as well as a dictionary as she uses very advanced vocabulary). You will do lots of reading and watch a ton of movies that seem to have nothing to do with anything that you are studying. Use the movies as your "case studies" when you write your papers. I think the grading is dependent on her mood and based on if she likes your paper or not. She will give you comments about it after she grades it, but she never explains why you get the grade that you get. Some students in the class received very poor grades while others received great grades for papers of virtually the same quality.

The final was a nightmare. She gives no explanation ahead of time about the format. All you know going into it, is that you have two hours to take it, and that it could be over anything. She contradicts herself because she says that to write a proper paper, one must spend at least three days on it (writing, and rewriting, proof reading etc.). Yet, for the final, you have only two hours! You won't get the prompt until you begin the test. The prompt was even more challenging than the previous prompts were, except there was no time to really figure out what it meant. You will write your essay as fast as you can and then discover that you also have 10 terms to define.... again, all within two hours. I did my best on the final but felt like I failed it. It was impossible to do a good job in only two hours. She must not have graded it too strictly, however, since I ended up with an A in the class.

And finally, the class content has nothing to do with biomedical ethics, it's really just an intro to ethics class. Biomedical ethics is supposed to teach about ethical issues that are actually relevant to medicine, such as abortion, prolonging life, ending suffering, pharmaceutical companies etc. This class discussed none of those things. There is one text book, which is excellent, that discusses medical case studies and issues that are actually relevant to medicine, but we hardly read that book at all. A few of the movies were related to medical issues, but that's about it. I took this class because I was required to for nursing. I was genuinely excited about it and looking forward to the subject matter. If I had known that it would be such a terrible and difficult class, and that we would not be discussing any medical issues, I would have taken a general ethics class with a different professor just to meet that requirement. I would not recommend this class to anyone! Truly. Half of the class dropped after the first few weeks. The rest of us who stuck with it, formed a study group to try to help each other muster through (since we weren't going to get ANY support from the prof). Everyone felt the way I did. We all loathed this class. If you aren't required to take this specific course, don't do it! The only redeeming thing about this whole class, is that it's a biterm, so the nightmare only lasts 8 weeks.

Like I stated earlier, I did get an A in this class, so it's not impossible; however, I am the only one in the class, that I know of, who received an A. It's not that the material is difficult. I'm writing this because I strongly disagree with her teaching methods and want to discourage everyone from having to endure such a painful and frustrating class if at all possible. My sincere hope is that WKU will look into her many grievances and terminate her teaching career.

I took this course over the summer and it was not easy. You really have to put all your effort into your two essays and this professor can be rude and very straight forward, but if you take her comments and apply them in your other essays you'll see a difference. I would really recommend doing the first optional essay with your best effort...because her comments from it are very important for improving the other two papers....she notices and reads everything! Good luck...

Dr. Pinnick is extremely intimidating. If you do not like speaking in class then please reconsider taking her for this class. She will call on you and expect you to know the answer word for word. The tests and definitions are straight from you're notes. The book is required for homework assignments and to help give you a background of the information. I honestly dreaded going to this class. The class is challenging but I dreaded it because of the teacher. She isnt "mean" just difficult to talk to. It's difficult to ask her questions because she tends to just give you a smart remark. I have learned a lot from this class but it wasnt something I looked forward to.

Like MANY of the other people posting on here, I honestly have no idea why anyone would offer this woman a smiley face. I kid you not, I actually find this to be disturbing and quite mysterious.

I am speaking from factual experience, and the facts are simply this: Dr. Pinnick is intelligent and competent. Dr. Pinnick also, however, is condescending, derogatory, negative, forcefully opinionated rather than open-minded and factual, fond of speaking with arrogant undertones that are blatant, socially disconnected, irresponsible as to the duties of an instructor, and treats other people with so little respect and dignity that I do not hesitate to say that Dr. Pinnick suffers from a psychological disorder that potentially frightens me as a common citizen and student.

As a person, my opinion of her is quite low. She is one of the rare examples of a person one comes across in life that truly and absolutely disgraces human progress and unity. I am really not kidding, but I would not be surprised if she advocated eugenics. She really does exemplify those types of character traits.

She should be re-evaluated without question as a professor and possibly fired based on issues of student harassment.

