07:15P-08:30P MW (30) 3 cr.
TOPIC: COLLEGE STUDENT LIFE AND COLLEGE SPORTS
This course focuses on literary, journalistic, scholarly, and visual treatments of undergraduate college life in America. We will read a TIS Packet with excerpts from Ernest Boyer's College: The Undergraduate Experience in America, Anne Matthews's, Bright College Years, Michael Moffat's, Coming of Age in New Jersey: College and American Culture, and the instructor's book, Beer & Circus. We will also read a variety of fictional works about college life and college sports, including stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Irwin Shaw, and Frank DeFord. In addition, we will view such films as Animal House, Breaking Away, PCU, School Daze, and Where the Boys Are (1960 version).
We will spend part of the course on the sub-topic of intercollegiate athletics, particularly its meaning to regular undergraduates. For this sub-topic, we will read various articles, and view such films as Horsefeathers, Blue Chips, The Program, Rudy, and Everybody's All-American.
Our on-going concerns will be: What is the nature of undergraduate student life, and how has it evolved and changed during its history? What are the past and present connections between undergraduate student life and intercollegiate athletics? How have undergraduate student life and college sports been portrayed in literary and visual works, and what are some of the cultural, economic, and social reasons for these portrayals?
Student responsibility in the course includes a class presentation, a number of short papers, and a final exam. Students will have the option of substituting a major project for the final exam. The major projects can consist of: a research paper on any topic connected to the course; OR a creative project, e.g., a short story or TV script or a short film or videotape on any topic prompted by the course.