Decker is terribleeeee lol we always have a joke about how much he sucks. Vavreck and Fink are g's though, I absolutely love them. The class itself is really interesting, don't do the reading though, don't buy the course reader it's $60 and you'll open it once. Super fun and entertaining, would recommend.

Professor Decker is so fucking boring; by the end of the second quarter I hated his lectures with passion. The other professors were somewhat better, specially Fink, but overall the class gets really tiresome by the Winter quarter. However, I would advise sticking with it until the end, as the Spring seminar was quite fun and enjoyable (I took it with Tom, but it is different for every TA and year, so YMMV). Personally, I think it's worth the extra credit.

This is not a review for Professor Decker. This is for the Cluster 60 in general. I decided to take this cluster for its credit (satisfies 4 GE, writing II, diversity, etc). I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS CLASS. Clusters do have the reputation of having a greater workload but it is not the case for this one. I'm so glad that I stuck with this cluster for my freshman year. It's pretty interesting and definitely a GPA booster in my opinion.
It's not the easiest A as you do have to pay attention to lecture, do the readings (at least for the first quarter. I stopped using the course reader after the midterm of fall quarter and was perfectly fine). This class helped me adjust to college along with making new friends and strong bonds with my TA.
Another benefit for this class is that you get priority for Eng Comp 3 (if you need to take it) for your winter/spring quarter. Based on what I heard from my peers, Eng Comp 3 and writing classes general are EXTREMELY hard to get in since everyone needs to take at least one writing class. You won't have to worry about it as you receive your writing II credit during your spring quarter, which is basically a three hour seminar one a week. You also don't have to worry about not getting a class since you are guaranteed enrollment to the course for winter and spring .
I assume that you are reading this review to decide to take this class or not. Well I would like to say TAKE IT because it is extremely rewarding and you won't regret it. I benefited a lot from this class and it satisfied most of my GE requirements as a STEM major.

Don't listen to everyone saying not to sign up for the clusters!!! I am a stem major and totally recommend the history cluster. It was fun and relatively easy. Basically the four different profession rotate giving lectures. Your fall grade consists of the midterm and two papers. Some lectures are suppperrr interesting, (I liked Vavrek and the musicology teacher) but Decker is so boring I stopped going to his lecture. There is very little to no homework at all. Fall quarter you read two books and choose one of them to write an essay on. I actually enjoyed the books we read. The midterm was pretty easy but you get docked off a lot of points for the smallest mistakes. If you have a good TA (shoutout to Leslie) then they will help you get good grades on the papers which will ensure a good grade in the class. Since there is no final for the class I skipped lots of classes after the midterm since all we had left was the Polling Paper which had nothing to do with the lectures. Not sure if winter quarter is just as easy but if you like history I def recommend taking the cluster to knock out a bunch of GEs.

Decker is probably the sweetest but most boring professor I’ve had at UCLA. The dude is a little boring but you manage to get through it. However, again he’s a very nice guy. Would not recommend taking this cluster, take another one if you want the credit. This cluster is an interesting time in history but the faculty is very disorganized in teaching it. As a history major, they do a poor job of keeping it on a time sequence. The class bores you with readings that are too long and focusing on things that are very bland in the Sixties with no time frame whatsoever. Adam Bakr is an awesome TA though, if he’s a TA next year you should Forsure take it.

Okay you guys... I took this cluster Fall 2020-Spring 2021 and I thought I should finally give my thoughts just in case there is a freshman like me who has no idea if this cluster is right for them. I decided to take this cluster by literally winging it, I remember there was literally only one spot left when my enrollment time came. Anyways, after taking this class for a year I would say...... drum roll please.... TAKE THIS CLUSTER. I recommend especially if you were like me and came in with no GE's satisfied. This course is definitely worth it and when I look at my DARS, so many GE's are out of the way. This cluster is especially useful if you are pre-med bc it gets a ton of those GE's out of the way. The workload isn't that bad tbh in 60A you have 2 essays and the same for 60B and 60CW is different for every TA. **Side note I had Sam for my TA and she's the best people were literally fighting over her lmao but def recommend her. She doesn't grade on participation, doesn't grade harshly, and super helpful on essays. For 60CW I took Hanslowe (the seminar on cults) and he grades easy too and participation isn't strict.***

To get to my kinda point...
Take this class not only because of the GE's it gets out of the way but also because you do not have to stress about finding another class that isn't full by the time your enrollment appointment comes up, you get your writing II out of the way, and if you have not yet satisfied EngComp 3 you LITERALLY GET PRIORITY.

Don't listen to those Reddit posts saying that taking clusters ruins your GPA bc they're lying. If past me was reading this I hope I convinced her. ALso I am not re-reading this to check for mistakes, I'm too lazy. But you're welcome.

Professor Decker was, in the kindest words, the most boring. While I do believe Decker has great value in his lectures and is very knowledgeable in his topics, he is bad at keeping the students engaged. His lectures can get boring fast, and he's not the most engaging either. His lectures are important and useful when the literature paper comes up later in the quarter. He's a well-meaning professor. The class is made up of two papers, a music paper and a history assignment closing with a final. The class is not recorded, but lecture slides are posted on BruinLearn.

Decker’s lectures can be really boring, point blank. However, the actual material he presented in first quarter was interesting and I think his lectures got better second quarter. For fall, there were two novels to read, Time Out Of Joint and Meridian, and both books were good picks for the course. They were engaging in different ways and most people liked them. However, the pacing of the readings was horrible because the assignments sprung up on you (i.e. suddenly you’d have to read 100 pages of a book in two days), so make sure to be looking ahead or use your discussion groups to divide up the work. For his portion of first quarter, there was a literary analysis paper due at the end of the quarter instead of a final, focusing on a book of your choice out of the two. Going to lectures definitely did help with knowing the context/significance of each book and how it tied to greater themes, but picking a good TA was even more important. Some graded a lot harsher than others or on different scales… I cannot stress enough how TA dependent your grade was for this class. Try your best to search them up on Bruinlearn beforehand or switch sections at the beginning of the quarter if necessary. As for the midterm, make sure to study every professor’s lecture material since even Decker’s focus on realist/modernist writing can make it to the exam.

SUPER EASY GE, depending on ta for 3rd quarter but lit class

Literally so lit, all we did was analyze politics, culture, music, film, art, intersectionality, of American history in the 50s-70s. SOOOOO easy if you took APUSH bc you can easily pull stuff from apush for essays! but honestly not too much boring history yk. super engaging! all the professors are lit