This semester the Carl Goodson Honors Program is offering Election 2008 as an honors seminar. The class is taught by Dr. Hal Bass, Dr. Doug Reed and Dr. Deborah Root.
The seminar covers not only the rules of the electoral system and the political process involved in running for president, but also the way the media covers the candidates campaigns.’
The goal of the seminar is “to heighten both awareness and engagement [of the presidential system],” Dr. Bass said. “I want people to get excited about the process.”
In order to provide a more hands-on approach, each student is assigned a major newspaper and daily monitors the election coverage of said paper.
“It’s important to study how the media impacts a presidential campaign and how candidates use the media,” Root said.
Reed adds that this is an “important election, the kinds of things we talk about are the things people should become aware of.”
What do the students think? Philip Williamson, a junior, said “I love the class, I love politics and was planning on following the election anyway, but I am forced to follow it more than I otherwise might have.”
This feeling was echoed by other students. Amy Gioumard, also a junior, added, “It’s interesting to get so much background information on the election process.”
Most seminars are taught by at least two professors from varying disciplines which allows students to get a “variety of different perspectives [on the topic covered],” Bass said.
Honors Program Director Amy Sonheim mentioned that “the goal of honors seminars is to allow students to experiment with new ideas and new approaches and broaden students outside their disciplines.” Seminars count as one hour of academic credit and are “assessed pass/fail because [they] are a higher workload,” Sonheim added. To access a list of upcoming seminars visit www.obu.edu/honors.
