Tag Archive: Shopping Period

  1. Our Course Schedule

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    Schedules have been signed, and CR/D/Fail courses secured. But WEEKEND still longs for a different reality — a world in which not one, or two, but ALL SIX Yale College distributional requirements are fulfilled with the most bacterial guts we hibernating sloths could imagine. On that age-old quest to Learn Something, Anything!, our writers achieved such scholarly feats as “movement” and “fox.” The rest is but a dream.

    Reading Twitter for Craft

    by Oliver Preston

    Reading Twitter for Craft is an introductory seminar on the reading and writing of tweets. Using their own accounts, students will maintain an eclectic and balanced feed that will span a broad range of genres, including celebrity accounts, fake celebrity accounts, periodical accounts, parody accounts, parodies of parody accounts and your mom’s suspiciously inactive account that she got “just to get the latest on Martha Stewart’s French Bulldogs and definitely not to keep tabs on you while you’re away at college Jesus do you trust me at all?”

    Over the course of the semester, students will use their feeds to learn the fundamentals of tweeting from some of the masters of the craft. By engaging with artists at the vanguard of the form — @MileyCyrus, @realDonaldTrump, @RealCarrotFacts and @justinbieber, to name a few — students will gain a basic understanding of the tweet and all of its subtle components: sound, sense, texture, tone, hashtag.

    Specific topics of study will include:

    -The rhetoric of apology in the tweets of Paula Deen

    -Jaden Smith: Capitalization, Consciousness And The Riddle Of Existence

    -Why the fuck does Jonathan Franzen refuse to get a twitter? What is wrong with him?

    -Cats, books, and gun violence: deciphering Joyce Carol Oates’ tweet diptychs

    -Live-tweeting Woads

    -Kanye West, Jimmy Kimmel and the art of the online flame war

    -Re-tweeting as a form of poetic allusion

    Students will publish 15-20 tweets each week. The class will also involve a weekly workshop in which the students will critique one of their classmates’ work, paying special attention to language, structure and the effective use of the hashtag. Creative writing and journalism courses require an application. Consult the English department website for detailed instructions and application deadlines.

    Intermediate Fox II  

    by Marissa Medansky

    This course exposes students with advanced preparation to additional sounds within the repertoire of the fox. The notion that the language of the fox is fundamentally inaccessible to humans, yet still worth attempting to learn, is central to its pedagogical philosophy. At the end of the semester, students should be proficient in “Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!” and “A-hee-ahee-ha-hee!” Additional topics of study may be introduced, and texts may change to accommodate student interest.

    This is not a class in history or sociology, but we will briefly discuss the ancient legends of the fox and fox culture more broadly. The course includes screenings of films such Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and Tim Story’s “Fantastic Four,” which was released by 20th Century Fox (and therefore counts for our purposes). Brief attention will be paid to the future of the fox and its declining relevance in 2014. One class session will be devoted to the potential that the fox has jumped the shark.

    Class discussions form the foundation of the course. Grades will be determined based on effort. The Yale College Undergraduate Regulations defines plagiarism as “the use of someone else’s work, words, or ideas as if they were one’s own.” Please, do not make plagiarism an issue this semester in this or any classroom.

    Note: This course is part of a departmental sequence, and builds upon the skills developed in YLVS 130 (Intermediate Fox I). Please see the instructor after class if you have questions about your eligibility and preparedness. Some students may prefer to enroll in YLVS 150 (Fox for Native Speakers), or an advanced course, such as YLVS 162 (Massachusetts and its Discontents) or YLVS 188 (Stonehenge and Society).

    Introduction to Social Interaction

    by Stephanie Addenbrooke

    An introduction to the psychological and sociological theories that inform our social decision, this course will provide you with an academic background that actually is applicable to your college experience.

    Our class on Monday afternoon will primarily act as a discussion forum, where you can share stories from your weekends. You will advise each other on their individual social faux pas and be rewarded for your ability to recall as little of your evenings as possible. Then, our class on Friday afternoon will prepare you with social theories and advice — entering the science of questions that have been debated by college students for centuries.

