Offices & Services

SEX, DRUGS, AND CHOCOLATE  
101 Olin Hall
Frank Frey, Assistant Professor of Biology

This course will introduce you to the fascinating world of ethnobotany.  Through a series of hands-on activities and experiments, we'll explore some of the many tasty, interesting, useful, mystical, and illegal uses of plants.  Specifically, we'll discuss the origins of some of our favorite foods, transgenic crops, medicinal and psychoactive drugs from plants - including recently discovered anti-cancer and anti-HIV drugs, and the ethics of bioprospecting.  After taking this course, you won't look at what folks eat, smoke, or drink in the same light.

Enrollment maximum = 18. Please do not sign up for this seminar if you cannot reliably attend all 3 classes. 

Current events such as the war on terror, multiple crises in the Middle East, and the realization that many nations are competing for finite supplies of resources all relate to the study of military geography.  Although military geography is incredibly diverse, this course will focus on the various dimensions of modern military geographic thinking.  In this seminar, you will be shown how today warfare has changed from that in the past, and what factors have caused war to evolve.  More specifically, you will be shown how the spatial dimensions of battle and military campaigns differ from warfare of the 20th century; i.e., the way war is fought today is not the same as what your grandparents experienced in WWII.  We will also discuss what factors lead people to go to war in the first place; this too has changed.  In this part of the course we will talk about possible future wars over finite resources including, oil, water, and even timber. Come to this seminar with an open mind and be prepared to discuss some potentially controversial subjects.

 Enrollment maximum=20. Course is mainly discussion broken up with several 'hands on' activities.

During the course of this seminar, students will be presented with detailed information about common drugs of choice.  Through the use of PowerPoint, lecture material and humor, individuals will come away with a sound appreciation of the effects of alcohol, marijuana and rave drugs.  It will include understanding the way that alcohol and street drugs work within the central nervous system from both  long-term and short-term perspectives.  A review of the addiction process and the common defenses employed by chemically addicted individuals will be discussed.

EAST COAST SWING
209 Ryan Hall
Cheryl Jonsson, Associate of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing 

This course will have you dancing the basic figures of East Coast Swing in an enjoyable and social manner.  During the course you will develop a good knowledge and understanding of the musical requirements in relationship to each step within a dance figure. These will include rhythm and character, time signature, beat value and tempo. Other important aspects of dance to be studied will be Dance Position, Footwork, Lead and Follow.

HOW TO BUILD A BABY: A Developmental Science Approach to the Nature-Nurture Debate
129A Olin Hall
Spencer Kelly, Associate Professor of Psychology

If you were a highly developed, extraterrestrial scientist with advanced technology to engineer organisms from other planets, how would you build a human baby? What kind of brain would you design? What kind of social, emotional, and cognitive predispositions would you include? What kind of environment would you provide? To answer these questions, you must determine what is innate and what is learned in human development. Although this "nature-nurture question" can be traced back to ancient philosophers (right here on Earth!), modern-day science has made great strides in exploring (and reformulating) this question. In this seminar, we will first explore some pop-culture approaches to this issue. Then, we will briefly trace the history of the debate to its foundations in classical and modern philosophy. Finally, we will compare these philosophical and pop-culture perspectives to modern-day scientific approaches. In the end, it is my hope that you will discover that the answers to the nature-nurture question are not on a planet far, far away-but rather, the answers are closer to home than they ever have been.

Enrollment limit = 18.  Please do not sign up for this class unless you can reliably attend all 3 classes.

THE MIDDLE EAST AT THE CROSSROADS
109 Persson Hall
Avraham Sela, A. Lindsay O’Connor Professor of American Institutions, Dept. of Political Science

The Middle East has been traditionally synonymous with political turmoil, conflicts and religious extremism. In the period since 9/11 the United States became militarily involved in the region as part of its “war on Terrorism,” setting an agenda of three interrelated goals: peace between Israel and the Palestinians; Democracy in the Middle East at large and political stability, all of which are said to make the Middle East stable and peaceful.

We will dedicate one session to each of the following topics:

A. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict – obstacles and prospects for peace.
B. The US military presence in Iraq and the prospects for a future democracy and stability in the Arab-    Muslim Middle East. 
C. Islam and the West: origins of tension and terrorism.

FORENSIC-MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY
103 Olin Hall
John Novak, Professor of Biology

Are you a fan of the television show CSI?  Are you considering a career in the health sciences?
Or perhaps you just like bugs?  This course is designed to familiarize students with the utility of arthropods in legal (death scene) investigations and to recognize various arthropods of medical and veterinary importance. Initial study will be made of generalized arthropods, mouthparts, life cycles, and the mechanism for transmission of pathogens.  Discussion will include venomous arthropods, tick-borne disease, mosquitoes and myiasis.

