Donovan's course is interesting since he makes the effort to bring in state politicians to speak to the class. He treats the students fairly and like they are on the same level as him. He never acts like he's smarter than students and plus, he grades easy

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Highly reccomended

The very best.

The only problem is that its hard to pay attention with 50 min of lecture. Maybe if there was some class participation in the middle. Then again, it being a morning class might have something to do with it. Granted, I haven't been to class in a few weeks.(and i'm still passing. Yes, it's that easy)

Donovan is an entertaining lecturer; the class isn't very exciting but he helps to make the material more interesting. The tests are reasonable, and he's a pretty easy grader. The discussion groups are pretty much useless.

This was a great class. I wasn't very interested in the subject when I started, but his lectures were really interesting and he has a great sense of humor. Class was really easy (all lecture notes are online), and is a great GUR since you will learn something that's important to know about.

Donovan was good. Class was easy.

I wasn't very interested in Polisci going into this class, but he made it very interesting, and didn't b.s. you on any of the material. He picks good books to back up his points in class, and is very clear in lecture. He wore Chuck Taylor's everyday to class, how cool is that?

It's an easy class. Make sure to study using his study guide. Go to lectures and you don't need to read the book. Good class if you are looking to learn a lot and get a good grade without too much effort.

Great teacher easy class. He makes poli-sci interesting. If your gonna take it take it through him.

He's a great teacher. He is an interesting lecturer, funny, and nice. His class is pretty easy. Plus, he's totally hot.

This was a nice easy class. Tests are EXTREMELY fair in grading and it's easy to get an A or B. Donovan doesn't know how to use MS Word and his lecture notes are a mess but at least he tries to provide something. He's really into the section at the end about court cases. Nice guy. Good class.

Good teacher. If you are at all interested in the election process or various types of political systems,definately talk to him after class. Also, you may have heard him talk if you listen to KUOW (Seattle's NPR station)

Tests covered a ton of information, but he told you everything that you needed to know in the study guide. Hard to get an A, but it's a fairly easy B.

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A very easy teacher. He posts his notes online and the discussions are pretty coo too. Tests are pretty easy he tells you all you need to know. Take him he's great.

HOT! And smart! One of my favorite teachers at Western.

I like him, one of my favorites. But I'm just a freshman.

My favorite class this quarter, he knows what he's talking about and makes the class interesting. Sometimes he jumps around in lectures and makes note-taking hard, but that's my only complaint.

he definetly makes the class interesting, and he knows his subject really well.......plus he's really cute....

I loved his class. He notes are clear and he tells you exactly what is on the exams... word for word. take him!! he wrote the book... that helped!

Awsome prof. One of the best at western. His lectures are lively, informative, and entertaining. He has a great sense of human and is easy to speak with during office ours. My only hang up was that the lectures were sometimes a little too fast.

First off, Donovan is not overly organized. He will jump around in lecture and skip stuff and forget to go back. Otherwise, he is great. Really knows his stuff and is really helpful, plus he really really likes his subject. Grades fairly, and while exams are difficult (all essays) you can prepare very well for them and do well. Highly suggest.

Enthusiastic

that land use stuff is cool. the discussion days beat the lecture days.

Donovan is really disorganized but a good professor. Most, if not all, of his readings are off of his web page which is hardly updated. He's really well published and well-known so if you like prestige in your professor, he's your guy!

Took a little getting used to, but he's a cool guy and an effective professor. Pretty disorganized, but overall I learned a lot of interesting stuff and he's clearly an expert in the field. Tests aren't that hard; if you do the reading you'll probably get an A.

lectures were interesting. good class, but you don't need to be there every day. just keep up on the notes.

I've had Donovan for a couple courses and really like the guy. He has a pretty laid-back teaching style and tends to be a bit disorganized. He generally requires a paper or two and reading-based tests, but he's a very fair grader. He's knowledgeable and well-published. Just an all around cool, funny professor who knows what he's doing.

Donovan is awesome. Simple as that. His lectures are informative and relevant. Intro the American politics should be taken by everyone since it is such an important part of our lives.

Donovan is a hero of Political Science profs. He gives you the information and then the essay format exams allow you to think critically about it on your own. I also really appreciated that this quarter the mid term and final were open book, take home essay exams. HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PROFESSOR!

