Kelly Fitz

Kelly Fitz is one of the most wonderful professors I've ever had the fortune of working with. His demeanor is slightly whimsical, and he brings an off-beat and truly entertaining sense of humor to all of his lessons. During class, he provides tons of fun examples to further student understanding. Each of the programs I had to write under him provided a challenge and were well-tailored towards increasing student understanding of specific CS concepts. One sore point for most people was his academic honesty policy, but I loved it! Preventing cheating by limiting the flow of essential information between students worked like a charm. I never once doubted that my work was completely safe from other student's predations. The only complaint I have was that he had a hard time talking to most students. He seemed aloof and short when talking with them. As long as you don't need too much help with your program, Kelly Fitz is one of the greatest professors at WSU.

This professor is by far the worst I have ever had. He's a jerk to the whole class, openly stating that our class is the worst he's ever had. All this while putting almost no effort into his lectures. His lectures are comprised of reading his notes off of the internet, in which many of his examples have errors in them in which he struggles fixing in class. He could have taught this class much more efficiently so you could get something out of it, but instead, you leave this class never wanting to see him, Linux, or computer science again. He's a cancer to the EECS Department, and should be fired before he negatively impacts more students.

You learn a lot in his class if you can stay on top of it, but the 15-hour assignments every week take their toll on you (especially when he says you should be able to do them in three hours). My recommendation: go to class, start homework as soon as you get it and make sure your schedule is light if you're taking CPTS 223 with Fitz.

I was a bit annoyed with him through the class, but looking back at it I'd say he knows the material inside out and just doesn't do a great job of relating to students. He sets the bar pretty high (especially to less experienced students), so if you work and stay on top of it you'll learn a huge amount very well. If you slack off for a week you'll almost immediately fall behind and you'll get pissed at his personality. Lectures are valuable and interesting, and he works to make sure students understand it. One big warning: his out-of-class answer to most all questions is, "If you don't know this, you should drop the class" so look to your TA and friends for help. He's accommodating and approachable to students he likes, though.

Woe to he who takes CptS 223, which would be more adequately titled "CptS 223: C++ Trivia." Fitz comes off as such an unemphatic, boring, mundane professor that I would avoid taking any course from him if possible. His tests and quizzes are so bad that I have saved them all to show off to others as examples of what poor questions look like. His only saving grace is that he seems competent; good questions asked of him are answered well.