The Wired How-to Wiki shows you 6 excellent bar tricks you can pull off for free drinks.  Make a bet with your friends and collect!  They’re not “obvious” tricks but from their descriptions, they all sound as if they would work easily.  It also shows you how to open a beer bottle with only a dollar bill (though any sheet of paper would work)!  That by itself makes this worth the read.  Any other tricks you may have up your sleeve?

This is far and away one of the greatest alcohol consumption concepts I have seen.  The only issue for the typical college bar is that they run $50K a pop, and I could see all sorts of ways that people could/would “steal” beer from others.

Still, at a packed college bar where one has to squeeze through an attrocious number of people and wait with an arm dangling a 20 over the bar….this would be heaven.

In recent months Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and Cornell have all revised their financial aid calculations in order to help the low to middle class student who could otherwise not afford to attend. The smaller schools with larger endowments will basically give you a “free” education if your parents make less than $75k while a bigger school like Cornell will cap you loans at $3k if your parents make less than $120k. Growing up on a farm where I was certainly low/middle class it makes me wish I was preparing to enter college all over again - for reasons beyond the fun. Info on each particular school’s program below:

Cornell Caps Loans for Those in Need

Harvard Expands Financial Aid for Low- and Middle-Income Families

Yale Cuts Costs for Families and Students

Dartmouth Announces New Financial Aid Inititive

Yes, I can be found at Facebook.  Just ask, and I can be found.

I do believe that these are excellent.  Though I may not agree with all of them word for word…..it is by far the best list I have seen in my mere 28 years on this planet.  Be sure to check it out.

 88 Surefire Tips for Succeeding in College

An interesting list from my Stanford education listserve.  Certainly more lighthearted that last week’s post.  I am also proud to note the my alma mater is represented in the list.

Is it just me, or does it seem that the Northeast is more represented than all the rest of the nation?

Have an interesting courses you have taken, or know of that you believe should be included on the list?

Top 25 Strangest College Courses

Published on Monday January 28th , 2008

College is a time for self-expression, freedom from parents, the pursuit of knowledge and exploration of a new career. If Mom and Dad (or the bank) knew what kind of courses their savings were funding, you might be yanked out of your academic bubble and into a much more economical and practical community college. Read on for more of the 25 strangest college courses.

1. Mail Order Brides: Understanding the Philippines in Southeast Asian Context: If you’re an anthropology or women’s studies major at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, consider getting your credits with this class, which is designed to “help explain the stereotyping of Filipino women.” While the class is expected to be taught in all seriousness, PhilippineNews.com reports that Professor Fenella Cannell “cautions prospective students not to submit fake applications for pen pals and/or spouses and to view the information as purely part of academic exercise.”

2. Tightwaddery, or The good life on a dollar a day: Alfred University’s demonstratively anti-capitalist course attempts to debunk contemporary culture’s popular myth: “Spend money and you’ll be happy.” According to the official class description, “On a theoretical level, we will consider how living frugally benefits your mind, your body, your relationships, your community, and the environment. On a practical level, we will examine personal spending habits [and] sharpen bargain-hunting rip-off-detecting, and haggling skills.” While they’re at it, maybe they can help drive down gas prices?

3. The Phallus: When the Los Angeles Times printed the headline “I Got an A in Phallus 101, readers were no doubt confused. But not so confused, we’ll bet, as the parents of the Occidental College students who really did come home with grades from the course simply titled The Phallus. Occidental’s Critical Theory and Social Justice department plans to discuss topics like “the relation between the phallus and the [I have to remove this word to keep filters from blocking some of the e-mails, RR], the meaning of the phallus, phallologocentrism, the lesbian phallus, the Jewish phallus,” and even “the Latino phallus.”

4. American Dreams/American Realities: Duke University is known for its excellent undergraduate and graduate academics, legendary basketball team, and Hart Leadership Program, which offers thought-provoking classes like American Dreams/American Realities. The class will follow immigrants to America from their first landing and all throughout American history, as their hopes and dreams were dashed and their fears were realized. All in all, a terrific class for our future leaders.

5. Cultural Aspects of Food: The College of Oneonta’s Human Ecology Department offers the Cultural Aspects of Food. Does everyone get to bring their favorite snacks to school each day?

6. The Evolution of Low Brow: Modern Popular Arts: Canada’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology spends an entire semester on a style and culture that “art critics doubt…is a “legitimate” art movement.” Then again, van Gogh wasn’t considered a “legitimate” artist until well after his death.