    As studying is the least social thing one can imagine, there will be no written papers or exams. Anything that takes you away from the practical application of socializing and engaging with other human beings is strictly forbidden. The final exam will consist of a research paper, centered on the psychology of group outings to Toad’s Place — you must assist and aid each other in this very real application of social theory. This research may take the entire semester, and frequent attendance at key campus social events is crucial to obtaining a good grade in this course.

    Freshman enrollment is actively encouraged.

    Middling English Poets

    by David Whipple

    “Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,

    At least many sensible men confesses,

    For the stronger we our houses do build,

    The less chance we have of being killed.”

    –William McGonagall, “The Tay Bridge Disaster”

    Whatever the opposite of “timeless” is, William McGonagall and comparable poets have nailed it. English 146 offers an exploration of England’s lesser-known and generally mediocre poets. With a focus on unimaginative rhymes, sloppy metaphors and generally cringe-inducing prose, the course will survey the landscape of English poetry while asking fundamental questions about the nature of bad verse — “How, without the aid of powerful hallucinogens, did anyone delude themselves into writing this shit?” “Did William McGonagall really think ‘buttresses’ rhymed with ‘confesses’?” Readings will be fairly boring, but instead of telling themselves, “Well, this class is called ‘Major English Poets’ so it’s probably just over my head,” students will take solace in the fact that the poetry they are reading is simply not that good. And if students just don’t feel like doing the reading, they won’t be missing much. Skills will include distinguishing “slant rhyme” from “not rhyme,” and “unorthodoxy” from a “lack of talent”. The course’s two papers will be of whatever length students feel is adequate, usually falling between one and three pages, with a half-page of introduction and another of conclusion. In keeping with the spirit of the course, mediocre work will be accepted, perhaps even encouraged.

    Flow and Networks in Structural Context

    by Andrew Koenig

    Comparative analysis of the etiology, teleology and ontology of flow networks in post-Harlem Renaissance New York, pre-dot-com-bubble Silicon Valley and late-Situationist Paris. The nature, purposes and pretentions of so-called “social networks” in the Digital Age. The concept of flow as it has manifested itself in nature (rivers, deltas, etc.), human sexual and renal biology, and urban society. Some attention will be paid to innovators, envoys and messengers of “the network” — chiefly Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, with lesser attention devoted to Tom from MySpace. Extra detail paid to the coalescence of ideas, intersubjectivities, ethnographic symbioses and mutualisms in the Internet Age. Questions of identity, mind-body dualism and self-alienation as they relate to the ascendancy of a new Internet “superclass,” not unrelated to Nietzsche’s Übermensch, to be discussed in historicized context.

    At the end of the term, a practicum in the implementation of “networking,” which will include a visit from the Winklevoss twins (manqué networkers) as well as an appearance from YBB+ networkers Harry Yu ’14 and David Xu ’14. Environments that foster and discourage the growth and spread of networks; traditionalism, démodé republicanism, etc. as structural hindrances to digital virality. Several screenings of avant-garde films particularly apt at addressing the issue of self-identification within “the network” — Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” (restored), Dziga Vertov’s “Man with a Movie Camera,” and “Her” starring Joaquin Phoenix.

    The class will culminate in a field-work-based project researching some aspect of one of the several central networks at Yale — the fraternity, the secret society, the a cappella group. Dissection of the mythology, symbolism and ritual of said networks, as they manifest themselves as a proxies for the emotional and psychological reassurance once afforded human social units by religion and familial community in a post-religious, post-familial world, etc.

    Refuting Scientific Mistakes

    by Aaron Gertler

    Note: the major’s full name is “History of Science, History of Medicine”

    Course description:

    “Does the Sun revolve around the Earth? Do objects fall faster when you tie them together? Did a sadistic God create pandas to be both adorable and impotent?

    In this class, we’ll examine notable wrong arguments from the history of science and refute them using both the passive voice and the passive-aggressive voice. Recommended for future science bloggers, commentators on science blogs, and high school teachers.”

