Every college has it. The weird course. The bizarre experiment class that must have gotten okayed after the faculty meeting wine (and possibly weed) came out. The course everyone wants to take because it can’t possibly be studied for.

Liberal Arts schools are famous for these types of classes. Being a graduate of a Liberal A. myself, I made sure to take every weird course I could find. Every class with a half-written syllabus, opened ended final, or that was team-taught—I took. And let me tell you, those were some of the best wasted hours of my college career.

Wesleyan, one of the “Most Annoying Liberal Arts Schools” out there, currently has one of the best examples of a weird course I’ve heard in a long time. The reason this example is so good? It’s explanation is as pretentious as it’s description is redonkulous.

Course Name: Feet to the Fire: the Art and Science of Climate Change

Category: Biology

Cross Listed With: Dance

Description: As quoted by Gawker, the first lines of the course description are as follows: “Feet to the Fire is an intensive, interdisciplinary course that melds scientific and choreographic inquiry in pursuit of one of the most important topics facing society: climate change due to global warming”

Class Layout: “Classroom and laboratory sessions”, with a neighboring landfill acting as said laboratory. Read More »

Procrastination is always something I’ve been really good at.

Now that You Tube has made a permanent mark in all of our lives, procrastination has been easier than ever, making useful hours fly by and turn into a waste of clips and videos.

One professor at Pitzer College is trying to change this.

Alexandra Juhasz is a media studies professor at the liberal arts college, and is teaching a course on the usefulness and the phenomenon of You Tube.

As someone who spends a lot of time on the website, I have yet to find its inherent “usefulness” but I’m hoping Ms. Juhasz and her students let us all know what they come up with.

Of course we all saw how wonderfully effective the You Tube debates were, and how insightful the user questions were.

The idea is good and the intention is nice. But really those of us who sit on You Tube all day watching our favorite clips from “Family Guy,” maintain that the site’s usefulness lies in the fact that it’s completely useless. Read More »