7. Whiteness: The Other Side of Racism: Associate professor Sandy Lawrence teaches this course at Mount Holyoke College wants her students to “to be aware that while racism disadvantages people of color, it provides benefits to whites. By examining the other side of racism–whiteness–we can see the advantages in education, heath care, and employment that white people continually accrue.” Lawrence’s ultimate and noble goal is to help her students combat racism, but I think we already knew that whites are the prime beneficiaries of what our country has to offer.

8. Sex, Rugs, Salt & Coal: Ivy League school Cornell University makes the list for its “Sex, Rugs, Salt & Coal course, which asks the questions “Why are “oriental” rugs collector’s items? How did we come to keep salt shakers on our dinner tables?” and “Is prostitution really “the oldest profession,” as reported by Brandeis University’s The Hoot. We’re sure that lots of in-depth debate occurs in the classroom, but couldn’t you just Google those questions?

9. The Adultery Novel In and Out of Russia: University of Pennsylvania’s Slavics Department holds that no topic is too taboo for the classroom. Students will learn about the “sociological descriptions of modernity, Marxist examinations of family as a social and economic institution [and] Freudian/ Psychoanalytic interpretations of family life and transgressive sexuality,” among other topics.

10. The American Vacation: Maybe your family never got to take the great American vacation. Or maybe yours did, and you’re nostalgic for a road trip or Disney World adventure with Mom and Dad. At the University of Iowa, students can study “how American families’ varying backgrounds shape their vacation experiences,” as reported by MSN Encarta.

11. Queer Musicology: UCLA’s Queer Musicology class was ranked No. 2 in the annual Dirty Dozen list of America’s Most Bizarre and Politically Correct College Courses. The LA Times writes that the course will promote debate about “the idea that if you’re gay, then music by gay composers such as Benjamin Britten will sound different to you than it would if you were straight.”

12. Finding Dates Worth Keeping: Relationship therapist and teacher Laurie Chaplin admits that “some people may think it’s a slack course” but is hoping her University of Sioux Falls students will “come out with something that changes their lives.” Dating tips, lessons in recognizing infatuation, and knowing when it’s time to break up will be discussed.

13. The Art of Sin and the Sin of Art: MSN Encarta reports that students at the Rhode Island School of Design will soon be “”lust[ing with the saints and burn[ing] with the sinners” as they study how sin and the art world are interconnected.

14. Art of Walking: Kentucky’s Centre College is stoked about its new class the Art of Walking, which plans to discover how Immanuel Kant’s writings can reveal “a new way [of understanding] a pleasure apparently foreign to aesthetics but very much at home in human nature: the pleasure of walking,” according to author and professor Ken Keffer. Maybe the course should also grant credit to health and fitness degrees?

15. Daytime Serials: Family and Social Roles: Class 350 in the University of Wisconsin’s Women’s Studies Program doesn’t discriminate: daytime soap operas and prime time TV shows will be dissected in order to discover “what impact these portrayals have on women’s and men’s roles in the family and work place.”

16. The Science of Harry Potter: Don’t tell me that Harry Potter isn’t all magic? Maryland’s Frostburg University provides this honors seminar, which is actually a physics class that investigates the supposed magic of Harry Potter.

17. The Road Movie: New York’s esteemed Barnard College includes in its Film Studies curriculum a course entitled The Road Movie. Students will read novels like On the Road and Huckleberry Finn and watch films like Thelma and Louise to consider “how this genre became so knowing, so assured about itself, even at the relatively early stages in its emergence.”

18. Maple Syrup: The Real Thing: Alfred University makes this list twice with its now famous course, Maple Syrup: The Real Thing. The course description reads, “the method of producing maple syrup is one of the things in our society that has endured even in today’s culture of constant change,” which is why it deserves an entire semester of attention and dissection. Students mustn’t worry though, as the course comes with a neat disclaimer: “No prior experience expected.”

19. American Golf: Aristocratic Pastime or the People’s Game?: Carnegie Mellon students have the option of taking this course, which attempts to turn the study of golf history into “a legitimate academic subject,” according to The Princeton Review’s report.

