Comm 175 is the class I took actually. Nice professor, make you think, and grade fair. Just two 6-7 pages take home essays as mid term and final. With a quiz which you should do fine if you read the "SUMMARY" for the readings. It is a 6 pick 5 short answers questions. Grammar is important and that's it! Really nice old man and teaches with passion for more than 40 years.

***NOTE: This class ISN'T for Art History M102F, the field was just required. The class that was taken with Von Blum was COMMUNICATIONS 175

When I initially signed up for his Comm 175 class, I was a little intimidated. My friend who previously had him and informed me that he yells during his lecture... boy was that an understatement. I am really glad that I did take this class though because my low expectations were definitely overturned by reality.

Comm 175 is a once a week, 3 hour-long class and yes it IS a long time but Von Blum makes it go by relatively quickly. It is difficult to fall asleep in this class (often, at least) because his lecturing technique is to scream at students, but not in a negative, frightening way.

The class is about criticism of the arts (paintings, novels, films) and there are no exams. There are 2 papers that count as the midterm and the final. Each paper is 6-7 pages in length and grammar is VERY important. There is a short 5 question quiz on the last day of class and if you paid attention and took decent notes, it's really not difficult.

Von Blum really makes you think about social issues. He is passionate about teaching and very approachable. You definitely see his liberal views and even if you don't agree with those kinds of views, he at least causes you to think about ethical issues involved in arts, regardless of the political affiliation.

I enjoyed this class and I recommend it to students of all majors!