Great professor, super interesting class

If you're looking for a class where you can mindlessly regurgitate memorized information for an A, this is not the class for you. Only take if you're interested in putting real thought into the material and formulating your own opinions and expanding your base of knowledge and argumentation skills. That being said... Professor Huppin is an incredible instructor. He's knowledgable, approachable, insightful, fair, and clearly cares about student learning. The best part about him is that he doesn't just teach at students- he fosters meaningful discussions and pushes students to think critically and deeply about the course material. The readings were well-selected (if a little bit dense at times- be prepared for reading lots of Supreme Court cases), but I felt that there was plenty of time in class to explain and clarify them. I also loved that Professor Huppin discussed recent developments in the topics covered- it made everything we discussed that much more relevant to life outside the classroom. The midterm and final were both pretty short and not too difficult if you go to lecture, participate in class, and familiarize yourself with the cases. The two short thought papers were a breeze and great grade boosters. I highly recommend this class as a Comm. elective- also, it counts towards Honors credit, which is a sweet bonus.

huppin is a chill guy, but his lectures are boring as a motherfucker and it's really important to listen to them (at least for the first half of the class). some of the cases he uses aren't famous cases so it's harder to look it up -- so you need to pay attention, but it's super hard to pay attention. his tests are annoying and overly specific but if you really really study the readings it won't be that bad. the class isn't that bad, it's pretty interesting if you like law and you can definitely learn a lot, but if you want to do well you need to pay attention in class and actually do all the readings.

Tough class. Not sure exactly what he want from us on tests and grades seemed arbitrary.

VERY difficult class, would not take again - waste of an elective in CS. I'd rather take a nonlegal class about actual media or one of the more interesting legal/political classes like Presidential Comm. Learned a lot but often strayed away from what was expected. Intertwining video games into free speech was interesting, though.

Extremely challenging course. Too bad it's practically required. Otherwise I would not have taken it. Knowledgable guy but the lectures are bland.

he does not teach this

Professor Huppin was recommended to me by a senior and I'm so glad I took this course. I am interested in law school and this class helped to solidify that interest. The only required readings are online articles (fairly short) and the course reader. The course reader isn't too expensive, but it is necessary since a decent amount of multiple choice questions and a few short answer questions come directly from the reading.

Huppin is really funny and keeps the lectures interesting and engaging. If you're interested in law, you'll love this class - if not, still a really awesome class with a professor who cares about his students and will do everything he can to make sure you understand the material and can apply it well.

There is a midterm, a final, and two short papers throughout the quarter. The papers are "thought papers" based on a handful of readings or a film you watch in class. They are fun to write and easy to do well on. The midterm might be a little tough if you are taking this as one of your first upper division classes, but if you are used to upper divs it's quite manageable in terms of what he expects you to know. The final is a little trickier and requires more outside application than memorization, but I personally did better on the final since the material in the second half of the class was very interesting to me. The final is not cumulative.

**This review is for Communications 184, not Communications 113. Prof Huppins listing on bruin walk does not show Communications 184 even though he taught it this summer.**

A class named Abortion, Gun Control, and Death Penalty: Arguing Contemporary Social Issues sounds like it would be fun, right? Especially in todays political world.

The problem is that this class title is misleading. We spent extremely little time on gun control or death penalty. A little on abortion, but the rest was just Huppin trying to squeeze his first amendment knowledge and other research interests into a class where they really didn't belong. Why did we have to endure a powerpoint on Compelled Speech? The Suicide Texting Case? Affirmative Action? Tbf, affirmative action i guess is a contemporary issue (really, though, it was an issue of 10 years ago). But he chose and focused on topics NOT in the description at the expense of those in the description.

This class is great if you're a lightweight. Everyone gets an A! But the substance is a major disappointment. Not the class that was advertised. It seemed as if Huppin chose to teach this class at the last minute even though he wasn't qualified - at least thats what i could infer from the several messages I got from random people in the department before the course began. The class felt like it was being made up on -the-fly.

Verdict: My GPA thanks me. But my pocketbook and appetite for learning do not. Sort of a waste for a summer. Wish i followed my friends advice and took a diff class instead

I think this class is pretty easy as an elective up div class. no heavy readings, basically just go online and search case summaries that you will be fine. I organized the notes ahead of time and started studying 2-3 days before midterm and final. two short responses, 10 pts each, you would able to get almost full pts for the responses. midterm was 35 pts and final was 40 pts.