Annenberg to offer 6 new classes

The Annenberg School for Communication will offer six new undergraduate classes next semester -- a move that may help alleviate scheduling conflicts majors have faced in the past, according to Geoff Falen, who coordinates the undergraduate Communications major. Two of the classes will be taught by new professors who are starting in January, and three will only be offered next semester, Falen said. "There are inevitable conflicts when a great number of students wish to take a class," Falen said of past complaints regarding the major's offerings. He added that scheduling problems are compounded by classes that are designated as small seminars. Falen further explained that the Annenberg's limited course offering is constricted by the small size of the school's faculty, which he said includes about 13 professors for both undergraduate and graduate courses. "The school has been in the process of a faculty search for some time," Falen said. He added that the search recently culminated in the hiring of the two new professors. "Hopefully, [the hirings] will help us offer more and different classes to undergraduates," Falen said. He added that most of the new courses will be upper-level classes specifically geared to majors. Three "special topic" seminars will be taught by Annenberg Scholars, a group of six post-doctoral fellows who are at the University for one year to research a chosen theme, according to Falen. This year's theme is "The Future of Fact," according to Annenberg Scholars Program Coordinator Barbara Grabias. Falen added that the Annenberg Scholars' seminars are offered occasionally when "a postdoctoral fellow matches with our own goals and needs based on their research and teaching." Grabias added that these courses may be "loosely connected" to the specific theme of the year, but may also arise from the scholar's background. Annenberg Scholar Jeffrey Strange, who will teach a seminar on the psychology of narratives, said he chose to teach the course because of his psychology background and because he thinks it "helps to fill out" the current Annenberg undergraduate course selection. "I think that the lens of psychology can be used to understand the influence of media upon the way people think and behave," Strange said. Annenberg Scholar Ron Jacobs, whose seminar will cover news as culture, explained that he decided to teach the undergraduate course because of the positive experience he had teaching at Rice University last year. He added that he found his previous experience "very stimulating," adding that he hopes to have a similar experience at Penn. College senior and Undergraduate Communications Society President Lela Jacobsohn said undergraduates "have definitely felt limited in the past" regarding their course choices. "I think that any new courses they bring to the major are an advantage to the people in the major," she said.