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Deb Niemeier
ENCE465 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2024 |
The current instructor, Dr. Niemeier, is entirely unfit to oversee the capstone program and should be immediately removed from her position. Her approach to teaching is grossly inadequate, marked by a disturbing lack of competence and a complete disconnect from the realities of professional work environments. Dr. Niemeier provides only minimal guidance—often a few vague sentences—yet expects students to produce flawless work that aligns perfectly with her unclear and frequently arbitrary expectations. Her assertion that this course prepares students for the workforce is laughable; the workplace typically offers clear directives, actionable feedback, and a collaborative environment, none of which are present in her classroom. Instead, she demands that students "read her mind," a wholly unprofessional and counterproductive standard. Dr. Niemeier’s feedback is infrequent, dismissive, and often derogatory. She routinely assigns poor grades without offering constructive insights for improvement, leaving students in the dark about how to meet her expectations. Her management style is characterized by micromanagement without accountability; she exerts tight control over students while refusing to provide meaningful responses to their questions. Her communication style relies on intimidation, with frequent threats to fail students for circumstances beyond their control. This hostile environment fosters resentment and hinders learning. She routinely employs scare tactics, such as coercing students into taking last-minute international trips during winter break, often against their wishes, and irresponsibly requires them to organize their own itineraries for these trips. This reckless behavior not only jeopardizes the safety and well-being of students but exposes the university to significant legal risk. Her refusal to provide clearer instructions or reasonable support demonstrates an alarming level of negligence. Dr. Niemeier’s behavior consistently undermines the professionalism she demands from her students. Her abrasive tone, derogatory remarks, and overall unprofessional conduct create a toxic environment that is antithetical to the goals of higher education. The capstone program would be far better off without her involvement. Students are more than capable of managing projects themselves, and her removal would undoubtedly lead to higher morale, better performance, and a vastly improved learning experience. Dr. Niemeier's continued presence in this role reflects poorly on the university’s judgment and commitment to its students. Immediate action must be taken to replace her with someone competent, supportive, and aligned with the values of education and professionalism. |
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Deb Niemeier
ENCE467 Anonymous 05/17/2024 |
Despite the potential benefits a capstone class could provide for senior students, Professor Niemeier undermines its usefulness for future engineers. She claims she won't hesitate to fail soon-to-be graduating seniors, which does not foster a healthy classroom environment where students feel comfortable seeking help. When students do take the time to ask for help or clarification, she responds as if they are not putting any effort into their work simply because they have questions. After realizing she is not helpful for the project, it becomes clear that working with the project sponsor is more beneficial. The class would likely improve without her involvement, as it could be self-run by students with the guidance of project sponsors. To make matters worse, we had to turn in a draft of our final report with the promise of receiving feedback before our engineering expo and final report due date. However, we received no feedback or acknowledgment from her. |
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Deb Niemeier
ENCE467 Anonymous 05/16/2024 |
This class was set up with 1 credit in the fall and 2 credits in the spring. To start, I do not believe she should have ever been a teacher. A professor is someone who will help students grow and reinforce behavior through positive feedback, her interactions with students are quite the opposite. Throughout my year, a few incidences were brought to those higher up and while they tried their best to fix said situations, the way in which she interacted further with students after the fact was in no way better. Individuals would come out of her office crying if the group you were placed into was not producing quality work or not working well with each other. She will single individuals out and create an atmosphere of interrogation within her office. As a student you never feel relaxed in her “learning” environment as she always seems to want to pick a fight with someone. You will feel helpless when interacting with her due to her superiority complex. Some things wrong with her class: her expectations were not outlined correctly in the syllabus or in the grading rubric. You can go to her office hours all you like but she will only tell you everything is correct as she skims what is shown to her. When the grade comes back it will either be a B, C or lower. Successful feedback is not produced within this class. She is embarrassing as a capstone professor and I personally have had interactions with past capstone professors voicing their dislike in both the program and the professor. Expecting students to fix proposals over winter break due to her mistakes of missing something in the submittals is absolutely ridiculous. Grades were not changed and students were told it is not worth the “argument”, students were expected to resubmit proposals the first week of the spring semester with changes while this was not reflected in a grade change for either fall nor spring semester. She should not blame students for her mistakes and while it is late in her life, she needs to learn how to take accountability. I do believe she needs to have repercussions for her actions and since the entire year I saw no changes I also am ashamed of the civil engineering department. |
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Deb Niemeier
ENCE467 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/25/2024 |
One of my top 3 least favorite professors I have had in my entire college experience (stacked with haghani and Chang if you know) Continually will cut you off mid sentence when you are in a meeting with her seeking advice. Constantly lies to students stating what other capstone groups are doing to make you feel like what you are doing isn’t enough. Overall: 0/10, would not recommend :p |
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Deb Niemeier
ENCE465 Expecting a D+ Anonymous 12/20/2023 |
Extremely stubborn and inconsiderate, and will actively mock your work in-class (albeit with your name removed) if she feels it is not up to her standards. On the rare occasions when that is not the case, the feedback that is given tends to be extremely unhelpful and will often result in a lower grade when trying to implement it. She will also commonly let meetings run for 20 minutes over the expected time, and will often schedule multiple groups for the same time slots as well. That is on the rare occasions when she is also actually trying to be helpful - usually she will just go nearly radio silent. I'd say don't take her class, but since it's the capstone... best of luck. |
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Deb Niemeier
ENCE465 Anonymous 09/06/2023 |
Extremely strict and stubborn in her ways. Gives out a few extra credit assignments which can actually deduct points from your existing grade if she decides they are not completed to her satisfaction... |
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Deb Niemeier
ENCE466 Anonymous 12/23/2022 |
You see that ~90% A rate for 466? That won't happen ever again with this new professor. Very strict grader so pray you get an equally strict group who will go above and beyond on the reports. Good luck, you'll need it. |
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Deb Niemeier
ENCE204 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/06/2021 |
I had to take this class for Carillon Communities and I would honestly not recommend it. Because this was an LLC class, it is all freshman, but she taught the class like an upper level class with really little guidance and high expectations. There was only one lecture from her the entire year, the rest of the class was group work where we just read the directions and on canvas, and the other part was a guest speaker every week. I really enjoyed the guest speakers because I was actually learning about something. For the first two months, the class average was about a 50%, and she ended up turning the grades off because students kept complaining about their low grades. The grading is also really unclear and there was little to no direction on how to improve out writing and projects the next time around. Go to office hours and literally always go above and beyond on projects and she will at least see you are trying. The professor seems really passionate about the social parts of engineering, and she is very accomplished, I just don't think she is used to teaching a lower level LLC class. |