    Textbooks:

    The Magic School Bus: Season 1

    The Magic School Bus: Season 2

    The Magic School Bus: Holiday Special

    The Basic Works of Aristotle

  2. Shopping Period: An Investigative Report

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    The Yale Daily News. The Yale Herald. The Yale Record. Rumpus.

    Yale has a proud tradition of journalistic prestige and comedic wit and satire. But the one thing this university has lacked is a one-stop-shop for all news fake and fictitious.

    This week’s Doubletruck, welcoming you to the new semester with the theme “Shopping Week,” introduces THE YALE BUBBLE, Yale’s new, online, number one provider of fake news.

     

    All Twelve Students in Seminar Room Pretty Confident They’ll Be Fine by 1:23 p.m.

    Staff

    The twelve students waiting in WLH 006 seven minutes before the start of a history junior seminar were all pretty confident they would have no trouble gaining admission to the class. “Well, the class is capped at 18, probably, and maybe the professor is flexible, so let’s say 20,” said Chris Steve ’15, “and there’s no way more than eight people show up in the next seven minutes.”

    Uneasy silence filled the room as the wall clock ticked audibly. “Even though I’m an American Studies major, I should be fine,” said Alexander Gregory ’14. “I’m a senior, and my thesis is basically on the subject of the class, so there’s no way I won’t get in,” he added, his eyes scanning the room.

    At press time, several students cursed under their breath as a group of six students entered the room together, claiming they had had trouble finding it.

     

    Lonely Yale Professor Skips First Class to See If Students “Even Know I Exist” 

    Staff

    A large lecture hall’s worth of shoppers were disappointed this week when biology professor Arnold Kirkwick failed to show up to the first class of his treasured lecture course, “Nematodes and Other Worms.”

    “Sometimes, I just feel like students are coming for the worms and not for me,” Kirkwick told The Bubble. Citing the words of Lynyrd Skynyrd in their hit “Freebird,” he asked, “Seriously, ‘If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?’ That’s right on target.” Flipping through some of his favorite photos of flatworms and Dorylaimia, Kirkwick explained that he bets “they won’t even notice.”

    One student, who took Kirkwick’s class the last time it was taught, remarked that she found this kind of behavior from the nematode expert unsurprising. “He was always ending lectures by saying, ‘Next week we’ll focus on the functioning of the Enoplia’s tubular digestive system, if you’re still interested’ and ‘It’s either the Spirurina’s cloacal opening or me; you choose.’”

    At press time, sources confirmed that Kirkwick left a note taped on his office door explaining that he, like the nematode in times of environmental adversity, had entered a hibernation state of cryptobiosis and that he will emerge when Dean Mary Miller “just learns his name already.”

     

    Seminar Shopper Who Clearly Has Rapport With Professor Has Smushy, Rat-Like Face

    Staff 

    After hearing him share a joke with the professor of the vastly oversubscribed seminar “Politics of Public Policy,” sources confirmed that Frank Eliot ’15 has a smushy, rat-like face.

    “What a slimy little asshole,” one source said upon hearing Eliot refer to a previous class he had taken with the seminar’s professor. “I fucking hate his face. God, just look at him,” the source added.

    Sources agree that Eliot’s face is abnormally small, with piggy, close-set eyes and a weak chin. This became apparent, according to sources, “right when he shook the professor’s hand and said ‘It’s good to see you again — looking forward to the semester!’ “

    Sources reportedly did not even look at Eliot when the professor announced to the packed classroom that fewer than half of those shopping the seminar were likely to secure a place, because they “did not want to see his fucking beady little eyes light up.” Nor did they look at him when he raised his hand after the professor asked who among the shoppers had preregistered through the Political Science department.

    As students filled out applications for the seminar on note cards, peals of laughter could be heard from the corner of the room where Eliot and the professor chatted. Sources added that they were quite sure Eliot was a virgin, as any woman would be repulsed by his shiny, oily face.

     

    Stressed Out Sophomore Girl Probably Just On Her Shopping Period

    Staff

    A close male friend who requested not to be identified confirmed that Davenport sophomore Kimberly Barnes’s recent aggressive behavior is most likely due to the fact that she is “on her shopping period.” This source noted a change in Barnes’s behavior as soon as she returned to campus, highlighting her confrontational attitude, heightened sensitivity, erratic mood swings and “bitching about not getting into Writing About Oneself”.

