Experimental College
The Experimental College is a student-run organisation that offers a variety of courses outside the range of the standard college curriculum. It has existed as a volunteer-run organisation since 1968. ExCos are Experimental College classes, which are taught and attended by anyone, including faculty, students, and community members. They range from topics such as learning to play bridge and building Beowulf clusters to biographical studies on Drew Barrymore, as featured on Howard Stern.
The Experimental College was conceived as an experiment in a different approach to college courses. An ExCo starts its life when a community member, frequently a student, writes an application to the student-run ExCo Committee. The application includes a proposed syllabus of material to be covered in the course as well as a proposed method of evaluating the students. With committee approval, an ExCo instructor appears at the ExCo Fair, one of which occurs at the beginning of each semseter. Students can attend the fair or read the list of ExCo course descriptions to decide whether they would like to enroll in any ExCos.
ExCo classes offer not only a diversity of subjects not covered in standard college courses, but also college credits for students who take them. ExCos offer varying numbers of credit hours, depending on the instructor's decisions about course intensity. Students take an ExCo for the number of hours of their choosing through changing their variable credit hours for the course. Student instructors of ExCos also receive credit hours. Up to five hours of ExCo credit may be counted toward graduation. In the context of the 84 Hour Rule ExCo credit is counted outside of the three main divisions of college courses.
Students see what ExCo courses are available every year at the ExCo Fair.
[edit] Categories of ExCos
The ExCo catalog organizes the offerings into eight broad categories:
- Community and Society
- Language, Culture, and Religion
- Computers, Math, and Science
- Media and Literature
- Dance and Theater
- Music
- Arts, Crafts, and Do-It-Yourself
- Physical Activities and Games
[edit] Current ExCo Committee Members
- Sage Aronson
- Josh Brancazio
- Elissa Israel
- Katie Kuksenok
- Jake Myers
- Teddy Pallis
