Saturday, May 23, 2009

Sarah Barnard

Sarah Barnard, and her company Sarah Barnard Designs, is not very nice. My cousin, who will remain anonymous but whose initials are M-O-L-L-Y, is going to CSUN and is studying interior design. One of her classes involved a final project in which the students were split into groups and had to visit a hotel and create a hotel interior design plan based on ideas that they got from their hotel visit. Sarah Barnard was a guest auditor of the students' presentations. It was the final for the semester for this class, and Sarah Barnard helped the professor judge the students' projects. Although Sarah Barnard did not issue the grade, she did offer critiques as an "expert" from the field of interior design. Before my cousin and her group could finish their conclusion to their project, Sarah Barnard cut them off and said, "I have to interrupt you, because your presentation is making me sick." Sarah Barnard then went on a tirade completely demeaning these four students and their project. Sarah Barnard told them that their project was a mockery and was a fraud and complete plagiarism of the hotel that they visited. The teacher actually had to speak up and defend the students because my cousin and her group did exactly what the teacher requested. But Sarah Barnard did not care and she ripped into the students. I want to use my blog as a platform to publicly inform all four of my readers about Sarah Barnard and her treatment of these students. Even if you do not like a student's presentation, you do not rip on them and tear them down as if they are not worthy of any kind of respect. Sarah Barnard's actions are a tragedy and need to be told. This is not the proper actions of a professional interior designer, or the actions of any rational human being. Rational human beings do not attack each other like this. Sarah Barnard's actions are the actions of someone who is threatened by students' ideas and who is so insecure with herself that she has to demean others to make herself fell better. This is all I have to say about this.

7 comments:

CSUN student said...

Hi Kevin,

I am also a CSUN student in “Molly’s” class. I was there for the presentations and had my own project reviewed by Ms. Barnard. I would have to say that your blog has a large number of false statements and I would guess that you didn’t take the time to validate any of them with the teacher before writing your post…It sounds pretty whiney and one sided.

Ms. Barnard is undeniably tough and was hard on “Molly’s” group because she believed they had copied major design elements from an existing hotel. It sounds like Molly may have forgotten to tell you that Ms. Barnard also said they had the BEST drawings, boards and presentation skills in the class. Did Molly take the time to talk to Ms. Barnard after class if she was so upset? I did. Have you ever met Ms. Barnard or known anyone who knows her besides Molly? Just thought you might appreciate another point of view.

The Mrs. said...

Congrats hubby! You have a 5th blog reader!!

Apparently they are too much of a chicken to put a name to their response, but still... another reader is another reader

=)

Kev said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kev said...

Hi Anonymous CSUN student,
Thank you for visiting my blog. While I do appreciate your point of view, I do not think that you understood the point that I was trying to convey. In my opinion, and I think most civilized people's opinions, the fact that Sarah said some nice things about the group's presentation does not give her the right to be rude. There are ways to respectfully disagree with someone without being rude. If students complete an assignment based on a professor's instructions and a guest judge does not agree or like the presentation, then the guest judge can respectfully critique the students' project based on the assignment rubric and take her project criticisms to the professor. I have had several guest judges critique my projects while I was in college and never has a guest judge been as rude to students as Sarah was. My point was that normal, civilized people are not as rude as Sarah was to the class. I have heard from several other students in the class and my reaction is the same as the people to whom I have spoken. Sarah crossed the line as a guest judge for a junior level interior design class. She acted like she was judging a design proposal for a major national hotel chain; if she was, then her harsh criticisms would be justified. But junior level college students who complete an assignment based on a professor’s guidelines do not deserve this treatment. To reiterate my point once more, Sarah was out of line in her critique of the students' projects and was rude directly to the students when she should have taken her complaints directly to the professor who wrote the assignment.

Anonymous said...

Yeah,Kev. That sooo sounds like the same type of response Ms. Barnard herself made to another of Molly's classmates. All smooth and no truth. From what the students in the class have said, there is not ONE person in there who had anything kind to say about Ms. Barnard's behavior AND There were no positive remarks made by her on any level. It makes you wonder who visited your blog and how she found it. Keep talking, Sarah. Only next time sign your name.
GAL

Anonymous said...

I went to CSUN long ago,
but when I was taking
art classes they would
have professionals from
these fields come in and
talk to us about the field.
I never had any of them
be unkind in any way and
am upset that a professional would treat
a student in such a way.
They are there for the
very reason to support
these fledglings not
tear them down.
I am just sorry they had
to have that experience and hope that these feedbacks will help them
keep on feeling their own self respect for their work.

Anonymous said...

I say, only listen up to
the point that you learn
something, but don't
listen to the point that
you lose confidence in yourself. Hey it is rough
and tough out there and
it is good to get a little
used to it, but don't let
someone ever get you to
give up on your dreams.
So I say, go girl go!