I took America in the 60s
Decker is the most boring lecturer out of the whole staff. He has a strange obsession with "semiotics" something that is hardly interesting. I only survived because of Professor Vavreck, go her! If you have to take his individual class, DONT!

(I don't know why it's not an option, but I took the GE cluster 60A, America in the 60s. Not English 193 which it says right there ^ )

I saw this class and thought, 'Hey, this sounds interesting! I like the 60's, it fulfills the English 2 requirement, and it fulfills a GE!' I signed up to take this course because I thought it would provide comprehensive and in-depth instruction about events, culture, and politics of the 1960's in America. But I can honestly say I have not learned a single thing beyond what I learned in my tenth grade A.P. U.S. History class. The concept of teaching us about the 60's from many disciplines is great, and the course has so much potential, but it is horribly executed. Every lecture, there is a professor from a different study (ethnomusicology, English, politics), which sounds like it could help us develop a thorough analysis of events in the 60s, but we are so focused on minute details of, for example, surveying and polling, or the narrative structure of a specific novel we read, that we don't actually learn anything about the 60s. The professors, in my opinion, made no attempt to connect their specific area of study to the 60s. Overall, I thought the first quarter of this course was a waste of my time and I am dropping it next quarter.

Review for CLUSTER 20A

Personally, I think Professor Decker is a great professor. Because whenever I ask questions after class he will patiently answer all of them until I understand the assignments/concepts etc. However, his lectures are a bit boring, but they are very informative as well.

--REVIEW FOR GE20 / INTERRACIAL DYNAMICS IN AMERICA--

Professor Decker seems like a nice enough guy. I can't say much about him because the class I took of him was taught by three other professors as well. He lectured a total of 3-4 times the entire quarter.
He does speak repetitively, as other reviewers have said. His lectures never got me interested in the subject matter he was teaching.

More importantly than Decker himself, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLUSTER.
Anyone would agree. This 6-unit class is hard as hell. The amount of reading will make you pull your hair out, the essay prompts are so convoluted that you won't be able to answer it correctly and thus it will be hard to get a good grade, and the midterm is almost impossible to ace.
The professors are not nice to anyone, as they are able to be extra rude because each of them only teaches the class a few times a quarter.
The subject matter is interesting if you have not had any education on race issues in high school.
Interracial dynamics is my favorite subject and I still could not bear the thought of walking into this class.
Change your mind if you were planning on taking this class.

I took the GE CLUSTER 20 (INTERRACIAL DYNAMICS) with him. I couldn't find the class in the scrollbax. Anyway...

Decker has the worst lecture skills. He repeats the same minor details over and over again, and by the time he gets to what actually matters, lecture is over.

Honestly, I have no idea about his other good or bad qualities because his lectures are so boring, repetitive, and uninformative that I can only focus on how boring, repetitive and uninformative they are.

Plus, he's super fond of technology but uses it as a cruch, which drives me insane.