Todd Donovan is the man. His lectures are thoughtful and enlightening and he is a fair to easy grader. He's an extremely likable professor. HIGHLY RECOMMEND,

Good teacher. Class was boring though. However the content that he taught was good. Lecture notes very helpful. Don't bother showing up unless there is an exam coming up. The discussion groups were ok. Easy but somewhat annoying assignments. The reading though very boring. Buy the books for the exams but thats about it. I recommend him. 8.5/10

Had Dr. Donovan last quarter for Parties, Campaigns, & Elections & this quarter for State and Local Politics & I can say that he is interesting & is one of the easier professors in the Poli Sci department. Understandable study guides for midterm & final, & a short paper towards the end of his courses. Participation points on random days.

Todd is awesome. Great professor. Easy class, study guide basically tells you what will be on the exam. Very likeable guy, smart, very helpful and a fair grader. I can't wait to take more classes from Todd. Great guy.

Class is easy enough, lectures are terribly boring and all lecture notes are online. I felt like the discussion groups were a literal waste of time. Blue book tests, usually two short essays and a few short answers. Easy enough to answer via notes. Almost never used the book. I would say go to lecture 60% of the time.

He is really nice, rambles on a bit, tells you all the potential exam questions ahead of time. Read/skim the book, study, read his lecture notes, and do the discussions and you'll do fine.

Donovan is the man, super cool guy and very interesting to talk to. Pretty easy class, it is clear he cares more about his writing and studies outside of class. Lecture can be a bit unclear, but if you have a chance to talk to him about campaigns/local politics you will learn a ton. He is one of the top experts in his field in the country.

Good lecture pace, funny and interesting explanations that made what I thought would be a boring class pretty interesting. Can get a little boring but it's just the subject. Take notes and go to class, book's not the best.

Took an intro to politics class with him. The course material is interesting and you can tell he's very into the subject. He's a really fair (I'd even say easy) grader who seems to care about his students doing well. He sometimes gets nervous when you go up and ask him questions, he's very smart but I think he was intimidated by our class!

ProfDonovan is AWESOME! He is funny, nice, and responsible. He puts up slides, study guides, and always updates then about a week and a half before the test. During office hours he answered all my questions without distractions. He reviewed for tests, and was extremely helpful whenever I was confused. All around, he's my favorite prof at WWU!

There are great professors, and there is Dr. Donovan. He is the best I have ever had. Cares about students, is interesting, fun, and nice. His tests are hard, but he prepares you for them. A++++ professor. Easy on the eyes as well.

I've yet to meet ONE student on campus who does love Prof. Donovan. The man is BRILLIANT, funny, and nice. His office hours are very helpful& he is very good about putting up slides and review sheets. His classes are very organized, and he is ALWAYS prepared (I think part of this is BC he's a walking encyclopedia) Overall AMAZING PROFESSOR

I enjoyed having Donovan. His study guides were very helpful and his class was fairly easy so long as you showed up to his lectures. He really knows his Politics!

He's brilliant,fun, and SO NICE! His office hours always have a line waiting to talk to him. Usually it has less to do with class, and more to do with just wanting to talk politics or get advice from a brilliant man. EVERYONE on campus LOVES and admires him. Even more, he actually cares for his students! BEST PROFESSOR EVER!

Todd Donovan is a one of a kind professor. He is amazingly brilliant, down to earth, and goes out of his way to help students. He answers all questions, and never makes someone feel stupid for not understanding sometimes. Office hours are VERY helpful. I have learned SO MUCH from his class. Nice, funny, smart, and HOT, what else do you want?

Awesome Professor! WWU's best. Makes boring topics seem fun. Pretty cool guy.

Cool dude. By far the best Prof at WWU.

Cool guy. straightforwards, nice, helpful. Always seems to be happy. Gives fair tests, grades fairly easy but not so easy that you don't have to study. My favorite professor yet.

Todd is great. Pretty straight forward, down to earth guy, even though he is a genius in elections. He's very nice and gives excellent study guides.

Donovan definitely knows his stuff however he can be very scatterbrained. Lectures aren't required and he grades pretty easily

Donovan is an excellent professor. His lectures can be kind of hard to follow, but he's always willing to help students understand the material.

Professor Donovan was a great teacher and fairly easy tests so long as you study. However, I'm really fascinated by the material so I may be biased.

Donovan's class (literally any of them) is so easy to pass and he's such a good guy. Highly recommend for any PLSC student

Somehow this class managed to be insultingly easy while still managing to teach me more than I've ever learned in a class at Western. Donovan structures the class well with productive group discussions and balanced lectures that really are conducive to learning. He's an easy grader. I met with him once in office hours, and he was very helpful&nice.

