This course will look at selected contemporary poetry of the past 35 years and at how the study of poetry complements the language potency of everyday personal and professional exchanges. Students will examine how "new" poetry connects readers to a world of vernacular language rhythms, language crossovers, and intellectual diversity. Students will showcase their engagement with poetry and language in Web 2.0 projects. Open to all majors, including English majors. (UH 2010 satisfies the Arts/Humanities Element in the Core curriculum.)

This social science course delves into the importance and relevance of community in a modern world. Class community studies are reviewed and used as the basis for discussions, role playing exercises, and a case study. Students will collectively author a course product: a mini-community study of a nearby small town. This course will be conducted in a seminar format, enhanced by multi-media presentations and films.  (UH 2020 satisfies the Social Science Element in the Core curriculum.)

Decision making is an integral part of our daily lives, ranging from the relatively simple--shall I have Coke or coffee?--to the complex and seemingly insoluble--how can we reduce the rate of violent crime in the U.S.? Regardless of one's area of interest or expertise, difficult decisions must be made. This course provides an introduction to the concepts of decision theory, systems analysis, and rational analytic techniques of decision making, as well as an exploration of non-rational theory and processes. Students will analyze the process and the assumptions that underlie the process from several viewpoints and disciplines: rationality, incrementalism, analytical reasoning, and complexity and chaos. (UH 2020 satisfies the Social Science Element in the Core curriculum.)

This course will explore what many people believe is the premier civil rights issue of the 21st century. Animal rights and/or animal welfare issues is a movement in America that is impacting the law, politics, and ethics of interaction between "human animals" and animal life.

The complexities of the U.S. educational system are many. There are no shortcuts, no utopias, no silver bullets, and no magic feathers that will enable elephants to fly. This course will examine current educational issues and reform measures as proposed by intellectuals such as Thomas Friedman, Fareed Zakaria, Diane Ravitch, and Linda Darling-Hammon. Students will investigate the topic from the perspectives of U.S. and world history, culture and sociology, geography, economics, government and citizenship, psychology, science and technology, and globalization.

Students will view the entirety of the HBO miniseries "John Adams," based on the book by illustrious historian David McCullough. They will research the events illustrated in the miniseries (Boston Massacre, debate over the Declaration of Independence, etc.) to compare and contrast the reality of those events with their video presentation, resulting in conclusions about "real history" versus the HBO presentation.