The class would have been benefical if the teacher knew how to teach. He talks about himself...we listened to music....horrible chalkboard scratching music...do not waste your time...If you must...then make sure to go to his off hrs. too many 10 pg papers.

What a terrible terrible teacher/class. 200+ pgs of reading per week, you have to read it, copy down on a notecard, and then regurgitate in on random pop quizzes. Class consists of him talking about himself and accomplishments. Text-book is awful. Don't take, he should be fired.

Phil of Art was really really easy. He assigned lots of reading, but you never had to do it. Go to class, take a nap, and pull out some BS paper and a presentation that focused on any one thing in the readings, and you will be golden. I only opened the book once. This prof. is a serious wack job!

Dr. Peffer is a horrible teacher. He doesn't know how to teach instead he just talks about himslef the whole class period and assigns his own work for us to read. He should not be teaching at this institution. I pay too much to go here to have a teacher like this. I read more than half of the assignments and did not learn anything because of his la

do not take this class. He is an incredible egomaniac, you will read 20 pages of his essays each week. He does not even care if anyone is listening and there is 100 pages of reading each week that you will need to know. Only upside is you can do work for other classes cause he does not care if anyone listens.

I sit in his class and I wonder when he will stop talking. It is supposed to be Environmental Ethics but it has turned into his rantings about why we must turn to communism. I have never done this much busy work. the entire class is either rating him poorly or on facebook.

I am a senior at USD with a 3.7. This IS THE WORST teacher at USD I have ever had, BY FAR! He is late to class, leaves class periodically to get cheeseburgers to eat in front of us when we take quizzes. He will talk for the full 3 hour class with out a breath besides to down cola. He is so arrogant, and speaks about how great he, and his writings R

Let me break it down for ya'll.. He lectured on BattleStar Gallactica for nearly 3 hours

This is a useless class that ill only bring down your GPA. He assigns an INSANE amount of reading and then tests you on it each class session. Going to a class is a waste of time and no one learns anything. It speaks volumes that he has a bell on his desk that he rings to wake people up....

Don't take him. Went to class everyday and learned nothing. Most people sat there on their laptops while he scribbled on the board. It's incredibly hard to learn anything from him, and his readings don't follow lecture. The papers you have to write are pretty lengthy, although most likely not graded. I would not recommend him!

This class was literally the worst class I have ever had. Peffer did not discuss anything worth listening to, he was completely unorganized, and ended up assigning a ton of work at the end of the semester because he forgot. Leaves class, irrelevant movies, and grades really hard on the readings that are 150+ pages a week. DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS.

Peffer is literally the worst professor I have ever had. Completely unorganized, was more than 30 minutes late to class everyday and made you wait for him, didn't talk about anything useful, and only made us read his writings. Stay far away from this guy. He's horrible.

worst class/ professor ever. completely disorganized. complete waste of time and money. plus he is a really harsh grader. don;t give you own opinion just agree with him

worst professor at this school. stay away

Worst professor at USD. Extremely lazy, just puts on a movie and leaves the room to get dinner, which he proceeds to eat in front of the class. Mostly assigns his own work as readings, must be the most conceited person in the world to hear his own opinions regurgitated in the papers. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

DON'T take him!!! only if you want to fail the class.

Worst class I took at USD. Peffer is extremely disorganized, He arrives late to the majority of classes (like 10-20 min). He is a tough grader and focuses on quantity over quality for papers. His lectures are all over the place. Topics come up at random (no fluidity). I (learned nothing remotely interesting or useful.

When I say "so many papers" I mean 2 papers, one 12-15 pages and the other 20 pages (midterm and final paper). He is a nice man, but he just drones on and on about things that don't make sense and his ideas are very scattered and hard to follow along with. If you like to

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Environmental ethics could have been so interesting but Peffer is literally the WORST TEACHER EVER. He assigns way to much reading - most of which is written by himself. The essays you have to write for this class are 15-20 page summaries of his own writings. He breathes really loud during pop quizzes in a concerning way.

I think says a lot about USD that they let this man teach here, and that's really disappointing. Just don't do it, it's seriously not worth it. I'm convinced that stepping into his classroom puts you in a dimension where time moves 4x slower than the rest of the world. Nice enough guy, just doesn't know how to teach a class that helps people learn.

I never write reviews for professors which goes to show how much I believe Dr. Peffer has wasted my time and my money. An environmental ethics class is such an opportunity for class discussion and interactive learning but instead the way Peffer decides to teach is completely non-beneficial to anyone but himself.

