|
|
Let’s give credit where credit is due: There’s no lack of contenders for the title of weirdest college course in Cincinnati.
Take land-locked Miami University, offering its Seapower and Maritime Affairs Seminar. Or University of Cincinnati’s Social History of Baseball. Or even Xavier University’s introduction to The Horror Film. Our favorite? Northern Kentucky University’s course in quarterstaff, broadsword, rapier and dagger combat. A handy career tool, that.
While Cincinnati doesn’t quite match the odd reputation of Purdue University (where you can get credit for watching television’s ER medical drama) or Wesleyan University (which offers Pornography: The Writings of Prostitutes), we have our moments. From The Evolution of Angels and Who’s Sleeping With Whom (a tour of cemeteries) at UC to the Principles of Air Cargo Management at NKU, we’ve got it all.
Here’s a grading guide to mondo academic bizarre:
Cincinnati Bible College
Price Hill’s only private college offers, not surprisingly, multiple courses in the Bible and contemporary Christian authors such as C.S. Lewis. But there’s also more unexpected items, such as Applied Journalism: Yearbooks, Islam in America, American Sign Language, Storytelling, Non-Profit Accounting and the Theology of American Cults.
Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science
There’s a stiff admissions requirement at this Finneytown college. There, we said it — now that we have that off our chests, no more tasteless puns. Some of the odder courses, beyond what you might expect, are Funeral Service Finance and Pricing as well as Funeral Merchandising (how to display and sell caskets and urns).
Cincinnati State Technical and Community College
Cincinnati State offers coursework in such areas as Aircraft Electricity, Landing Gear Systems, Cemetery Management, Hotel Law, Food & Beverage Sanitation and, our favorite, Intro to Golf and Turf Management.
Communiversity
This alternative education center offers wild and wacky courses, from Rock Climbing for Beginners to Celtic Art and Ornaments (taught by Celtic artist Cindy Matyi). Other mind-benders include Taking a Road Trip with the Family, Your Reptile Pet, Saturn, Journal Writing for Happiness, Health and Inspiration, Cincinnati 101, Breadmaking, Four-count Hustle, Instant Mittens and Planning a Champagne Wedding on a Beer Budget.
Hebrew Union College
The Clifton Heights institution offers courses ranging from Synagogue Management to music classes for cantors. The Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaelogy is a treasure trove of oddball offerings, from the problems of urbanization in the Early Bronze Age to field excavation work at places such as Aroer, Tel Dan, Tel Gezer and Gilat. (No, these are not towns on the French Riveria.)
Miami University
This Oxford institution seems a tad obsessed with Tom Clancy-style coursework — Air Power and National Security, An Integrated Study of Naval Engineering and Piloting, U.S. National Security Policy, The Air Force Today, Naval Mission Systems, Seapower and Maritime Affairs Seminar, Amphibious Warfare and Aerospace Studies: USAF. Whatever happened to peace, love and understanding on campus?
Other, less deadly courses include Literature for Adolescents, Social Psychological Aspects of Clothing, Purpose or Chance in the Universe, Decision Science, Medieval Studies and even Latin (a hot career track, we’re sure).
The new Page Center for Entrepreneurship offers cutting-edge business courses such as Guerrilla Marketing and New Venture Creation.
You can also opt to take courses (in English) at such remote locales as Aarhus University in Denmark, Kansai University in Japan and the Conservatoire de Musique de la Ville de Luxembourg.
Northern Kentucky University
From Principles of Air Cargo Management to the ever popular Ferns of Kentucky, NKU offers a wide range of courses. If you’re a blueblood Kentuckian, you might want to take Geography of Kentucky or The Local Community: A Geographic Analysis. Fans of law and order might consider Ethics in Criminal Justice, Organized and White-Collar Crime, Criminal Investigation or Police and Society. Marketing mavens could consider crash courses in Retail Management or Consumer Behavior. There’s even Officiating Volleyball, The Cincinnati Story: Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Riverboat Boom: Big Cities, Little Burgs, and the Human Side of Work, among the more unusual course offerings.
One popular curriculum is the Two-Day Film School, a crash course on movie-making that imports Hollywood producers, directors and screenwriters as faculty.
Thomas More College
The Catholic liberal arts college in Crestview Hills offers a wider range than you might expect, from Collective Bargaining to Ethnic Ballet, Tudor and Stuart England to any number of religious courses.
University of Cincinnati
UC, needless to say, offers more than just a couple of courses in English Lit. Be your interests in Religion and Genocide, Social History of Baseball, Thantology (the “science of death”) or Electing a President American-Style, all dreams are welcome here.
You can take a three-part course in the Cincinnati Musical Scene, or explore Broadway Today in Cincinnati. Some novel classes include Hitchcock, Science Fiction and Gender, the Prison Experience in Literature, Plagues and Witches, Police Patrol Techniques and Legalized Gambling and Society.
A new first-of-its-kind degree program — Legal Nurse Consultant — turns trained nurses into paralegals, in response to the increasing involvement of lawyers and legal issues in health care.
At the College-Conservatory of Music, studies run from Ballet to Classical Guitar, Electronic Media to Harpsichord, and Jazz to Stage Design.
Xavier University
This private Jesuit university in Evanston offers such traditional academic courses as The Horror Film, Writing and Publishing for Children, Coaching Golf, Basic Pool Management, Literary Monsters, The German Fairy Tale, Liturgical Music in American Catholic Culture, Advanced Business German, Oral, Written and Electronic Gospel, and Prophets of Non-Violence. ©
This article appears in Aug 25-31, 1999.