Peter Boniface

School: Cal Poly Pomona
Department: Engineering
Location:Pomona, CA
Overall Rating
rated by 20 students
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Easiness
Rating Comment
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Easiness
 Pros: Very friendly
True gentleman
Good conversationalist
Cons: Doesn't teach
Unstructured
Assigns homework but never grades it
Boniface is about 80 years old and shouldn't be teaching. Over the course of this class, he assigned about 4-5 homeworks and an equal number of projects. I did none of the homeworks and all of the projects.
The first few weeks were simple presentations. Be sure to have business clothes on if you're doing a presentation. If you don't he will mark you as unprepared and fail you in the entire class. This happened only once during our class, and it's the closest you can come to failing this joke of a lecture.
The trick to this class is getting him to know your name and face. I did hardly anything for this class and only showed up about a third of the time and he still gave me an A, even though he explicitly states in his syllabus that attendance is weighted heavily (he claims that 3 late/absences will result in a grade reduction from B+ to B ect). By this logic I should have received a D+. I believe I only received an A because he knew my face and we had a few engaging conversations about our hobbies and travels. He most likely doesn't even bother to grade students. Several people have said that he gives random letter grades at the end of the quarter and I'm inclined to say that these claims are accurate.
Just show up for all presentation days, sit in the back, and do homework while enjoying his ramblings about his previous travels. He's a very friendly man who has lived a long and prosperous life, and he's only teaching because he needs to do a certain number of lectures for his retirement program.
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 Pros: chill; easy class
no work really
Cons: no structure to class
grading criteria is a mystery
Depending on your personality this is either a fun easy class where you do no work or it's an irritating class where you want to learn something but get to learn nothing and waste a bunch of time.
I'm more the first type of guy so this class was chill for me and really funny in that sense.
Boniface is kind of like a funny, clueless, innocent dinosaur. He has his clever (and often unwittingly funny) anecdotes which he likes to talk about and ramble on about like old people sterotypically might.
Between those and random slides and random grade school like assignments a good bulk of the class is filledup doing nothing.
The rest of the class throughout the quarter consists of 2-3 powerpoint presentations you have to do which are easy and basic and not particularly challenging (if you were hoping for that I guess haha).
He gives everyone A's and B's at the end of the quarter and his criteria behind the grades he gives are kind of in the air (maybe he flips a coin).
In many ways I don't take school too seriously and get the high grades I get more effortlessly than the stereotypical, nose to the grindstone anal student... because of that I was satisfied with the A I got with relatively little effort despite learning/doing little to nothing in that class.
It's more pleasant looking at it from that perspective I think... enjoy the class, enjoy your A or worst case scenario B; great to take if you need to get extra units too.
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 Pros: Straighforeward Notes
Open Book/Note on All Exams
Better than Prof. Turner
Cons: Soft Voice
Boring Lectures
Taken Winter 2011 Quarter. Prof. Boniface is a nice guy but I think he's taught enough. He does teach, but it's like he has no will to do it anymore. However, he knows his stuff and answers questions well. The lectures are in the form of overhead-projector slides. These lectures can also be found in his Lecture Notebook (which I suggest you buy). We never used the assigned book or map at all. Sit up close because he has a quiet voice. The load for this class is fair and no complex formulas are used, just plug and chug. Homework is assigned every class meeting but it is fairly easy. He proctors two exams and a final, all open note/book. He grades in an inconsistent manner: Sometimes he only looks at the answer to base your grade, other times he gives partial credit. But he does return your assignments/exams in a quick manner Not sure if he curves though. Not a professor I would recommend, especially if you need surveying knowledge in the future. But I can say, I did learn from him. Grade Received: C-
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 Where the hell did Cal Poly find this guy? The dude is a fossil from the Jurassic Period. His lectures are decent and his homework/tests are pretty easy too, but he is virtually inaudible in class. He lectures at a volume a little louder than a whisper but he does seem to keep the topic a little more interesting. I had him for 220 and he had his own lecture notes that you buy from some print shop off campus for like $20. The notes are very decent and help you out a lot, also take notes in his class and you'll be fine for his homework. Don't be afraid to take him, just sit in the front so you can hear him.
