by Allison McLean
Editor-in-chief
As students check and, for some, double-check the course requirements for their core, major and minor classes, they may notice the new ingredients that have been added to the course listing mix for next semester.
These new ingredients include two brand new courses – European Cinema and Environmental Science – three courses that have not been offered in a long time – Drawing I, Painting I and Tax Accounting – and many Special Topics (ST) courses.
In the Communication studies department, European Cinema (COMM 248), taught by Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Chris Clark, takes its place for the first time amongst the pool of upper level required electives from which communication students can choose.
The course is open to all students but is geared towards communications: film and technology students who have taken Introduction to Film, a class that studies a more familiar approach to film, looking at it through “an American lens,” according to Clark.
“European Cinema is great because you learn a different take on storytelling,” Clark said. “European cinema is more philosophical, more artistic, more literary.”
This is a survey course, covering early German and Russian films, Italian Neo Realism, French New Wave and other film movements.
“European cinema has had a huge impact on modern cinema—not the Spiderman stuff, but films like ‘Mean Streets,’ ‘Raging Bull’ and the ‘Godfather,’” said Clark.
On the other side of the academic spectrum, Environmental Sciences (BIO 115) is a new three-hour credit, non-lab course taught by Assistant Professor of Biology Brian Eisenback that can be taken as a core class requirement or as an elective.
“I hope that anyone interested in learning about and discussing humanity’s relationship with the environment would take this class,” said Eisenback. “I obviously recommend it for any Biology major interested in environment-themed issues, but I also think that this class would be a good fit for anyone who is going to be an active, thoughtful participant in our society.”
The biology faculty created the course because they thought the course was needed and relevant to students in today’s world, according to Eisenback.
The course was taught at Bryan in the 1970s by Biology Professor Marty Hartzell as a requirement for the Elementary Education program, but was dropped from that discipline.
“That’s how education shifts from time to time,” Hartzell said.
And as education continues to shift, the biology department plans to use this course to help determine the demand for a possible major in environmental sciences, explained Hartzell.
“We are still in the process of determining whether or not this [new major] is feasible and if there would be enough interest from students to justify the addition. By offering this class, we will begin to gauge student response and further interest in this area,” Eisenback said.
In addition to these new classes and the other reinstated classes, the spring 2009 course offering includes a number of Selected Topics courses that are not part of the school’s regular curriculum.
These classes range from Christian Life Foundation courses to elective courses in various disciplines and are only offered every four years
Many of these courses function as electives, such as History of Professional Sport in America, taught by Head Baseball Coach Taylor Hasty on Mondays and Wednesdays at 8 a.m.
The class will explore the question of why sports are so important to American culture.
“[This class] is for anyone who really loves sport, of any kind, who is interested in not just modern athletes but the past,” Hasty said.
Another elective course that will be offered is Conversational Commons, taught by Michael Palmer, associate professor of communication studies.
This course is an upper level communications class that will be taught in a “seminar style” and will meet once or twice a week at a time determined around students’ schedules.
“The engine of it is reading and conversation,” Palmer explained. “The classtime isn’t lecture-heavy; it’s dialogue-heavy.”
The content of Conversational Commons will be primarily readings with a limited number of films. The subjects of the studies will be focused on topics that are related to communication.
Besides the studies, the conversational format of the class is designed to “hone the students’ rhetorical skills,” said Palmer.
Besides these, other ST classes include courses such as Advanced Acting, taught by Bernie Belisle, assistant professor of communication studies; Application of Quantum Mechanics to Small Molecules, taught by Professor of Chemistry Brian Hill; Arts & Missional Living, a CLF retreat organized by Ben Norquist, assistant director of spiritual formation; History of the American Presidency, taught by Professor of History Jack Traylor; History of Western Film, taught by Clark, and Southern Literature, taught by Professor of English Whit Jones.
It would be a good idea for students who are interested in taking these topics to consider taking these ST courses in the spring, Registrar Janet Piatt explained, for unless the school adopts the classes into their regular course offering, these courses will not be offered for another four years.
Some of these courses can function as required electives for different majors, and all students are required a certain amount of CLFs, Piatt said.
Either elective, core or major classes, these new courses are notable for students signing up for spring 2010 courses.