Introduction to Logic is one of the most challenging classes at Western to date and Dr. Pinnick is one of the most demanding professors at the school. Sounds bad so far right? Well its not. From day one she lays down the rules and her expectations, this day alone weeds out some of the dead weight. Each class is roughly 80 students. After that she lectures and in her lectures she calls out people to make sure you are doing your reading. If you say pass she will be dissapointed but won't ream you. However, if you blow smoke you will regret it. I loved this class, it is a very difficult course that requires you to stay on top of studying. Attendence is not mandatory but missing one day could seriously put you behind. She is very straight-forward and you will know what to expect on the test. Which are very difficult by the way. About 7-8 questions each, but each question has a billion subparts. After Exam 1 is when you will know if you want to stay in this class because the class dropped from roughly 80 to 35. If you are looking for a class you can get an A just by filling in a seat, this is not the one for you. However, if you are looking for a class that challenges you to the extremes and prepares you for just about any other course, then Logic is the class for you.

All of these comments bashing Dr. Pinnick are highly erroneous in that they lack rationality. They are all arguments that have no validity whatsoever. However, had half of the authors of these comments stayed in the class they would know that they're invalid. "Dr. Pinnick was mean to me. Dr. Pinnick doesn't put up with any shit. Therefore Dr. Pinnick is a "bad" teacher." Sorry but the conclusion reached doesn't follow from the premises assumed. Here's a valid argument with all true propositions and a true conclusion. Dr. Pinnick cared enough to get me on the right track. Teachers that care enough to get students on the right track are good teachers. Therefore, Dr. Pinnick is a good teacher. That is how a valid argument is done my friends. I have been in her class for one week now and I know more than half of you that dropped because I am open minded and I don't want a teacher to spoon feed me the cirriculum. I look forward to the rest of the year and can't begin to imagine how much I will know at the end of the year all thanks to that "biotch"! :)

P.S. Just because a student speaks intelligently does not mean that it is the professor (or Dr. Pinnick in this case) leaving the evaluation. If you need any evidence of this I will be glad to present it to you.

This class isn't a joke. Don't expect to waltz in and earn an "A" because of superior intellect (My GPA is above 3.5 and I struggled to earn my "A"). This class, as well as Dr. Pinnick, makes you LEARN the subject matter. There's a lecture - you must take excellent notes because you have to recite and write it verbatim on the tests and quizzes (hint: flashcards are your friends). I can't say that the class was always enjoyable but I know I am better off having taken this course. She is definitely a strict teacher but she means well. She isn't satisfied that you "memorized" something - you have to "know it", as well as know how to use it. The class is very straightforward. Since much of the material builds off previous lessons learned you must stay caught up. If you miss a day of class you might fall far behind. She really does base much of your final grade on your progression throughout the year. This is the hardest class I have yet taken in college. You really do deserve whatever grade you get in this course.

Don't take this as an online course. This professor lists her email yet will not answer any student emails. So, help from prof.....NONE. Several classmates were emailing each other asking for help because the prof was not answering their emails. She wanted perfection from us, although we were all still unsure what she wanted because her lectures were contradictory (not to mention she had typo's). Her class is like a maze that you have to weave your way through and still come out of the bottom. After taking this class I know nothing about philosophy. She gives assignments with one day notice. 750 words one night to do it. Two nights in a row. She sets you up for failure. This class would be better not taken online and definitely not taken by her online.

Dr. Pinnick is, in my opinion, one of the better professors on Western's campus. Yes, her Elementary Logic class is quite difficult, requiring numerous hours of study outside of class. And yes, Dr. Pinnick does appear like a raving lunatic in that class as she attempts to berate her students. Her tact, however, makes the class much more humourous, espicially if you have done your studying as she will not be able to berate you. If you talk to Dr. Pinnick outside of class she is a completely different person and extremely helpful. Also if you ever decide to take any other classes with Dr. Pinnick you will find her normal behavior is much different from the way she acts in Elementary Logic.

Bon soire, mes amies! I am here to offer my joyous review of Dr. Pinnick. She is a professeur terrifique! Je t'aime c'est madamoiselle de philosophe. I once asked Dr. Pinnick what I should do to prepare for the LSAT. Do you know what she said? "Nothing," was the madam's reply. Imagine that: "Nothing"! She is sooooo smart!

I want to be just like her. Yes, presently, like many WKU students, I live with my mom (who, since this is Kentucky, is also my wife,...just kidding!), but someday, I want to pursue my dreams: see New York City, get a PhD, and find a job in a middling school teaching students thrown off a turnip truck the finer points of continental philosophy (just kidding about that turnip nonsense!). Anyway, have you read Dr. Pinnick's work? Oh, my lord! She is ooozing with genius! Really--genius. Hey--getting a PhD from the Univ of Hawaii is no mean feat, mes amis! Do you know what what they call Harvard? The Hawaii of the East Coast! You bet.

