Rick Tuttle is a gentleman and a scholar.

Luskin has gotten rid of 187 with their curriculum overhaul - a major loss for the student body. Hopefully Tuttle sticks around doing something else, because he's second to none.

I wish I'd found his classes earlier, but I don't know if he teaches more than this course (maybe he does?). For ours, it was a capstone, so there was no formal lecture. He ran the class as a simulation, so it wasn't a series of lectures but more an experience. He was fine with tardiness, as he started the class late anyway so later people wouldn't miss much. We had assignments every week, but the stakes were light as he would give helpful feedback and the pressure wasn't really ON until the last two weeks. We used no textbook; we were only required to read two newspapers, the LA Times and the Daily News, every day in anticipation of a quiz he may give in class that week (we met once a week).

About the prof: He is kind. He knows of what he speaks, but he is warm and approachable. If you hate singing, you won't like him; he likes to sing. More to the point, he likes to make YOU sing. He won't put you on the spot but he loved to have us stand as a group and sing the alma mater. I guarantee by the end of the quarter you will have it memorized and it will stay there for a good while afterward. He likes to get to know students, in office hours or over coffee, and because he will reach out and his class (this one anyway) is small, he will remember you. So if you want recommendations, he will remember you, no problem.