    “I don’t really care about that kind of stuff,” said the source. “It’s just Anne Fadiman.”

    Barnes was seen on Tuesday running from LC to SSS in a frazzled state, most likely due to the fact that this is “her time of the semester.” Other friends commented on her irregular mealtimes and bags under her eyes, indicating that this is one of her messiest shopping periods. “It’s a bloodbath,” said Barnes, choking up. “I just really need to talk to my advisor about it.” Barnes also noted her shopping periods are usually mild and fairly manageable, lasting only a couple days. “I’ve been running from class to class,” she explained, “so my shopping period has been getting really spotty. I get to my room at the end of the night and it’s like, oh wow. I’m just drowning in my shopping period.”

    This behavior was not limited to just Barnes, as the source also noted that Barnes’s female friends were acting similarly. “This happens all the time with chicks on their shopping period,” he said. “Their schedules just sync up.” The Bubble visited Barnes’s dorm, where she and her suitemates ritually gather to discuss their shopping periods. “It’s just really great to have a safe space where we can talk about how intense and emotional our shopping periods can be.”

    Barnes’s shopping period has also been taxing on her boyfriend, sophomore Chad Brundle. “I’m afraid to even talk to her, let alone go down on her,” commented Brundle. But when asked about his waitlist status for Grand Strategies, Brundle added, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

     

    Students to View Exclusive Seminars That They’ll Almost Get Into With Yale BlueBallsBook

    Staff

    The Yale College Dean’s Office announced on Sunday the creation of the Yale BlueBallsBook, which will allow students to browse exclusive seminars that, at first, it seems like they totally might get into. Students, upon reading about the classes therein, will think, “Hey, that’s a pretty hot-looking seminar. Just look at that syllabus! Damn. I’d really enjoy getting into it, and I definitely have a chance. I mean, how hard could it be? I’m a cool guy. I think the class would kind of be into to having me.”

    The Dean’s office projects that students will then arrive at these seminars for the first meeting, where their hopes will be confirmed, even bolstered. They will think, “This seminar doesn’t just look good, it actually has a good personality. I mean, I really think this thing is gonna happen! I definitely made some smart, witty comments. I was really working it in there. This could really happen!  I can’t wait to get into this seminar so hard, and brag about it to all my friends. Goodbye, dry spell! Hello, sweet, sweet relief!”

    Two days later, when students have finalized their schedules with the assumption that they are enrolled in the seminar, they will get an apologetic email explaining that due to an overabundance of applications to the seminar, they will not be offered a spot this semester. According to authorities in the administration, these students will think, “WHAT THE FUCK!!!!! I WAS SO FUCKING CLOSE GODDAMN IT!!! THIS IS THE WORST FEELING!!!! I AM NOT EVEN GOING TO BE ABLE TO SHOP ANOTHER SEMINAR AT LEAST FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!!!”

    Students will then attempt an Independent Study, but it will likely be too painful.

    Like what you see here? For daily articles, editorials, interviews and videos, visit www.theyalebubble.com

    Get out of the Yale bubble for a bit. Read The Yale Bubble.

  3. Forum: Shopping Period

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    With shopping period upon us, students are scrambling to assemble that perfect schedule of seminars, lectures and sections. In this edition of the News’ Forum, our contributors chronicle the ups and downs of this important Yale tradition.

    Scott Stern, Staff Blogger | Sophomore in Branford College

    Shopping period is stressful. As someone who is currently trying to weasel my way into two seminars and decide among four other lectures, I can attest to this. But it’s not just me. Pretty much everyone I’ve talked to has commented on the worry inherent in attending classes for two weeks without knowing whether you’ll actually take them.

    But shopping period is one of Yale’s hottest selling points. To prefrosh (and to my friends at other schools), it sounds highly alluring. You can try a class, and if you don’t like it, you can just get up and leave! To people who would otherwise register months in advance and then have no way out of an annoying class, this sounds great.

