Northwestern is adding African American Studies, Latino/a Studies and Portuguese to its 2012 summer course list, bringing the total number of classes to more than 300.
“This summer will be great because we can offer a more diverse curriculum,” Summer Session Director Stephanie Teterycz said. “We’re happy to have additional departments.”
About 60 percent of summer session students are NU undergraduates, 16 percent are visiting students and the remainder are graduate students, she said.
Undergraduate tuition per course is $3,466, and graduate tuition is $4,934 per credit.
The African American Studies Department will offer one class about African American Children’s Literature, according to the NU summer session course listings. The six-week class will examine the development of this genre of literature two nights a week.
Prof. John Marquez designed a two-day-per-week Latino/a Studies Department class specifically for the summer session. The six-week class will study the “social and political effects of the exponential growth of the Latino population” in America, he said.
Marquez, who has not taught a summer course at NU, said he will try to break up the curriculum as much as possible.
“Summer session as it’s formatted is more intense,” he said. “I try to use as much visual and audio media as possible.”
He said he does not know how many students have enrolled in the course, but he will tailor the course according to the number of students. Overall, Teterycz said so far, “a couple hundred more” students have enrolled in summer courses since the beginning of April than in previous years.
“Students are looking to free up their schedules during other quarters,” Teterycz said. “For example, if they have an internship during the year it enables them to do that and stay on track for graduation, and sometimes it’s a way of getting ahead.”
For the first time this summer, the Portuguese department will offer three elementary courses taught by two professors. Each class will run for three weeks and will meet for three hours every weekday. NU offers eight other languages during the summer session.
Prof. Ana Thome Williams will teach two of the courses. She said the curriculum is the same as elementary classes offered during the school year, but the courses are compacted to accommodate the much shorter schedule.
“It will be very intensive, but the dynamics of the class and the technology use will still be there,” Williams said. “The only thing that might be different is a more relaxed atmosphere. We will have everything, plus sunshine.”
Weinberg freshman Dhwani Jain said she plans to take three courses during the summer. Jain, who lives in Evanston, will commute to school and continue to work part-time as a swim instructor. She said her classes are all related to her major or are distribution requirements.
“I want to graduate early because there are more job opportunities if you graduate Fall Quarter senior year,” Jain said.
Students can register for classes until the beginning of the summer session. The session will start June 18.