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 Like the majority have said below, he is pretty burned out. He's not motivated to teach anymore. He has a lot of knowledge about the subject but his grading on exams and homework is very inconsistent. For example, on the homework he would mark an answer as incorrect when it actually is correct, especially the exams. To be more specific about the exams, the majority of the students would receive different grades on certain questions although the answers were the exactly same! If it wasn't for his inconsistent grading, I would at least have a high B. If you plan to not learn a lot, this is the professor you would take. Grade Received: C+
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 I hate to say it but the comment from 6/15/09 is completely correct. One thing I have learned is now a days it's not about how much you know or how hard you worked in your classes to get that C- ITS ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW AND WHAT THAT STUPID NUMBER THEY CALL YOUR "GPA" IS! Boniface was the only professor teaching CE362 this Spring quarter 09'. So I took him. I got an A in lecture and B+ in the activity. Want to know what I did? One powerpoint about myself and show up to class. That was ALL. I would show up 15-20 minutes late as well because he was never on time. He sometimes wouldn't show up at all. This class was a joke! I actually had the desire to learn something at least how to write a business letter, a memo, an EIR, anything! The only thing I learned about was reincarnation, marriage, tenured professors, how women bitch, cricket, beer, and the list goes on! He even offended me a few times but I just kept my mouth shut because I didn't want to make a scene. If his class was ever evaluated he would get fired because we drank beer in class, had a pinata, talked, watched You Tube, and so on. All I'm thankful for is he gave me an A that boosted my GPA. Thank you Boniface =) Grade Received: A
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 I hate to say it because he is a somewhat friendly old man, but this was the most awkward and unstructured class I've ever taken, and he as a professor was flat out disappointing.
Wait 'till the end of this review for the worst of it.
Boniface used to bicycle a lot and he had an accident a few months back where he was hit by a car; I honestly wondered during his lectures if he had brain damage because he became worse and worse as the quarter wore on. (This is not meant as a derogatory comment, as you'll see.)
First of all he constantly over and over interrupts both students and his own train of thought to tell story after story about all his experiences in South Africa, Australia, all over the world having worked for many different companies and his love of cats and bicycles, all sorts of odds and ends that are irrelevant. He often forgets he told us something and tells the same story more than once. He will interrupt a group doing a presentation as many times as he likes depending on if the topic is something he knows about, once in awhile giving actual constructive criticism. But usually he just gets lost as his mind wanders from one experience to another, which has nothing to do with the class but which he tries to make relevant, usually failing. Sometimes he can blather on like this for a half hour straight, before realizing how much time he's taken up. Once in awhile he'll get a chuckle from the class but often we're all sitting around trying to figure out what he's talking about and what his point is. One group he called back to the front of the class to critique how they were dressed for their presentation, then he rambled on for 20 minutes straight about random things while they stood there feeling awkward.
But the problem is most of these stories he tells- which in his soft voice you can barely hear sometimes and can't make sense of because he doesn't put the stories in proper context- bear NO relevance at ALL to what the class is supposed to be about.
The class is totally chaotic; it starts out with some structure but along the way quizzes weren't given that should have been, HW assignments sometimes aren't collected (and they seemed assigned at random), and he generally seems to have very bad memory (often he asks US what we're doing that day). Several times he didn't even show up to class, and gave no warning or message to us; most of the time he would show up 15-20 minutes late! You can't help but get the impression he has lost all passion for teaching, if he ever had any to begin with.
He one time was about to take role when he started telling us how his wife and others forced him to get a CAT scan, citing his recent forgetfulness since the accident. At that very moment after telling us that, he then closed the role book, saying, "Well that's the role...", until a student pointed out that he hadn't taken role yet. He is literally that forgetful. You will not learn much about technical communications from his class- if anything the text might serve as a future reference for you when you one day need to write a formal letter, report, etc.