    Yet after enjoying and enduring four shopping periods, I agree that the institution needs to be reformed. The remedy, I believe, is quite simple.

    If we were to make seminars exist strictly on a preregistration basis — with absolutely no way to get in after the fact (i.e. annoying emails, refusing to leave, bribery) — shopping period would be saved. Students would still have a week (or two, I don’t care) to “shop” lectures, but the stressful part would be eliminated.

    Students would preregister for seminars by submitting an application stating, say, their first five choices in descending order. Upperclassmen in the major would get an advantage for junior or senior seminars, but everyone else would be chosen via lottery. Residential college seminars and English seminars would use lottery systems — as they do now — but with no wiggle room if the short straw is drawn. (The possible exception to this rule would be language seminars, for which I would suggest additional sections be opened up to satisfy all demand.)

    My solution isn’t perfect. Some may say it’s unduly harsh, or that it misses the point. Sticking around in a seminar, hoping to find a way in, demonstrates true interest as well as stick-to-itiveness. But for every lucky soul chosen late in the game, several more get completely winnowed out — and their final schedule suffers as a result. During shopping period, choices must be made: If I miss the first two classes of a large lecture for a seminar I probably won’t get into, I may find myself hopelessly behind when that lecture becomes my only option.

    The very concept of shopping period works phenomenally well for lectures. It would work better if seminars weren’t a part of the equation.

    Jennifer Gersten, Contributor | Freshman in Saybrook College

    Freshmen haven’t been at Yale long enough to use the word “always.” We don’t always screw up; we screwed up first semester — and there’s time to do something about it.

    But it feels as though I’m still dancing the awkward shopping period dance I set ineptly for myself in the fall. Back then, I had 19 courses on my schedule, an agglomeration of hues on Yale Blue Book that put my Crayola box to shame. But just a few hours ago, I reluctantly eliminated course 20, “Neurolinguistics,” from Spring 2013, version five. That brings the number of overlapping courses during that time slot from a preposterous four to a totally manageable three. I should probably log off before I find a replacement, but it’s hard when every course seems like the one.

    My parents couldn’t care less what I decide to be. Whether as a doctor, lawyer or burger flipper (and there are no other viable options, just so we’re clear), if I’m happy, they’re happy. And maybe that sounds wonderful, but it’s not. Picking a major is far too complicated without a rigid imperative from the Mr. and Mrs.

    If you don’t know what it’s like having parents this tolerant, I guess I could come up with an analogy. It’s like being offered a kazillion courses, but someone says that you can only take a few, and two meet at the same time, and you need to apply to some, and there’s no QR for people who need to review their times tables — does anyone know what that’s like?

    For now, it feels like the only “always” I’ll ever be is “lost.” To be honest, though, I can’t think of a nicer labyrinth in which to wander.

  4. Shopping period dispatches: day 1

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    Today marks the start of shopping period, which means (some) Yale students and YDN staffers alike rolled out of bed before noon and hit the books. Check out some highlights below:

    Not for the haters

    At 11:35, about 300 students more than filled Davies Auditorium for the first CPSC 112 lecture, relegating several students to seats on the floor. Taught by Professor Richard Yang, “Intro to Programming” serves to teach typically humanities-inclined Yalies how to make “computers do something weird.” Professor Yang described the course as a kind of synthesis of foreign language, engineering, philosophy and psychology classes, but warned students against taking the class if they “refuse to think logically” or “hate computers.”

    — Marek Ramilo 

    Other Memorable Moments

    “I’m a big fan of Credit/D. Use your Credit/D. I have a lot of them on my Yale transcript. … They did not hurt me.” — professor Akhil Reed Amar ’80 LAW ’84, PLSC 233 “Constitutional Law”

    “If there were a nickname for this class, I’d call it ‘Womb to Tomb.'” — professor Richard Bribiescas, ANTH 242 “Human Evolutionary Bio & Life History”

    “Drinking ’til you’re intoxicated … Anybody think that’s normal?” — professor David Klemanski, PSYC 180 “Abnormal Psychology.” Reports suggest his question was followed by an “increasingly awkward” silence.