Stay warm, my friends. I love you all! Until next time. Bon soire!

How can one read these aspersions of my dear Dr. Pinnick with pitie and sorrow? She is the je ne c'est pas of my scholarly joie de vie. She is the honey to my milk, the X to my Y, the pearls to my pig, the Rasputin my sanity, the Neil to my Diamond. I love her. She has inspired my joie de pedagogy and has caused me to reflect on my future aspirations. Once, I had imagined that I would be resigned to nothing higher than becoming the night manager of the Best Buy on Campbellsville Road. C'est ne pas le meme chose today. Today, I seek to be something more, something more substantial. I am considering a job as a professional academic majoring in philosophe de Francais. I love Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Gerard de Pardieu. And I long to emulate my professeur--Dr. Pinnick. Viva La Pinnick. Viva La France. Bon soir mes amiees.

Class: Challenging

Professor: Unbearable

I love challenging classes and professors that do not put up with slackers. But teachers that derive enjoyment from the ridicule of other students are not a favorite of mine. Everyone is afraid to ask questions. You cannot get her to repeat anything she has already said, she demands you go to your study group. Granted, it hones your note taking skills... but at the expense of being berated in front of 200 of your peers? Come on... The ends do not justify the means. If you enjoy taking a class where the professor has a chip on her shoulder and gets her jollies from the pain of those she hounds (and she hounds everyone that she speaks to, no exceptions), then by all means take Dr. Pinnick

Dr. Pinnick is an excellent professor who really makes her students work hard for their rightful grade. She will tell you many times how much she expects of you, in that those taking her class obviously chose a difficult class on purpose (this class is not easy), so that you might improve yourself through the course's content. This class requires alot of work on memorizing definitons, methods, reading articles out of class, looking things up in the OED, doing ALL exercises from the chapter your are currently in for next class, etc. Really, anything that she can come up with that 1. Makes students spend copious amounts of time out of class, and #2. Will make you learn the material better, or #3. Is highly amusing and perhaps embarassing, in order to get extra credit (usually 1 or 2 a semester like this). This class does require alot of time, and I regret taking it during a semester where I was taking 19 hrs, and working 20+ hours a week, especially with the required study group, etc. I did get an A in this class, but only though good studying, good rote memorization skills, and a good study group to keep me on task (sometimes), and to point out things I had missed, or misunderstood. The primary abilities that will get you through this class are #1. The ability to write GOOD, COMPLETE class notes VERY FAST. #2. The ability to memorize upwards of 30-40 defs, and be able to recite them word-for-word by the time the semester is over. #3. The ability to take her teaching style with an open hand, and love it. She really is funny after about the 3rd week of class (REALLY, NO JOKE). She tries to burn off the flakes at the beginning of class, with the two sections of this class dropping from 90 people each to about 20-30 each before the first exam (no exaggeration). Overall, this class was so different, demanding, and personality-filled that it really taught me alot about logic, and left me with a permanent memory of this class, and a smile whenever I think back to it.

Ever see a movie about a prof. that will change your life? This is one of them. She basically changed the way I viewed the world, and how I look at academic philosophy. She acts like a tough prof, but she's a caring person. She'll help you through logic if you just ask what needs to be done. And any other philosophy major will be more than glad to help you out. You just have to find them, either at the library out the front of java city, or in the study room. They will show you how to do it if you don't understand and you are too scared to talk to Pinnick.

Seriously, she's a great prof.

First of all Dr. Pinnick is a good teacher, she is alot of talk the first week she is going to make her class sound really hard. She will tell you about all the things your going to do and use big words but dont worry. For the whole semester i had about 4 pages typed of notes that you had to know off the top of your head. They were only one side so if you span that over a whole semester it really isnt that bad. Make sure to know your notes off the top of your head, if you volunteer and try really hard and show some improvement you will get an A. I know i failed the first test made a C on the second one and the third one she couldnt read my hand writting and i dont think she ever graded it. The final was only 10 questions and was nothing we hadn't seen before. Anyone can get an A in here if you go to class everyday, pay attention, try hard and show improvement and participate. I should have got a C but ended up with a B.

Dr. Pinnick is an extremely intelligent woman and the class was a bit challenging. I made an A b/c she bases part of your grade on your personal improvement throughout the class. I studied hard for her final and improved greatly from the beginning of her class. Don't be fooled by the title of the course! I personally and the majority of the other 60 students in the class found it difficult. It isnt out of reach but it does take some effort to review your notes and actually learn the material.