Ive never had a worse professor, Avoid this prof. at all cost. I wrote 18 pages on a paper that only needed 12, and was marked down to a C with the only criticism being I did not write enough. Refuses to tell students why they are marked down. Grading is entirely subjective.

This is the worst teacher I have had at USD. Has you write two papers for env ethics, most of which is on his writing and critiques. His grading is subjective and class time is wasted by his ramblings. Theres no teaching and no class discussion.

Peffer is a nice guy, but he would assign an insane amount of readings per class and give pop quizes that consist of him displaying the syllabus on the board and asking for a detailed summary of each reading. The real difficulty came from his papers one 10-15 and one 20 - he gave us a 6 page long prompt for them, he expects u 2 no info not discused

NEVER TAKE THIS CLASS! Literally the WORST professor ever! He's VERY political, never stops sharing his opinions. As a Catholic/Christian Republican attending a Catholic college, it was difficult to be targeted for my opinions. All papers are opinion based and only 1 of them had some philosophy. He doesn't believe in God&hated me bc I do

Ton of reading & pop quizzes. All he does is ramble and put movies on during class. Very subjective grader. Probably the worst class/professor I've taken at USD. Really not sure how there are any 4 or 5-star reviews. Regret not dropping this class, so if you're thinking about dropping this course, do it.

lenient on due dates but disorganized and unfocused. The videos we have to watch are such low quality and lack credibility, its hard to take it seriously. Papers are on average 8 pages but include the prompt, so be ready to write. Textbook is nowhere to be found. He just talks for hours and easily goes on tangents.

Most "reading" are Word docs of his opinion, rambling, poorly written paragraphs that make little or no sense. Tons of posted stuff that does not help in any way. Strange papers prompts that make little or no sense. No rubrics, no feedback at all for very low grades. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS! You will not learn anything and your GPA will be ruined.

Added four essays in last 3 weeks of class that absolutely wrecked my final exam study schedule. He posts weird / strange essays and is very political and not in the good way. When you read his papers, you find out he just wants to be right, not necessarily teach intro philosophy. Go take Nevitt or Hamilton-bleakley or anyone else really.

Do not take this professor, even if he is your last choice. He is so unclear about his expectations for you and it makes it very difficult when trying to complete his papers (which he expects to be around 10 pages each). If I could sum him up in one situation, it would be that he gave us the Spring 2022 syllabus in the fall without realizing. No

Dr. Peffer seems like a nice man, but not the greatest professor. Majority of papers were about politics as well as in class videos. No tests which is good, but many papers which he gives no feedback to. You will fail if you don't show up to class since 40% of the grade is video notes and attendance. No structure to class and it is a tough class.

Very disorganized. He's passionate about philosophy but he never explains why he grades you the way he did unless you directly ask him. Rambles a lot and there isn't a structure to what he teaches. I feel like I only did well on assignments if I agreed with his perspective/essays; there is no reason a 100 class should be this difficult. Avoid pls

Professor Peffer is a nice and understanding guy but is overly political. I refuse to write essays for a guy who had a rubric with the title "Views I Will Accept." Rather hold on to my principles. Blatant intellectual dishonesty. I will have to retake the class with someone else who will actually teach intro to philosophy and not "why Trump is bad"

I only had his class for one day and I knew to drop it immediately; If you've found yourself in the same situation, get out now. Long, boring lectures the entire time. Didn't address his students, just talked to himself and wrote nonsense on the board the entire time.

There is not enough room to explain or express my feelings about this professor. In a philosophical class, there is no reason to express your political opinions for half of the class's units. He grades the 6 essays he assigns solely on political and personal beliefs as well. If you do not align with what he portrays you will not pass this class.

do not take this class, all he really does is talk about how he doesn't like trump and he assigns so many ridiculously long essays.

Please, for the love of God, do not take a class with this man. He assigned three 8-15-page papers the last few weeks of class (that's a minimum of 24 pages total), making it impossible to make them actually good with all the studying for other courses. Lectures are nonsensical and make no sense. It's actually sad that he is a professor at USD.

late night class

Even though I followed all of his instructions and completed everything perfectly, I still received my first C ever. He refused to explain why or provide any comments. He also hates Trump.

Please do not take this professor. Possibly the worst I have ever experienced. Save yourself the time and work, and join a different Philosophy class. I don't know how the guy is still allowed to teach at such a prestigious university.

DO NOT TAKE

Do not take this professor, not helpful via email and just straight up rude when you try to talk to him outside of class