Foundation ridicules 'bizarre' Dartmouth classes
Not all courses are created equal -- at least not according to Young America's Foundation, a conservative educational organization that recently released a list of "bizarre" and "ridiculous" classes at colleges across the country. Among the courses to avoid, according to YAF, are "Who is Black" at Harvard University, "Cultural History of Rap" at UCLA, "Philosophy and Star Trek" at Georgetown University, "Black Marxism" at Vassar College and six courses offered at Dartmouth. These courses are included in "Comedy and Tragedy," a compendium of classes from 58 schools that YAF denotes as "eccentric, bizarre and 'politically correct.'" Their primary complaint about the courses listed is a "biased portrayal of a subject in which a number of views are not represented, frequently including courses without regard to the conservative viewpoint," said Rick Parsons, editor of "Comedy and Tragedy." Cited courses at Dartmouth include such classes as the environmental studies department's "Environmental Journalism," and the geography course "Gender, Space and the Environment." Classes in comparative literature; Latin American, Latino and Caribbean studies; and women's and gender studies were also represented in YAF's survey. YAF is a "conservative educational organization which promotes conservative ideas on the nation's college campuses," according to Parsons.