I took this class for General Education credit and it was not as bad as I thought it would be. The material in the course was challenging to fully understand and weave together in the three week May term but it was not unmanageable by any means.

The class is out of 100 points and runs through the WKU e-mail system (NOT blackboard). You get ten points by submitting everything in the class on time and doing exactly as Dr. Pinnick asks you to do in sending e-mails and assignments. Then you have three question sets that are worth 20 points each and then you have two position papers where you have to use philosophical reasoning that are each out of 15 pts.

You have to watch a lot of films for the class and make sure you check your local library and movie store to ensure that those places carry them because several are foreign films that can be hard to find. This was not a problem for me but it was for other people who took the class so fair warning.

Dr. Pinnick has a specific way of formatting e-mails and papers so PAY ATTENTION to what she requests or your going to pay the price with your grade. However, I think she grades pretty easy and if you make your answers to the questions short, sweet, and to the point and are succinct in your essay in explaining information then it should be an easy A for you.

Definitely recommended as an online class for your winter or summer term time.

Some student wrote: "I happen to be the dudETTE, and to the creep who wonders why Im at WKU: because of profs like Dr. P, she is one of the few who cares about pushing me to go to a good grad school. And yes i can write and I'm proud of it."

Ummm....two things. One, there's no need to call another student a "creep" without justification. That guy actually gave Pinnick a happy face. You seem weirdly irritable, especially for someone who ostensibly learned something about tolerance and logic from Dr. Pinnick. Two, and sorry, I can't resist: "Im" isn't a word and "i" is a proper pronoun that should be capitalized. You boasted: "And yes i can write and I'm proud of it." Ummm, no, you can't and no, you shouldn't. So, just chill out, Dr. Pinnick---ummm, I mean--fellow student.

A student below (or above) wrote, "I happen to be the dudETTE, and to the creep who wonders why Im at WKU: because of profs like Dr. P, she is one of the few who cares about pushing me to go to a good grad school. And yes i can write and I'm proud of it." Uhhhh,....pardon me, but you don't have anything to be "proud about" in terms of your grammatical and syntactic skills. "DudETTE" is not a word (or it's certainly not a word for anyone who is so arrogantly "proud" of her intellectual skills. And please remember that "i" (and by extension, "i'm") is a proper noun requiring capitalization. So, yes, I'm sure "you can write" but I'm not entirely sure what your basis is for being "proud of" of the fact that you seem to possess the acumen of an exceedingly intelligent (and astonishingy angry) third grader. The student commentator impugned neither you nor Dr. Pinnick, and it is unclear to me why you lash out and call him or her a "creep". You seem to be an angry young woman with mediocre faculties of self-presentation.

Dr. Pinnick is great, but why lash out at other students in extolling her many, many virtues?

Yo! Some dude or dudette wrote, "Dr. Pinnick because she made certain students feel uneasy and embarressed them at times." Hey! Roll with it, bro! it's about the yin and the yang and the bland and the tan. Love one another! Love philosophy. Did you know that philosophy means "love of wisdom"? Well, it does. Love that wisdom! Go get yourself a big ole piece of that wisdom and give a big ole bear hug! Dr. Pinnick is the MAN! I've learned so much from her! She is the MAN! That woman is the MAN! Love wisdom, bro! It's ALL GOOD.

This is the hardest class Ive taken at Western. I did not like Dr. Pinnick because she made certain students feel uneasy and embarressed them at times. You are given class participation if you speak up but many times when you do speak up, you are blasted by her for even slighty getting the answer wrong. She says the textbook is wrong and what she says is right. So sometimes you cant even really study the book. If you have this class, good luck, youll need it.

I happen to be the dudETTE, and to the creep who wonders why Im at WKU: because of profs like Dr. P, she is one of the few who cares about pushing me to go to a good grad school. And yes i can write and I'm proud of it.

Hey, some dude or dudette wrote, "You can tell by the language used and the manner in which they used it that these people were not cut out for such a demanding course. Perhaps they should stay at the community college and learn a thing or two before returing to the real challenges of a University." First of all, like, whoa--that is one articulate student. What is he/she doing at WKU?

But in all fairness to everyone else, like me, uhh,...like, chill out about the whole "University" thing. We're not at the Harvard of the South (i.e., Eastern Kentucky University). Like, what's up with this, like "real challenges of a University"? I was, like, wondering, like, is this, like, fair? Like, I want to do well, and like, is this, like, right? Or, like, am I like, being harrassed?