Enrollment maximum = 12.  Please do not sign up for this class if you cannot reliably attend all 3 classes.

GREAT COURTROOM DRAMAS OF CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
21 Lawrence Hall
William Stull, Assistant Professor of the Classics  

The lawcourts of ancient Greece and Rome were arenas of civic combat where words could cut more deeply than sharpened steel, where bribery was loudly condemned and freely practiced, and where hard evidence was usually the last thing on anybody's mind.  In this seminar we will immerse ourselves in the experiences and assumptions of the ancient courtroom by focusing on cases of murder, scandal, and political corruption.  In class we will read (and perform) short selections of famous courtroom speeches.  We will analyze arguments, consider procedure, and talk about the courts’ role in maintaining social order.  Topics for consideration will include: the relationship between justice and vengeance; techniques of self-presentation and emotional appeal; the use of slander and insult.

DOES APHRODITE DANCE AFTER DARK? and Other Burning Questions about How Art Museums Work:        A behind-the-scenes look at the Picker Art Gallery

Picker Art Gallery, Third Floor, Dana Arts Building
Elizabeth Barker, Director; Diane Butler, Curator; Melissa Davies, Education Coordinator

Does an art museum remind you of a sleeping giant (…snore) or a buzzing beehive? By taking this seminar, led collaboratively by Director Lizzie Barker, Curator Diane Butler, and Educator Melissa Davies, you will learn about what really goes on in an art museum, including the care and feeding of priceless objects (they are very temperamental!) magic tricks to mesmerize museum visitors, treasures within you that make looking at art so much fun, and lots more! 

Many of the important issues that confront our society, from health-related concerns to environmental protection, are scientific at their core, and our society relies almost exclusively on the news media for information about them. However, the communication of new scientific discoveries through traditional news outlets is challenging and can be complicated by political, economic, and ethical concerns.  This short course examines those unique challenges and suggests strategies for evaluating and responding to the science news.  In particular, we will discuss the misconceptions about how scientific ideas become accepted as facts, the phony balance that results from treating science the same as politics, and the misrepresentation of scientific uncertainty.  W will analyze news coverage spanning several topics, including global warming and stem cell research, as examples of these problems.

IMAGINATIVE WRITING
206 Lawrence Hall
Jennifer Brice, Assistant Professor of English

All writing is imaginative. This class will introduce you to three kinds of imaginative writing: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. We¹ll begin every class with exercises to warm up your imagination, then we¹ll write in a more sustained way for the rest of the time. You¹ll learn about the basics of good creative writing: a compelling story or idea, an engaging voice, a sense of audience, fresh and surprising use of language, imagery that appeals to the five senses.

CHEMICALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY SYSTEM
208 Persson Hall
Jane Jones, Staff Counselor, Counseling and Psychological Services

This course provides a psychological overview of the members of a chemically dysfunctional family system.
WEEK 1:  The Abuser - An overview of the addictive process; information on the defensive structure utilized by the user to maintain their denial. 
WEEK 2:  The Significant Other - Development of an understanding of the psychological impact on someone who is in a committed relationship with a user. Why is it that they stay?
WEEK 3:  The Children - What are the development issues for individuals raised in a chemically dysfunctional home?  Strategies for individuals helping themselves as they get older.  The last week is cautiously undertaken.  The push is that awareness to our issues can empower us to work through them in a very healthy way.

THE FORMS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY
205 Lawrence Hall
Patrick Riley, Associate Professor of French

Through an analysis of brief excerpts of classic autobiographies, we will consider in this seminar some of the ways in which writers have elected to present their life stories. In examining these varying modes of self-presentation (such as confession, self-portraiture, poetry, and non-narrative forms), we will try to articulate some definitions of this complex genre. We will also investigate how the forms of autobiography are adapted to author's self-representational goals and intentions. The excerpts we will read will include Saint Augustine, Montaigne, Rousseau, Goethe, and Wordsworth.

This seminar will give you a look behind-the-scenes at the language of jazz, an American-invented and internationally practiced art form. We will talk about what actually occurs during a jazz performance, how the performers interact, and shed light on the roles of the rhythm section musicians. The discussion will detail the process players undertake in order to learn to improvise and offer a brief sketch of the major innovators, style periods & their evolution. Excerpts of important recordings will be presented and the instructor will perform live examples on piano and saxophone. The focus will be on music recorded from 1930 to the present.