The only positive I took from the course was getting lots more practice speaking in front of others, so students who are uncomfortable with this will gain confidence and experience. There will be a total of about 50 presentations when it's all over- first one is about yourself, next are 6 "lectures" from chapters of the book (students volunteer to do lecture/presentation on 1 chapter), and then a "sales" presentation in teams of two where you try and sell the audience something.
Other than this, the assignments he does give are extremely easy, an occasional problem from the book or to duplicate a schematic using Word. There is no midterm or final. Grading- around week 6 he flat out told us he was giving us all A's and B's- another reviewer verifies he's done this before.
The REAL problem with Boniface for me is that as the quarter progressed, it became more and more painful to watch what a pervert he is, as he would flirt with the more physically attractive women students and sometimes use sexist terms. By the last weeks he was openly referring to female students collectively as "chicks", taking pictures of them with his camera phone, interacting with them more than other students, showing excitement at any image of an attractive woman on the Powerpoint presentations, and once he made a female student come to the front of the class to slow dance with him, as he described some story from his past in which he danced with a woman he was crazy about! The poor thing looked SO embarrassed afterward. I am a MALE and this behavior deeply offended me, and many guys in the back of the class would openly laugh at his increasingly lewd behavior towards all things female; just imagine how you'd feel as a WOMAN with all this. All the women in the class told me how upset they were, and it was clear in their faces by the last few weeks that they dreaded his class. I contemplated writing a letter to the dept. head but figured it wouldn't do much considering his "fat cat" status as a tenured professor, to use the term he brags about.
It is extremely unprofessional as both a professor and an engineer for him to act this way towards female engineering students. He also unprofessionally detailed for us his history
with Dr. Turner- they apparently hate each other and he enjoyed going into detail about how Turner tried to get rid of him. I'd expect something like this from teenagers gossiping, not a 70+ year old engineering professor.
While he may come across overall as friendly, he is rather opinionated and of a mindset that he's seen and done it all, that in his vast experience he has the right opinion on everything, including religion, marriage, and any other non-scholastic topic he inappropriately brings up. No one ever objects to his behavior and comments, only out of respect for his age.
I don't know if Boniface was at one time a good professor but most of the students I talked to agreed it is long past time he retired.
If you find yourself forced to take him for CE362, it's not the end of the world but be prepared for dozens of awkward moments and a very unstructured, laid-back class with a few presentations mixed in.......and if you're a woman be prepared to be offended. Grade Received: A
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 Dr. Boniface is a great guy. He does lack as a professor because he isn't in the mood to teach any longer. In his burned-out state, he isn't interested in doing any work. We did our own lectures and created and graded our own tests. We spent most of our time sleeping and working on other homework. The worst part was that he, himself, slept during most of our presentations and then asked us questions about things we answered during the presentation.
Reportedly, if everyone passes the class, he simply goes down the grade book checking off A,B,A,B,A,B... to eliminate the need to actually grade anyone. There were several students that performed far and above the rest of the class that got B's while many who did hardly any work received A's.
If you want a guaranteed A or B (you won't have any control over the 2) and you don't want to work to get it, take Boniface.