Whatever, but, like, Dr. Pinnick is cool. You know, like, cool. Because she's, like, demanding, but, like, she's, like, you know, like, really smart, like, I don't know, like, really smart. So, ummm, like, chill to everyone other there, like, ok? Like...be cool, you know? Like, chill means, like, cool, like, ummm, yeah.

Oh, how my heart aches to hear these rebukes of my dear Dr. Pinnick. This is especially so when they come from student commentaries like this: "she would say that the sentence structure was so bad that she could no [sic] grade the philosophical content." "No grade the philosophical content"? Oh, to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune: to have to teach philosophy--philosophy!--to the students of WKU when one could be reading Plato, Kant, Hobbes, and of course, Rasputin.

To have to teach students who write things like "no grade the philosophical content," when one could be writing obscure articles in obscure journals.... It's not fair.

I had to think about stuff I don't usually pay attention to and I had to write in a special way but this is a good course. You have to be disciplined and do the readings and read her email carefully,don't miss any details or your grade will suffer. The good thing is she is direct and tells you what you need to do. I didnt' have any problems with the grades, she was clear about what she wanted and she was fair with criticism and corrections. Good online course, I may even take another philosphy class or logic.

I really do not think this class is difficult, just the instructor. I agree with the other student that she does not deserve the title "Dr." and I too found several spelling and grammar mistakes in her communications. She grades so ridiculously, and if you do question her, you are wasting your time. If you happen to get an answer, it will something very different then notes she puts on your papers, and she does not explain herself. She will just tell you to read and re-read the “Rulebook,” blah blah blah, just tell me what I did wrong. I have never seen anything like her. I would have my papers proofed at the writing center and get an all clear, but when she would grade them, she would say that the sentence structure was so bad that she could no grade the philosophical content. What BS. She and her class SUCK!!! One tip if you are brave enough to take her class be sure that all your emails are grammar and spell checked, or she will hold it over your head the whole semester.

She is strict and can can be quite intimidating, but she can't be any more straight forward with the information we are supposed to know. She tells us what to know (must remember it EXACTLY word for word) and exactly what is going to be on quizzes or tests. Dr. Pinnick just expects you to learn and know what is assigned. Gotta pay attention cause she calls on everybody throughout the class, and she will call anybody out, sometimes ruthlessly. Memorize, Memorize- but its not a lot of info.

Another semester and I still cant believe I survived Pinnick and logic. I almost quit the first month of class but then two things hanppened. I met someone who is a huge fan of her who told me that it was the best class Id have at Western. And I read the posts on Profeval. It was pretty obvious that someone at some time a year or so ago had a thing with Pinnick and couldn't get over it. Too bad and I hope people can see that for themselves. Take this class. Take every class you can with her. And be smart enuf to make the diff between high standards and being picked on or whatever. Be smart and see that what she demands is what you need to do in the real world if you want to be a success. Oh yea and as for her caring, she does so much for studnets that i guess people just dont see.

After I got over hating Pinnick for making me work so hard-this takes about the first month of classes-I decided she is the best instr I've had. She is a killer, but fair about it and wants you to learn. Before her class I didnt even know how little I had worked in other classes.

This course is great! This is the only course in Western that challenges students to learn. She will give an overload of homework and other assignments in the beginning of the class to weed out the students that will not stick with the class. When most of the students drop the class, you are left with truly committed students. If you want to become a lawyer, doctor, or you plan of pursuing higher education, take this class. It will make you think in a whole new way about life. Great class.....take it.

All you have to do is repeat what you've learned in class word for word in order to get a good grade on her tests and quizzes. She offers extra credit if you go do something that isn't normal to most people (like yoga, music recitals, not as popular sporting events). She is a great person and she just wants to get you ready for the business world or law school.

a lot of people dont think too highly of her, however, it's a good class. she tells you everything that will be expected in exchange for perfection. as long as you show up and try you'll pass...

This is a great course and an even better prof. Be prepared to work and be prepared period (you won't be hiding in this class). I don't know why any one has a problem with Pinnick, unless they aren't interested in learning how to think and being able to show that they can think. She has high standards. I will use one of my electives to take another class withher just because she is good.

This class is h a r d!!! and the profesor never stops. I'm glad i took it as a junior, but i wish i had it when I was a freshmen because it is the ONLY class where I know all the work paid off. She is ok, really. But she doesn't put up with anybody sleeping (or anything else, just work). I almost failed but she kept after me and I finished with a B. Worth it.

This is a very interesting class to take. It's a bit of a challenge but if your good at taking essay tests then this is a fairly easy class. If you listen to the lecture and take notes you will do great. She comes off tuff but you really learn alot.