THE NATURE OF LIGHT
Lathrop Hall
Kiko Galvez, Professor of Physics

The class format will be a lecture before dinner and a lab after dinner.

Class 1: Light is a wave We will discuss the wave properties of light. We will start with a discussion of waves and wave interference, such as the ripples on the surface of water. Then we will explore ways in which interference of light is manifested, and see the wave ripples of light. In the lab we will use a Michelson interferometer to explore interference of light and see how we can use the interference of light to measure very small distances.

Class 2: Light as a particle In this section we will talk about particle-like properties of light. In 1905 Einstein proposed that light was made of packets of energy, called photons. These photons have energy and both linear and angular momentum. In the class section we will discuss what these concepts are and how they apply to light. In the lab we will see how light’s momentum can be used to push, move and rotate micron-sized objects in a device known as a “laser tweezer.”

Class 3: Light as a wave and a particle The ultimate physical theory is quantum mechanics. It makes stunning predictions, like a particle being in two places at once, and other similar situations. These were referred to as “spooky” by Einstein himself. In class we will explore these quantum properties that also accept the light’s dual wave-particle nature. In the lab we will observe the demonstrations of some spooky predictions in the “quantum eraser,” an interferometer for single photons.

Enrollment maximum = 16.   Sign up for this class only if you can reliably attend all 3 classes.

CURRENT CONTROVERSIES OF THE COURT
108 Persson Hall
Morgan Marietta, Visiting Instructor in Political Science

This course examines the recent past and near future of the Supreme Court, focusing on the latest landmark rulings and important upcoming cases. Why did the Court rule as it did in Bush v. Gore in 2000 (on electoral recounts), Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 (on homosexual rights), and Hamdi v. Rumsfeld in 2004 (on military detainees of the war on terror)? Given the recent appointments of Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, how is the Court likely to rule on future questions such as including the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, or whether presidential war powers extend to domestic wire-tapping? We will discuss how the Court has settled and will settle the current controversies about our fundamental values.

CLIMBING THE WALLS
Angert Climbing Wall, 3rd Floor, Huntington Gymnasium
Brett Zefting, Assistant Director of Outdoor Education

In this seminar you will learn the basics of rock climbing – belaying and moving on the rock – while in the warm, safe environment of Colgate’s Angert Family Climbing Wall. We will begin by investigating the basic physics of top-rope climbing, and the importance of proper technique when designing and constructing an anchor for a climb. Then we will learn the dynamics of “climbing” and how your body works in getting up the wall. A thorough belay class will be taught in order that we might belay each other by the end of the seminar, and topics such as trust, communication, and environmental ethics will be discussed. Students should be in moderate physical shape or better, and must be prepared for classes with regard to clothing: loose fitting sweats, shorts, etc. Each student must bring to the first class the “Angert Family Climbing Wall Assumption of Risk/Release of Liability” form signed by both the student and a parent or guardian. Due to the progressive nature of the skills learned and practiced in the course, you must attend all scheduled classes.

Enrollment maximum = 12.   Sign up for this class only if you can reliably attend all 3 classes.

COLLEGE SELECTION PROCESS - MYTHS AND MYSTERIES
109 Persson Hall
Leslie Ann Zulch, Associate Director of Admissions

This course provides more than just an overview of the college search and selection process. Knowing who your resource people are and where to find both official and anecdotal information is crucial in developing your college lists. Professional staff members from Colgate admission are prepared to lead you in collaborative, hands-on sessions in the art of information and material collection, how to make the most out of your college visits, and essay writing.

A look behind the closed door of an admission committee session will provide terrific insight into what admission staffs consider, look for, weigh, and value in the selection process. A mock application review requires you to leave your suspicions outside the door and engage in the discussions that lead to decision making. Admission officers will help you develop the strategies and set the goals that will best prepare you to embrace the college search and make it your own.

THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT: BEHAVIOR AND ADAPTATION
103 Olin Hall
John Novak, Professor of Biology

Using color slides and discussion, five topics will be covered: 1) adaptations of marine invertebrates to their environment, including principles of locomotion, feeding, coloration, etc. 2) the coral reef, including the development sequence of a reef and the ecological relationships of its inhabitants; 3) examination of the crown of thorns, a predatory starfish that is attacking and destroying coral reefs throughout the Pacific Ocean; 4) the effects of the Santa Barbara oil spill on the intertidal zone and the general effects on the ecology; 5) identification, habitat and behavior of seals and penguins.