Students enroll in unusual classes

By Kristen Liszewski

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

It’s a tall order to expect students to read the entire 416-page undergraduate catalog, but students can find some unique classes the University offers.

Take, for example, the astronomy course “The Quest for Extraterrestrial Life” and the activities course, “Dance, Dance, Revolution.”

The University offers a broad spectrum of specialized courses that can fulfill humanities, science, and even foreign language requirements for graduation.

Heidi Hartle, Overland Park senior, said she found a class called “Unveiling the Veil” through one of her African-American studies courses. The class is solely dedicated to the meaning of the veil in society. In the course description, it is described as a class that examines “the ways in which the veil has become a symbol of privacy, cultural identity, religious assertion, resistance and liberation, besides being a symbol of constraint, oppression, backwardness, and sexual mystery.”

“It sounds like a really interesting concept to understand the different veils in different cultures, behind it and above it,” Hartle said.

Hartle said she enrolled in the class not only because it was unique, but because it fulfilled one of the class requirements for her African-American Studies minor.

Although some specialized courses require prerequisites, they are typically common prerequisites that most students complete their freshman and sophomore years. To enroll in “Legend and Fantasy,” a 300-level English course, the only prerequisite is an introductory English class. The class examines the Arthurian legends and folklore and how they have been reinterpreted in today’s society.

A class that fulfills a humanities credit, but has no prerequisite requirements is the history class “Conspiracies and Paranoia in American History.” This 300-level course covers everything from the Salem witch trials to UFO’s to Kennedy’s assassination.

Roberta Freund-Schwartz, associate professor of historical musicology, teaches “The History of Rock and Roll.” She said that although the class was a music course, she almost never saw music majors enroll in it, but rather a variety of majors and randomly enough, a large group of graduate architecture students.

“It’s a really fun class to teach,” Freund-Schwartz said. “It’s taking the same concept of listening to your classical masterworks pieces, but just using a different repertoire.”

Freund-Schwartz said the class went through a quick survey of the earliest styles of music that came into the U.S. such as African-American and classical music, and how these genres impacted American popular music. The course tracks ragtime blues and jazz through the 1950s to where they combined to be rock and roll.

The University offers classes far different from music history, too. “Sand Volleyball,” typically offered for only half a semester when the weather is nice outside, not only allows time for exercise, but fulfills a credit at the same time.

Blaine Gambrel, 2009 graduate, said he took Sand Volleyball in the Spring because he needed one credit to graduate and wanted it to be something fun and different.

“I never played volleyball before and this class not only made me better at it, but it was nice knowing I was getting credit for something so fun,” Gambrel said.

Another not-so-average class offered this semester is “History of the Samurai.” This class covers the history of the Samurai and their dominance in Japanese society for almost half of Japan’s recorded history.

Jon Thomas, Plainfield, Ill., senior, said he heard about the class from a friend.

“My friend told me it was the most interesting class he’s taken at KU so far,” Thomas said. “So I thought ‘Why not?’ It sounds cool and fulfills a credit I need.”

— — Edited by Adam Schoof

Comments

handy (anonymous) says...

I'm taking KICKBALL and Biology of Spiders this year.

If weird classes were a major, I'd major in it sooo hard.

My buddy took the samurai class too. Talks about it non-stop. History buffs - look into it!

July 28, 2009 at 4:09 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

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