I am disappointed that students take it upon themselves to attack other students based on their opinion of the professor. The point of this site is to give an opinion of the teacher, not slam someone else because they don't hold the same opinion. With that said, I would like to say a few things concerning this professor. My first problem with Dr. Pinnick is that she justifies selling you her own "book" (poor quality photocopies) by pointing out that it is cheaper than most logic texts. You are required to pay cash and these "books" have no resale value because she claims that every "book" has been revised from the previous semester. I don't even think this is legal. While Dr. Pinnick's knowledge of logic is extensive, I found it difficult to concentrate on the real lesson because she seems to find pleasure in humiliating students for everything from having gum (not allowed), to not reciting a definition verbatim (and I mean word for word exactly). I wish I could have seen the helpful person that some students describe, but I only saw someone who was interested in making students apprehensive, if not fearful of making a mistake. I do not shy away from challeging classes, but I am always disappointed when I can't make a connection with the professor. I think this professor makes a concious effort to get her students to hate her. I would just stress that there are many other gen. ed. courses that are enjoyable-this one will probably not be one of them.

Something I forgot to add to my previous evaluation: As for Dr. Pinnick not recieving her doctorate until later in her life I say: Dr. Pinnick worked very hard for those two little letters to serve as the prefix to her surname. Which is more than I can say for you Mr/Ms...?

Dr. Pinnick HAS been a HUGE inspiration to not only myself, but others as well. Yes she is very demanding of her students but what good professor isn't? She by her own good grace has taken in many students including myself to help them find direction even when they did not deserve it. If the people who gave these wretched reports has something bad to say about Dr. Pinnick it is only because Dr. Pinnick pushed them to do their very best and absolutely nothing less and they obviously could not meet the challenge. You can tell by the language used and the manner in which they used it that these people were not cut out for such a demanding course. Perhaps they should stay at the community college and learn a thing or two before returing to the real challenges of a University.

Yes, this is a very difficult course, but you're hopefully attending college to learn more and moreover learn what you are made of. I suggest taking a course or two that is going to challenge you. So what if your GPA falls a little below your expectancy? Just to be able to say that you got through the course, tried your best and learned a thing or two can mean a lot. Dr. Pinnick is one of the most caring professors I have ever come across. She tells it like it is and does not sugar coat it for you. Youre adults now, no one should have to coddle you. If you can't take it, go home to Mommy.

I took this class to satisfy my general ed. requirements. I wasn't too worried about it, being a 100 level course, but Dr. Pinnick treated it like Philosophy was everyone's major. The first day of the class, she told the class that she was not and would not be thier friend. She made so many references to the study of philosophy being related to lawyers and politicians and acted like everyone in the class even cared. She gave an overload of notes of which the concepts were not that difficult. Then, she randomly and abruptly called on me to answer a question that was not even relevant to that day's topic. When I did not give her the quick response she wanted, she rolled her eyes and asked if anyone else knew the answer. All this might sound insignificant, but the truth is that Pinnick does all of this with a haughty nature. She does not know hardly any of the students in the classes, treats them like they are stupid, small, unimportant dogs, and does not even sound like she knows what she is talking about. I hope that she reads this and realizes that all of these frowning faces are completely unnessesary. I realize that she won't get along with every student, but I am an A student who typically respects my professors when they make me feel interested in the subject I am taking and that they are interested in me. I took a three week class that she cut short a whole week. Then she expected us to write an essay by the second day. I withdrew from the class, being that it was unreasonable, and expected to get my money back from her $40.00 book that she poorly wrote/copied from Aristotle...etc...After having to deal with the dean of the department, I finally got my money back. I thought it very ironic that the self-proclaimed grammatically correct Pinnick, spelled my name and address wrong on the envelope.

All of the scathing inditments of Dr. Pinnick are warranted. She's not an easy professor to have. But the ad-hom's launched against her in so many of these posts are repugnant. Although she can be hard, she does it for a reason. I can garauntee that if you work hard in her classes you will get an A, and unlike so many other mental midgets who "teach" on this hill, you will actually learn something. I enjoyed Logic and Philosophy, and I'm taking her advanced logic course simply because I want to learn more about logic. I know that when i sign up for Dr. Pinnick I'll learn something, not just get a grade for filling a seat.