20. Nonviolent Responses to Terrorism: The Peace and Studies Department at Swarthmore College encourages its students to remain proactive about voicing their opposition to terrorism, but this class intends “to consider feasible nonviolent alternatives and their historical precedents” in an effort to cultivate change. If it proves effective, maybe the course should be offered at all schools.

21. Border Crossings, Borderlands: Transnational Feminist Perspectives on Immigration: One class at the University of Washington asks students to consider the feminist reaction and consequences of existing immigration policies in the United States in order to propose possible solutions to the debate. If only the border patrol agents had thought of that!

22. Philosophy and Star Trek: Georgetown University in Washington D.C., claims that “Star Trek is very philosophical. What better way, then, to learn philosophy, than to watch Star Trek, read philosophy, and hash it all out in class?” I ask you, what better way? Well, we hate to say this, but The Art of Walking might be one answer.

23. Star Trek and Religion: Indiana University at Bloomington lists Star Trek and Religion as one of its course offerings in the Arts and Humanities section. As “an introduction to the critical study of religion by way of popular culture,” it is “possible to find [Star Trek] episodes whose themes are hostile to religion,” among other relationships between the sci-fi show and religion.

24. Campus Culture and Drinking: No, this course doesn’t actually pass around plastic cups frothing from cheap beer, but Duke’s class does intend to study “the societal understandings that motivate and shape undergraduate drinking.” We guess the pursuit of liquid courage and rebelling against high school curfews aren’t on the syllabus.

25. Learning from YouTube: California’s Pitzer College has jumped on the new media bandwagon and now offers a class called Learning from YouTube. TechCrunch reports that “the class consists of students watching YouTube videos and then discussing them. They also leave comments on the videos themselves.” Sign us up.

This came across one of the listserve’s I am a part of as an educator…..however I must admit that I was quite shocked and put off by this individuals “Rules of Engagement.”  Sure, they include some common etiquite, however I think that some of them go over the top and transport one back to a more formal Victorian-esque era of learning.  Heck, now-a-days it is not totally uncommon to see or meet a professor out for a drink and interact with one in a social matter.  His rules (to me at least) place the professor well up on a pedestal, way out of bounds for some of the interaction that today’s college students has come to appreciate, and even expect.  The article is below:

The Rules of Engagement: Socializing College Students for the New Century
By Neil F. Williams

Introductory comments by James Rhem, publisher, NT&LF.

When Professor Neil Williams’ article on how he confronts classroom incivility came over the NTLF transom (and there is actually a transom in our new offices), I reacted to it rather strongly and not favorably. Professor Williams had contributed a nice piece on “shared quizzes” earlier and so his name on an article was encouraging, but requiring students to exchange greetings with him at the door and creating a formal rule about covering one’s mouth if one yawned? These, among others, seemed beyond the pale of college teaching. Did students really need this level of coaching in manners? And if they did, was it a college professor’s job to continue raising these children? The Forum has engaged classroom incivility before - “The Teaching Tribe” (V6 N4, 1997) and “Teaching and Crowd Control” (V6 N6, 1997). Could things have degenerated so much in ten years? The Forum’s discussions in 1997 leaned heavily toward the Zen- influenced work of Robert Boice (First-Order Principles for College Teachers, Anker, 1996); Neil Williams takes a rather different approach. As time passed, while I knew how I felt about it, I wondered what Forum readers would think of Williams’ approach. Let me know: I’ve set up a survey at http://xrl.us/ bbycw. Take a moment and register your reaction. - J. Rhem

* * *

Rude and inappropriate student behaviors in our college classrooms seem to be more prevalent today than at any time in recent memory (Amada). Colleges and universities have opened their doors to a melting pot of students from different states, countries, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds with an ever-widening range of academic ability and interests. As many students come to college ill-prepared and under- motivated for the academic experience, large numbers also arrive without an understanding of the basic standards of classroom civility, etiquette, and socialization the professors think they ought to possess (Clayton). Student demographics are changing rapidly and “professors can no longer assume that there is a commonly understood set of behaviors that will be adopted within the classroom” (Gonzalez and Lopez).

In most cases, our students are not surly or rude intentionally, but they can be immature, disruptive, annoying, insubordinate, or uncivil. Usually these students don’t realize they’re doing the wrong thing even though their behavior comes across to their professors as offensive, inconsiderate, inappropriate, and thoughtless (Young). It’s just that some of them simply don’t know how to conduct themselves any better than they currently do in our classrooms. So . . . what to do?