    “Lots of history is motivated by bad ideas, alas…” — professor Paul Freedman, HIST 211 / HUMS 381 “The Birth of Europe, 1000-1500” when discussing the Crusades

    In CSSY 280 “Theory & Practice of Negotiation,” professor Adam B. Kinon discussed an extended example of a negotiation: putting a beer pong table in the common room. Possible solution? Fist fight.

    Students were turned away from HIST 122 / AMST 193 “Origins of U.S. Global Power” as more than 100 students turned up in HGS 217A, which fits only about half that number. According to the News’ sources, students thronged outside the class and the crowd completely blocked the hall. But there’s a silver lining: Those lucky enough to make it in did see a clip of “Mad Men.”

    And finally, the popular course PHYS 101 “Movie Physics” has been canceled “due to a variety of recent developments,” according to a Monday email from professor Stephen Irons.

  5. Shopping Period Dispatch: Chauncey issues ‘parental advisory’

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    During the first meeting of U.S. Lesbian and Gay History on Thursday, Prof. George Chauncey gave students what he called a “parental advisory,” warning them in advance that his course would, indeed, cover sex.

    “If you don’t want to read about men getting blow jobs in Central Park, this course may not be for you,” he said. “On the other hand, if that’s all you want to hear about… [well], then this course may also not be for you.”

    Chauncey also assured students that they did not need to be gay to succeed in the class.

    “The gay students don’t know any more about their history than you,” he said. “And I’m not even counting the freshmen, who may also be… undeclared.”

  6. Shopping Period Dispatch: Day 1 in the Books

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    Shopping period started today, which meant the sometime students known as Yale Daily News staffers had to go to class. Here’s what they saw:

    A Cryptic Message

    By the 9 a.m. start time for Prof. A. Douglas Stone’s PHYS 420 course, “Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, around 30 students had gathered in Mason Lab 107. But there was no professor.

    Soon, 9 a.m. became 9:05 a.m., then 9:07 a.m., and no professor arrived. As some students began packing to leave, a man walked into the room, and without saying a word, wrote on the blackboard, “Your princess is in another castle. Stone will be back next Wednesday.”

    The quote — a reference to Super Mario Bros. 3, which was released in 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System — drew laughs from students who understood the joke. The man then went on to say, “I am your TA” before walking out of the room without further comment. One by one, these students, with wand’ring steps and slow, through Mason took their solitary way.

    – Ben Prawdzik

    A Tough Grader

    In the ever-popular philosophy lecture “Death,” Prof. Shelly Kagan said that he first learned of his reputation as a harsh grader after he read an article in the News mentioning his tough grading policy. Kagan then asked whether anyone in the room had previously taken a class with him. Though TA Alex Worsnip said about 240 people showed up to class, only two people in the back raised their hands.

    “See? They don’t come back,” Kagan said.

    He also assured students that he knows Yale students are used to good grades.

    “None of you got into Yale with a B average, I know… unless you’re also really rich, in which case, please come up to me and introduce yourself afterwards,” Kagan said.

    – Diana Li and Julia Zorthian

    Small Class Size

    During his Intro to Cognitive Science class that packed the YUAG auditorium, Prof. Brian Scholl dispelled some rumors for the Class of 2016:

    “To any freshman shopping the class, welcome to Yale. Everything they told you in Yale brochures about small class sizes—they lied to you,” Scholl said. “This is actually the second-smallest class on campus.”

    – Mason Kroll

  7. Nemerov caps hottest class on campus

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    This semester’s most popular course just got a whole lot smaller.

    Alexander Nemerov’s “Introduction to the History of Art: Renaissance to the Present” has nearly 500 shoppers on the Online Course Selection system (down from 584 earlier this week), but the course has been capped at 270 — the maximum number of students that the Yale Art Gallery auditorium can hold.

    In past years, Nemerov taught the course in the much larger Yale Law School auditorium, which he estimated can fit around 450 students, and a cap on enrollment was never necessary in that space. But this year, Nemerov requested the use of the art gallery auditorium instead, he told the News.