I guess I am not surprised that my frowning red face joins an army on this website--all united against Ms. Pinnick. I am not going to foolishly refer to her as "Dr." here because I believe that real "Dr.'s" don't just point to their little piece of paper on the wall while masturbating to their own greatness. I think real teachers inspire and motivate, they do not belittle and harrass. I am also not surprised a few evaluations call into question the green, smiling faces. Dr. Pinnick had to have posted them herselve. I really have yet to meet a single damn person on this campus who thinks Dr. Pinnick is worth a second of their time. I'm sure it's hard for the lady--not having gotten her "Doctorate" degree until she was 52, not being liked by any of her students, and being so totally insecure. I guess her entertainment comes from writing fake little evaluations of herself. Then, her only comfort comes in reading her words about herself.....just don't take this class. I know you don't know me, or any of the other people who are trying their hardest to issue a huge warning, but take a strangers advice for once here. Oh, you can also take logic at a community college and transfer it in. Just take it over the summer. Logic can be fun, but you will hate it if you take it with this woman. Do yourself a favor. If I didn't have better things to do than Dr. Pinnick ever will, I might consider leading a movement to boycott her or fire her based on her complete lack of academic respect for students. Fortunately, I feel like helping people in my life--something Pinnick has never and will never do with hers. I almost pity her really.

This was the most difficult class I have ever taken. First, she makes you buy a textbook which she wrote (poorly). You must read it and memorize it. She calls on people loudly, randomly, and violently. I honestly felt sick everyday before class. The class is based on a 100 pt. scale and therefore, you miss a point on something, you miss a point on your total grade. This scared the begezus out of me. Going into the final, it looked as if I would get a high D or low C. But she does take into consideration if you come. I did not miss a day and about fell out of my chair when she gave me an A. I did not expect it in the least. And I rarely participated because I was so scared. But I earned it just by putting up with that crap every day. Oh-the final was a list of words and it said define. She means define word for word how she writes it in her book.

Dr Pinnick is the most unprofessional professor I have ever had. She is a very intellegent lady and a damn good teacher, she makes you think. On the other hand you spend the entire class hoping she does not call on your name. She will lull you to sleep with information that is hard to follow and then call your name to answer a question from three chapters earlier. The material is very hard to understand, and if you dont know the question then you become the punch line to one of her famous "If you werent at baker boys all night getting wasted then you would know the answer" jokes. She steps over the line habitually.She will call you out in front of the whole class and make you feel stupid while everyone laughs at you. She loves this. She once called out the girl next to me who did not know the answer to her question. She accused the girl of taking notes for another class during her lecture. The girl was speechless. I mean what do you say to this nonsense. Pinnick just needs a big mirror to sit in front of all day so she can tell herself how great she is. You cant wear hats, have anything in your mouth or even breath without getting rode out by Pinnick.

I do not know who on earth would give Pinnick a smiley face, but it was obviously not an average student. It may have been her-she seems like the type.

Don't take the class unless you absolutely have to. Take it at another university and transfer the credit. Anything. This class was the worst class I have taken at Western. It does have a difficult content, which is not the problem-it was her. She constant yelling, harrassing people, and using a disgusting condesending tone in her voice made me honestly begin to get sick. You must study for this class full time because (and she will tell you this) it is like a foreign language. And she will not talk to you in the hallways-don't try. For the first time in my life, I dreaded going to class. She was that bad.

ok I'm graduated and I was never a philosophy maj but I took three classes from Dr. Pinnick. I didn't always like her then but now that I'm doing graduate work (science) she's the only prof I remember and know cared about getting me ready for what I'm doing now. I took her for logic, advanced logic, and metaphysics. For the advanced classes sometimes I thought she didn't either know what she was teaching or how to teach. Now I know I didn't give her credit for being the only one who tried to prepare me for grad school. Good luck!

Want a real university prof/class then take Pinnick. I took her

intro to philosophy class and learned so much about what I

thought I knew but don't that I signed up for logic as an elective. She makes you WORK she puts up with no *@#@! because she take your life seriously. Take her if you care about classes that make you learn. If you just want a prof that passes you through and strokes your ego then better skip her.