Common Expectations

Faculty need to be clear about what kind of conduct and actions will and won’t be accepted or tolerated. Bray and Del Favero write that “faculty and students should share common expectations of what constitutes appropriate classroom behavior . . . consistency is a key to this common understanding.” Ignoring low-level acts of classroom incivility in the hope they’ll disappear doesn’t work. Faculty failure to address such behaviors appears to condone them (Feldmann). It’s critical to let students know when they are “over the line,” and professors (like parents) are very likely to be distressed by what they get when they don’t confront the inappropriate behavior of their charges.

What had been loosely structured and often unclear expectations for student behavior in my own classes are now a formal course document called “The Rules of Engagement.” The following examples are a short version of the big list, but these seem to apply across the curriculum. College students, for the most part, benefit from the structure and information the Rules provide. The Rules are easy to follow and apply, and as long as they are explained clearly and “enforced” immediately with consistency and a smile, there are few complaints. In fact, most of the Rules have no consequences, need no enforcing whatsoever, and simply take care 0f themselves.

The Rules are divided into four categories: Academic Integrity - how students will handle the social component of their academic responsibilities, including papers and test-taking; Respect for the Professor- how students will conduct themselves inside the classroom; Respect for the Students - how they will treat one another inside the classroom; and Interactions in an Academic Community - selected key guidelines of general social etiquette on a college campus.

The following list includes samples from the four categories of the Rules of Engagement; they are not listed in any type of hierarchy of importance. They are intentionally written in an imperative style, and the italicized remarks are for the reader’s convenience.

Academic Integrity

1. When you turn a paper in late, place it in the professor’s mailbox accompanied by a note from you indicating the exact time and date the paper was turned in. The time and date must also be validated with the signature of appropriate university personnel. This way, there is no question or doubt about the time and day the paper was turned in; the student has a witness and so does the professor. Students formally acknowledge the work was late and therefore accept any penalties the professor might assess per the course syllabus.

2. You will refrain from all negative test taking behaviors, including coughing, sniffing, nose- blowing, sighing, moaning, groaning, finger rapping, knee bouncing, foot tapping and other distracting activity. Exams are already stressful events and classmates have enough to worry about as they try to write their exams without having to hear, see, or feel someone’s special set of quirks.

Respect for the Professor

3. You and the professor will greet each other appropriately at the beginning and end of each class meeting. Every class meeting is an important event and the professor is the central person in the process. Since the professor will say “Hello” to the students, they should also return the “Hello,” in a clear and audible voice, to start the day’s proceedings. Similarly, as students exit the room at the end of the class, they should make eye contact and say something like “Thanks,” or “‘Bye, Dr. Williams.” Dr. Williams will also say, “Good-bye,” and appreciate your thoughtfulness.

4. You will remove hats and head- coverings PRIOR to entering the room at the start of a class and leave them off until you exit the room at the end of the meeting. The exceptions are head-coverings worn for religious or cultural reasons, but worshipping the Boston Red Sox or Green Bay Packers does not qualify here.

5. If you arrive late to class, please enter the room but wait at the door until you are invited to be seated. It is very impolite and inconsiderate to cross the room in front of or behind the professor while class is in progress, and latecomers will always be asked to join the group in short order. This is not done to embarrass anyone for being late; rather it is done to cause the smallest possible interruption to the teaching/learning process for professor and everyone else who somehow made it to class on time.

6. When you yawn, cover it completely with an entire hand. When the event has passed, mouth the words “Pardon me” or “Excuse me.” An open-mouthed or uncovered yawn is about as insensitive, rude, and inappropriate as it gets. There is almost no instance in which a yawn arrives without some sort of internal biological warning, and all that is being asked is for students to cover their mouths out of respect for the person who is forced to look at them and their dental history.

Respect for the Students

7. There is to be only one conversation at a time in class unless you are participating in group work or activities; when a student is talking to the class, all “eyes and ears” are on that individual. For some reason, when a student begins to talk by asking or answering a question, it is a signal to all of the other students to begin whispering to one another and to ignore the one who is speaking. The message this sends to the speaker is that her/his comments are worthless and unimportant; we can’t have that in college. The spirit of academic life values everyone’s opinions, ideas, and questions. Those opinions, ideas, and questions will command everyone’s attention.