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 I took Boniface for the beginning of the 5 weeks in summer then Neto stepped in the second 5 weeks. They are ridiculously different. Boniface's lectures were so boring I literally would sleep through class and wake up at the end. He didn't do too many examples or explain how to do problems so majority of the class was lost. He's a very nice guy and was interested in getting to know the students. I liked him as an advisor or a mentor but not so much a teacher. Last thing I'm still bitter about, at the end of our midterm he just said "Pencils down" and never timed us saying "15 minutes left" or what not so I never finished my test because I didn't know how much time we had left and I barely passed! Grade Received: C-
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 This is what it boils down to. I took him for 134, 134L, 220L. You won't learn ANYTHING that you don't teach yourself, period. His tests are too difficult, and you have to contest every grade. I "failed" every test, then contested them and got A's. His lab is a joke, no more no less. His 220L is a review of 134L for 5-6 weeks, you don't do the MAIN project that is the entire point of 220L. Basically, it's an advanced joke. BUT, it is an easy A, he is easy to schmooze, and his grading is very......relative. Take Neto if you want to learn, take B-Face or Turner if you don't care and just want the A. Grade Received: A
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 There's no question that Boniface is an exceptional surveyor. But his teaching is a slightly different story. He has good points, but he also has things that could use some improvement. For one, he shows up late often. So try not to have anything scheduled right after his class, because he'll sometimes go past the scheduled end of class. Also, he mumbles in a quiet monotone voice, and he often talks about his personal life or goes off on random tangents, so his lectures can be a little hard to follow. Fortunately, that isn't much of a problem since you can buy his lecture notes from ASK copy. These are easy to read and have everything you need to know for the class, including homework, which is reasonable and not too hard at all. Tests are open book (you probably won't need the book for his CE134 class), open notes and you can use his lecture notes as well. Two midterms, one final, straightforward, not too hard, and you can practice by getting copies of his previous exams. I'm not sure how much of a help he is if you ask him questions personally, but if you read through his notes, the class should be pretty easy. Overall, an alright guy to take for CE134 lecture. Grade Received: A-
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 What can I say about this class?! I took Boniface Surveying 1 lec, and Surveying 2/L. The Surveying 2 for Construction Engineers is a complete freaking joke! They need to get a new person to teach the course. Course highlights for all you ConE majors out there: Late to lecture, late to lab, UFO's, ghosts, angels, the fact that Boniface doesn't do Construction Surveys in real life, Boniface doesn't know the team "Geomatics", buy a book....never use it, crappy lecture notes, his wife's cats, the tie-tuck, circular and vertical curves, slope-staking and earthwork computations, running the same traverse 2x's a week for 5 freaking weeks, broken geodimeters....and much, much more. Seriously, I don't think I learned anything really new (save for the curve construction). Another thing to watch out for is his grading! On both mid-terms, he failed to grade a bunch of people's properly. I went (twice) from a 68% and 70% respectively to a 93% and 96% on the two mid-terms....turns out he skips problems when he grades. Let's see...oh yeah, he also came into class one day and said that he talked to G. Herder (ET dept chair) and said that we don't need the Surveying 2 class and that it should be dropped from the ConE curriculum!!! Well folks there you have it, that is the ETC 132-Construction Surveying 2 experience with Boniface. I highly suggest you n*t up and take CE220! Grade Received: B+
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 I took Prof. Boniface for CE134 and he wasn't too bad but for CE220 he certainly kicks up the difficulty level a notch. You have two midterms during the quarter, and one final, all open note/book and if you get a 95% on both exams you don't take the final. You only go off of his notes during lecture so you don't need to buy the text book, but I would do it because it's EXTREMELY helpful during your exams and homework. Try to do your homework early and go to his office hours. Some of the stuff doesn't seem too difficult when it's assigned, but you'd be surprised how ugly he can make it on an exam. Grade Received: A
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 Professor Boniface is extremely knowledgeable. If you take the time to speak to him on his experiences in surveying, you'll be suprised on how much he knows. He will tell you stories about his studies in south africa and his training. He is probably the most experienced surveying professor at cal poly. His worst attribute happens to be his soft voice, which is difficult to get used to. It makes lectures boring. However if you ask him for practice exams, it will dramatically help you on his exams. His exams are open book/note so keep those practice tests handy. I had Boniface for both 134 Lecture and Lab. I prefer him for lab to be honest. I got a B because I was lazy. I could have done a lot better had I put some effort into the class. Grade Received: B