Well, many things to say here about "Dr" Pinnick. First, her use of intimidation practices is a. widely noted by most of her students, b. blatantly obvious, and c. a tactic that detracts from any effective, progressive learning. With that main criticism out of the way, you also must be prepared for an insane intensity for a mere 100 level course. I do believe she thinks she is teaching Advanced Logic 550. She will also suggest that the class will lend assistance to people studying for the LSAT. The problem here is two-fold: first, upon discussing with Dr. Pinnick twice what the so-called "applicability" to the LSAT was, it was quite obvious she knew nothing about the test, and second, and more concerning, is that her advice on how to study flat contradicts everything and anything anyone else in this galaxy will tell you about the test. When it's 999/1, trust the 999. Additionally, Dr. Pinnick will never let a person be correct--ever. That was more amusing to me than anything. In class, it is so obvious it was almost funny at certain points. I think she is like a curmudgeonly old nun. Someone had to have pissed in her Post Toasties somewhere down the line to spark her attitude toward other people, her arrogance that covers her insecurity, and her general hostility. Another point of humor--her request for linguistic perfection is quite misplaced. Since I came from 12 years of a Catholic grammar school, I am more than equipped to point out grammatical flubs. From a world of diagramming 100 sentences a day and participating in grammar recitations for 2 hours every morning for 12 years, it was funny to be welcomed back into an environment that forced that type of formalism. Ironically, though, Dr. Pinnick’s OWN OVERHEADS have grammatical problems. HER OWN BOOK, that yes, she wrote, has multiple typos and awkward linguistic construction, and for god’s sake, when she speaks, subject-noun agreement is occasionally off. Sure, I am committing a “you are another†logical fallacy here, but the truth is too amusing not to indict her advocacy here. I do not, nor will I ever advocate for that rigid use of grammar I was forced into for so long, but if I did, I would certainly…oh…USE IT. I'm an A student, and I dropped this because I don't need it for gen ed, and really just signed up for recreation and LSAT prep. Since she knows 0 things about the LSAT, and since she's a belligerent and hostile "instructor" (I don't know if that's the correct use of the word since instructors have to be dedicated to progress and she certainly isn't with her foolish rigidity that literally blocks learning), both of my initial reasons for taking this “class†are now obsolete. I would suggest that even if you do need a basic philosophy class, really any of the other professors would be preferable to this woman.

Dr. Pinnick teaches a hard class in a questionable subject area. Though there is just one test, there are readings every night, notes must be typed and bound at Kinkos, and there are 5 or 6 position papers that must be done from the perspective she says. I might have to refute strongly held beliefs, making my papers less than enthusiastic (and a poor grade). I took this class in the May summer session, and this is difficult indeed.

All this might be tolerable to some, but Dr. Pinnick has all these nitpicky rules. There can be no gum or food in the mouth or nothing in the aisles as she walks by. Also, there cannot be over three mistakes in her rigid format guidelines or your paper is a zero.

Attendance is not officially mandatory but would be required for anything like a decent grade. Dr. Pinnick also seemed to offer extra credit opportunities only to one student, at least initially. Her attitude was intimidating and did not inspire to do the work she was asking for.

Also, she seemed bent on public policy indoctrination as a primary goal for her course. This policy seemed to be heavily liberal from hints she gave in her lecture and the atheistic content in her textbooks. One section was trying to deny God and the Bible, saying they were adverse to forward thinking.

As a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, I hate to give anyone an evaluation like this. But I recommend not to take her.

Dr. Pinnick is an extremely difficult teacher that requires the best out of her students and holds them to a high standard of excellence. She is also the best teacher I have had in college and I am a senior (I have had many professors). She is outstanding!!!

Good Christ was this class hard! But Dr. Pinnick was real cool. she works with her students on problems. Do not, and i mean do not miss class. if you do, you're scrwed. work at it and you'll be fine

One of the best teachers on campus, Dr. Pinninck teaches college the way it ought to be taught. Rather than mindlessly reading to students like most teachers in college, Dr. Pinnick actually explains the material in the book, and calls on students in order to make sure they have kept up on the reading. She is a gifted explainer of the material, and one of the top 5 teachers in school, easily. Also, she will give you a better grade then you think you will get, if you work hard.

Dr. Pinnick is one of the worst professors I have ever had. She is very demanding, which is not a bad thing, but she has a lot of attitude to go with it. She is very condescending and arrogant. She definately takes advantage of the fact that students are at her mercy. She wigs out over minor things--i. e. she won't accept papers without a word count; therefore, forgetting to include one means your paper is LATE. She is a real bitch about details. I was sweating all semester because I thought I was going to fail the class, because she acts like your work (writing philosophical pieces) sucks. It turns out I got an

Dr. Pinnick is probably the best professor I have encountered at WKU. She challenges students to learn. I have never been so motivated to work so hard in a class. If you decide to take logic, it won't be easy, but you will greatly benefit from the course. Overall, an excellent class!

Dr. Pinnick, though she may be intimidating during the first few weeks of class, is by far one of the best professors I have had at WKU. She has a difficult subject area, but she makes you want to learn. Be prepared to work if you sign up for this class, but you will enjoy it.