Interactions in an Academic Community

9. When you have made an error in action or judgment, accept responsibility gracefully. This is not easy, especially when a printer doesn’t work, all parking spots are taken, or a car breaks down. It does no good to try to spread or pass the blame to others; so doing makes you appear to be a person of poor character.

Does it interrupt the flow of a class to ask a student to cover a yawn or remove a hat? Of course it does. How could it not be disruptive to the train of thought and pace of the presentation when the professor or students are distracted by some bit of grade school nonsense? But the negative behaviors diminish and disappear after a few weeks and the interruptions for infractions of the Rules become few and far between. Before there were Rules in my classes, student behaviors became increasingly distracting as the semester went on, and they were truly a detriment to the learning and teaching experience. Not any more.

Civility Taught

Now, courses run more smoothly and student behaviors go from annoying and unpleasant on “Day One” to appropriately considerate, polite, attentive, cooperative, and social by the end of the term.

And it’s easy, as long as everything is done with a smile. It is made clear at the outset that the Rules are in place not only so the course content can be taught, but also so that the students can become better people, better citizens, and eminently more employable or acceptable to graduate school. The Rules are a tangible way to show the students their professor cares about them and wants to help them. Our students gain a real benefit from knowing what they should and shouldn’t do in public and academic settings. Rather than resent the structure imposed upon them, students embrace it. Instead of the end of social decorum in the college classroom, it is the beginning of a new civility.

References
* Amada, G.1999. Coping with Misconduct in the College Classroom: A Practical Model. Asheville, NC: College
Administration Publications.
* Bray, Nathaniel J., and M. Del Favero. 2004. “Sociological Explanations for Faculty and Student Classroom Incivilities.” New Directions for Teaching & Learning, Fall, 2004, 99, 9-19.
* Clayton, M. 2000. “Professors Struggle to Rout Out Rudeness.” Christian Science Monitor, March 21, 2000, 92 (82), 16.
* Colosimo, M. L. 2004. “How Shall We Learn? How Shall We Live?” Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Fall 2004, 84 (4), 32-33.
* Feldmann, L. J. 2001. “Classroom Civility Is Another of Our Instructor Responsibilities.” College Teaching, 49 (4), 137-140.
* Gardner, M. 2002. “Will the ‘Culture of Entitlement’ Give Way to the Age of Humility?” Christian Science Monitor, March 6, 2002, 94 (70), 12.
* Gonzalez, V., and E. Lopez. 2001. “The Age of Incivility: Countering Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom.” AAHE Bulletin, 53 (8), 3-6.
* Young, J. R. 2003. “Sssshhh. We’re Taking Notes Here.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 49 (48), A29.

Contact

Dr. Neil F. Williams
Distinguished Professor
Eastern Connecticut State University
83 High Street
Willimantic, CT 06226
Telephone: (860) 465-5170
Fax: (860) 465-0186
E-mail: williamsn@easternct.edu

Beer pong is as ubiquituous at college itself. If you don’t own a beer pong table over some point of your 4 ( to 8 ) year college experience….you must not drink! I have written on the topic of beer pong and the table before. I still stand by that post. But for you lazy asses with too much extra cash from Mommy and Daddy here are three links to simplify your pong life…

Official Beer Pong Table ($125) - It looks a little lightweight for the kind of shindigs that we used to have. Not to mention its about $100 more expensive than your standard sheet of 5/8″ plywood. But it is portable!

Custom Beer Pong Balls ($56 for 25 balls) - For you real self-absorbed, thinking you are God, beer pong afficinados.

N-ice Rack ($20 for 2) - Freezable cup racker. Our cups were rarely on the table long enough to get warm enough to need a frozen racker, and if they are there that long, you deserve to drink warm beer.

Life as of late has taken a huge bite out of the time that I have to sit down and write.  But I do hope that I will be able to continue posting from time to time.  So please be patient with me, I have not left!

On that note, if there is anything someone would like to contribute as a post, please let me know….I’d be more than happy to have you!

I do have one interesting link in the meantime….How to Make a Duct Tape Book Cover from one of my all time favorite blogs, Lifehacker.

 Enjoy, and hopefully see you soon!

Thus, I present to you the chilled shot machine. You may see them at your favorite watering hole, but now you have have one of your own for your Jager or Sambuca fueled binges.

It retailes for only $129.99 at Skymall. When I was in college the tiny freezer section in my college dorm sized fridge did the trick. But hey, if you’ve got the cash…..enjoy!