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 Boniface knows his stuff. I mean the man has his own little consulting office and does surveying work on the side. But his teaching ability sucks. Out on the field all he did was spend time with the girls talking about his cat and how he met his wife in Africa. I should know because I was one of the girls. But his lecture is pretty boring although I believe that if he could find a new style of teaching we could learn alot from him. He really does know his stuff and he's good at math but I didn't like the tests because they were open notes and open book and he gives you old tests to practice from; you just have to ask. I mean most of the tests he provides you with you can use during the test and 100% of the time you can find all your answers in the old test. That's lame if you actually want to figure out how much you learned but if you want to copy and just get a grade then this is the class for you. The class in itself isn't hard but if you don't want to look like an idiot when you go out into the real world then take an instructor you can learn from like Neto. She makes you work but you come out of her class with some knowledge and skills you can use; like not knowing how to copy unless you would rather be a copying machine and not an engieer. Grade Received: B+
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 This guy seems nice and can be, but he doesnt grade fairly at all. I did all the labs and averaged above a 9 on them, thats worth 60% of your grade. Got a 10/10 on the final project, 30% of your grade, and attended every lab and was late for only a couple. By my standards that is easily an A... not for Boniface. He said that I must have forgotten batteries or something like that but couldnt tell me exactly what I did wrong. How lame is that. This guy sucks and just wants to have a bell curve for his grades, so some get A's while others get C's, make sure you check out your grade if you take him. Terrible and down right wrong. Grade Received: C+
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 Boniface seems to be ok as far as knowing his stuff but he isn't the best instructor. He has a very low voice tends to slow down and almost drift out while he is speaking to you and he plays favorites whether he admits it or not. He seems to think you already know this stuff and expects you to understand and follow him when he badly explains his lab. Then he gets all mad at you for asking him questions during the lab. He seems to enjoy calling people idiots and treats females as being less than males. As far as his class, it consists of two midterms and one final all for which you can get practice tests from him, just ask. If you get 95 on both midterms you don't have to take the final and have an automatic "A". However, during our class one guy who didn't have 95 on both his finals got to skip the final and get an "A" in the class just cause he was good in the lab- whatever that means. Make your own choice. My advice take another instructor if you don't want to struggle to just learn something. Grade Received: C-
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 This guy is a fairly poor instructor because he doesn't instruct. All we did in the whole class was do exercises out of the book. He only teaches if you raise your hand and ask for help. He would give out a few assignments, then come in the class, and then leave class when the class is over. He is a very old and cold person. I did all assignments he gave us even some of the extra credit ones at the end of the quarter and I still got a 'B' in the class. There was no reason why I should not have gotten an 'A' since out assignments were just copying line for line of every design in the book. He says "You have to do extraordinary work to get an 'A' in the class." But that is not possible since the work we do is just following step-by-step instructions in the book and copying some designs with our own methods. I even made the lines colorful and put pretty borders around the whole damn picture and still got just a 'B' in the class. Tell me, how is one suppose to do extraordinary work when you have to follow step-by-step instructions and copying diagrams by the line length, size, position, etc.? Anyways, don't take this class unless you are satisfied with a 'B' instead you could be getting an 'A'.
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 I have heard lots of different opinions about Professor Boniface over the last two quarters, but after taking him for both of the CE surveying classes (134/220) I must say that most of those opinions are biased in some way. The simple fact is that although you might not leave his class with what you think is a lot of usefull information, you still have a very good understanding of the principles of surveying. He has notes pre-made which is very usefull for study purposes, even though his tests are all open-note/open-book. Most questions aren't straight out of the notes but it is not that difficult to do well on his tests as long as you don't make a lot of stupid mistakes. He gives very little partial credit. His lectures are sometimes boring, in part because he has a British accent, but he often tells very interesting stories of his Surveying experiences and it's actually quite entertaining. I am very happy I took him for both of my CE surveying lecture classes, but make sure you don't take him for lab, take Turner instead.
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 You don't have much of a choice if you're taking Surveying II in ETC, I believe he's the only one who teaches this class. Be prepared for the following:- Not enough explanation of assignments- He cuts out during lab, which means if you have a question, you're screwed.- Always late for either lecture, lab, or both... can be good or bad.- Boring as all hell. I can't stand listening to him.He's not a bad person, but he is clueless. Great surveyor, not so great teacher. However, in most cases he is the only option for surveying classes. Take Neto, if possible.

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