Lectures are sometimes hard to follow as he jumps between topics a lot. Don't necessarily have to go to class, but exams are essay/short answer and he sometimes will tell you the exact question that'll be on the exam in class. Weekly discussions which are just a grade booster if you go.

On Monday and Wednesday there are lectures and on Friday you break off into small groups for a discussion about some topic. There are three exams that include an essay and then a few short answers. I felt well prepared for each exam.

Donovan is super easy going and provides accurate stud guides for the tests. While attendance probably isn't mandatory to pass, I had an easier time studying and did better on tests when I was going to lecture instead of spending more time reading the textbook catching up. Online open note quizzes and Friday group discussions are easy grade savers.

The exams weren't terribly hard to study for since he gives you a bank of short answer questions as a study guide. His lectures were difficult to follow because he jumps around a lot and it wasn't the type of teaching style I personally prefer. It's not a hard class to do well in as long as you put in a little effort to study for exams.

Great class. Really clear grading criteria. Every Friday was split into smaller groups where you would discuss the weeks readings and write a 200 word response. This was an easy 20% of your grade. As long as you showed up and wrote your response you would get credit, regardless of whether you actually talked in the discussion.

I personally find Donovan to be hilarious. This class is heavy on lecture and he can wind from subject to subject very quickly, but you can usually keep up; his tangents are relevant to the main topic. Tests are somewhat based on readings; there is a group project at the end of the class. Final is not cumulative. He regularly let class out early.

Todd Donovan lectures fast and none of it makes sense- but it doesn't have to. Donovan is a literal genius, chill, and loves to joke around with the class. He's an easy grader and routinely lets the class out early. There are ways in which the class could be more hands on, but the sit back and listen vibe is a nice break from the rest of the dept.

Professor Donovan is awesome! It is easy to do well in his class if you put in the work, and even in a virtual classroom he manages to engage students in thoughtful discussions, and encourages them to tackle complex concepts. I would really recommend taking a class with him if you get a chance.

Professor Donovan is an engaging professor who clearly cares about his class. The tests and quizzes are fairly easy if you do the reading, and the amount of reading is reasonable and doable. I would absolutely take another class with Professor Donovan.

450 was incredibly easy. A midterm and a final which were each papers spread out over a few days, the lowest grade for which I think was a 90. Readings twice a week and you just have to email him a question about them. Gives participation points. Easy seminar course.

Professor Donovan is easily the best professor I've had. His course is laid out perfectly and should be the model for all college classes. He always responds to emails extremely quickly and puts in a lot of effort to make sure every student understands. You do not have to study hard for the tests as long as you somewhat understand the material.

This class was amazing, I couldn't of picked a better senior seminar to be in, Todd is a very kind and intelligent guy and is very approachable about anything you need help with. He doesn't so much lecture, as facilitate discussion. The class included one presentation, one paper, and weekly written paragraph summaries on articles, overall a 10/10.

Great class.

Donovan is probably the best professor I've had at Western, I really really recommend him, as his lectures are very interesting and his 250 course is very good. the discussions every Friday were fun as well, and just overall the class was awesome becasue of professor Donovan. I will definitely be taking his upper division political science courses.

By far my favorite class I've taken at Western, and my favorite professor. His lectures managed to be both straightforward and interesting. He was always accessible over email or after class. He also gives study guides for the tests and they are open book which is great. I found the weekly discussions to be pretty chill and fun too.

PLSC 250 is a great lecture class with weekly (one-point) discussions. The class was very flexible to a changing schedule with a the midterm and final being nearly a direct copy of the weekly quizzes. Midterms are open note, open textbook, open past quiz, closed internet. Some people like to talk too much in the class tho but that's not Todds fault

Great teacher and an interesting class. The lectures are engaging and Donovan made the materials very accessible. A lot of reading outside of class but the lectures go over the information from the textbooks. There are multiple textbooks required and together they're a little pricey but that's not Donovan's fault.

not much. it was ok

I will admit, his lectures were a bit all over the place but he uploads the slides to Canvas so you can follow along yourself. The class is great as a GUR and even better if you're interested in the topic. Donovan's awesome and a really interesting and cool guy to talk to one-on-one. I would definitely recommend him as a professor and this class.