Bulletin offers unusual options

With spring registration in mind, students who have found unique electives, like meditation or folk song, to liven their schedules advise their fellow students looking for an escape from their rigorous academic requirements to do the same.

Sometimes the best electives are not always the easiest, College of Communication senior Katy Zimmerman said. She is currently taking an anthropology folk songs class in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“I expected to go to class, sing songs and leave,” she said. “We sing at least four songs a day and class is never boring, but we also talk about the social history of the songs, the meaning of music and we have challenging group projects.”

Anthropology professor Tony Barrand, who teaches both the introductory and upper-level folk song courses, said he hopes to teach students about themselves and their own cultures through studying the traditions of other societies.

“Folk song and dance are windows on society,” he said. “The classes I teach are performance-oriented because in order to see how and why song and dance are important to a culture you have to see how they fit on your own body, in your own life.”

Zimmerman, who enrolled in Folk Song in Social History after taking Barrand’s Understanding Folklore course, said she recommends the class to students looking for an unusual elective.

“Professor Barrand always comes in with some really great funky outfit and starts singing a song,” she said. “We sit down in a semi-circle and join in so that we’re all singing to each other. Sometimes we get up and dance. Usually we don’t even realize that we’re learning.”

COM junior Danielle Maurino said she found a break from her academic schedule in the Introduction to Fine Wines class offered through the School of Hospitality Administration.

“I took the course as an elective,” she said, “and I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t return my books. Now I feel like I actually know something about wine when I go to a restaurant.”

Introduction to Fine Wines is a prerequisite for the 2-credit, half semester wine tasting classes, which are open to students over 21 and which give priority to SHA students, said the course’s professor, Alex Murray.

Murray said he usually focuses on one region of the world during each class, lecturing on the grape varieties, winemaking techniques and types of wine produced in that region.

“The wines we taste in class correspond to the lecture,” he said. “I teach students how to taste a wine, what to look for and how to evaluate quality objectively rather than from their personal preferences.”

According to Murray, who worked in the wholesale wine industry for 18 years before becoming a professor, these skills are all critical to students who want to go on to a hospitality management position.

“I think that students outside of SHA have also gotten a lot out of the course, because there is a lot of general information,” he said, “but my focus is mainly on students who want to work in the restaurant, hotel or winery business.”

When choosing an elective, COM junior Greg Feldman said he found relaxation not in wine tasting, but through Zen meditation.

“Meditation is my first class on Thursdays and it keeps me relaxed for the rest of the day,” he said. “I feel refreshed for all my other classes.”

The one-credit course taught by instructor Mark Houghton emphasizes the mental aspect and breathing techniques of meditation, as opposed to yoga, which incorporates physical activity, according to Feldman.

“We typically do about 15 minutes each of standing, sitting and lying meditation, followed by some mind-clearing exercises,” he said. “It’s a great way to relieve stress, and even if you don’t have any it is still an enjoyable class.”

CAS junior Chris Hopkins said the class helped him to remove stress from his daily life.

“Professor Houghton teaches you how to relax in a crazy world,” he said. “He teaches you that just sitting can calm the mind.”