CAA approves new history, rural studies classes

Cassie Buchman, Administration Editor

The Council on Academic Affairs approved new history and rural studies classes at their meeting Thursday.

The new classes are HIS 4922, Doing Media History; HIS 3160, Ancient Iran; RUR 3960 A, B, D, E: Special Topics in Rural Studies; and RUR 4400A, B, D, E: Independent Study in Rural Studies.

Anita Shelton, department chair of the history department, said last year the history department did a survey of their majors and asked faculty to list courses they might like to offer.

Students were sent a list and were asked how likely they were to take the class.

HIS 4922 was one of the most popular classes.

Lee Patterson, a history professor, said HIS 3160 is about the Ancient Persian world.

“It supplements courses I already offer,” Patterson said. “It also provides some additional study of Iran for people who are interested in Iran and who have already had courses in Iran and Early Iran.”

Patterson said that with this course, students would be able to study Iran from the beginning to modern times.

“It’s going to add to our curriculum in a couple of significant ways,” Patterson said.

RUR 3960 was added as a class.

Debra Reid, a history professor, said that rural studies was offered since last spring after the CAA approved it.

The program is now getting the independent study courses and special topics incorporated into it.

“This is a proposal for standard special topics that students can enroll in with a faculty member who may be teaching in the rural studies area,” Reid said. “But this is a course that is not in the listed courses, or it’s a person who is not currently teaching a course in the minor because it’s a rural issue and they want to explore it more.”

RUR 4400, a class that will offer intensive individual study on a topic selected by a student under the supervision of a faculty member, was added as well.

MUS 2802 was revised to take the 20th century label out of their course description and to incorporate analysis into the class.

Stefan Eckert, a music professor, said the 20th century topics were like icing on a cake.

“We love it, but we know that have to give it up,” Eckert said.

The Rural Studies minor was revised as well.

“We were just working ahead of some course approvals and now we’ve just caught up with the prefixes and the new courses,” Reid said.

Courses from the Anthropology and Sociology department will now be included in the minor, as well as GEG 3340 Land Change Science, which was not approved by the CAA until the minor was approved.

GEG 3340 will replace GEG 3310 in the minor.

RUR 3960 and RUR 4400 were also not added to the minor last spring because the RUR prefix did not exist without the minor being approved. Since the RUR prefix is now in use, courses can be proposed using it.

There will be no meeting next week due to Thanksgiving break. The next CAA meeting will be at 2 p.m. December 3 in Room 4440 of Booth Library.

Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]