    He said the art gallery auditorium is a darker room, allowing students to see projected images of artwork more clearly. But even more importantly: the room has no Wifi.

    “In the past many students in the lecture were doing Facebook or email or all kinds of things on their computers,” Nemerov said. “So for me it’s better if there’s a room where that is not possible, and one of the unfortunate effects of that is that I have to limit the enrollment of the class to the capacity of the auditorium.”

    Online selection for sections in the class opened this morning, and the 270 spots — 18 sections with 15 students each — were filled in two minutes, according to a Cross Campus tipster.

    Nemerov said he is sympathetic to students who were unable to enroll, but that he thinks the new room will provide “a better quality experience for everyone.”

  8. Shopping Period Dispatches: Megacourses

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    Two days into shopping period, three courses have potential enrollments of over 500 students on the Online Course Selection system, according to course demand data accessed at 11 p.m.

    Leading the pack is, as we expected, “Introduction to the History of Art,” with 584 shoppers, while “Great Hoaxes and Fantasies in Archaeology” has 519 and “Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature” has 505.

    Two other psychology courses are also in high demand: “Sex, Evolution, and Human Nature” has 485 shoppers, and “Drugs, Brain, and Behavior” has 300. Among economics offerings, “Financial Theory” has 355 shoppers, with introductory micro- and macroeconomics not far behind.

    But shopping period holds surprises not only for lecture rooms you thought couldn’t be packed fuller, but also for small classes gaining more interest. The environmental studies course “Biotechnology and the Developing World” was an eight-person lecture last year, professor Anjelica Gonzalez said in an email to the News, but today nearly 100 students showed up — what Gonzalez called a “pleasant surprise.”

    “I am only sorry that the assigned classroom was small, making it difficult to deliver the lecture, but I am working to make sure we are in a bigger room for Thursday’s class,” she wrote.

  9. Shopping Period Dispatches: Day 1

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    Shopping Period can be a weird and unsettling time for Yalies so accustomed to well-ordered lives, but it is also a time of many notable quotable moments. We’re compiling them here at Cross Campus in a series we call Shopping Period Dispatches.

    In PLSC 271: Gateway to American Public Policy, Prof. Jacob Hacker opened with a joke about keeping his first lecture short, quoting an evaluation he once received from a student: “Professor Hacker, if I had 15 minutes to live, I’d want to spend it in your class. That way it would feel like an hour.”

    A student then proceeded to walk out.

    English 120 Prof. Ryan Wepler started the seminar with a 30 minute analysis of what makes Rebecca Black’s “Friday” bad art. He introduced her as America’s “new prophet of art” and provided students with a copy of the lyrics. Unfortunately, he did not play the song or video.

  10. Shopping Period Dispatch: ‘Twilight’ for homework

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    Students shopping Art and Industry in Contemporary Hollywood are preparing to watch “Jaws” tonight as a class requirement.

    Encouraging students to stay up to date with recent Hollywood events and releases, more recent required films to be viewed and analyzed in the course include “Mamma Mia!,” “Twilight,” and a to-be-released film. Possible candidate? “The Muppets.” In total, students are required to watch 12 films and recommended to watch an additional 16.

    Beyond film analysis, the course encourages students to stay current with Hollywood news. In addition to reading scholarly articles and academic publications, students are encouraged to add Variety and the Hollywood Reporter to their RSS feeds.

    Art and Industry in Contemporary Hollywood meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:45 at Loria 250. Weekly required screenings take place Thursdays beginning at 7 PM.

  11. Shopping Period Dispatch: Chauncey talks about “undeclared” freshmen

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    In George Chauncey’s U.S. Lesbian and Gay History this morning he told the class that not all of the students are American Studies, History or Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies majors. Even though those are what the class is listed under there are non-majors too, and, of course, the freshmen who are “undeclared.”

    He then told students not to worry if they aren’t gay, adding that he’s found 50 percent of the students who have taken the course have not been gay.

    “And that’s not counting those freshmen who are as of yet undeclared,” he quipped to laughter and applause.