What is a one-unit seminar and
why are there three numbers for them?

ANLD 90 (Undergraduate Seminar),
ANLD 87 (Freshman Seminar), &
ANPR 192 (Senior Seminar)

The course numbers 87, 90, and 192 are, in principle, reserved in all departments to small, 1-unit, P/NP "seminars" in which students are expected to do most of the talking. Some 1-unit seminars are sponsored by colleges or interdisciplinary programs rather than by departments.

In each series, a student may complete up to four seminars, so long as none of them is repeated. As far as I can tell, seminars taken in one series do not count against the limit in either of the other series.

For unannounced reasons, if you take more than one seminar simultaneously in the same series and department, the registrar's computer will hiccup and you will need to go to the department coordinator — for Anthropology that is David Marlowe, SSB-210 — to get the registration accomplished.

The 90 Series: Undergraduate Seminars (Abolished)

News: Effective Fall, 2006, this series, the most intellectually rewarding of the three, was abolished by administrative fiat. No pedagogical reason was provided.

History & Goals: Administered by Warren College, the 90 Series was a faculty-initiated project originated in the 1980s. The "Undergraduate Seminars" (occasionally called "Warren 90s") once had reserved places for freshmen because the series was especially intended to provide small classes for students whose other classes tended to be large, introductory lectures. But from the beginning it was also seen as a place for students of various levels to interact with each other and for students at all levels to get a "feel" for various prospective majors.

In recent years, many seniors used the 90 series to pick up the last remaining credit or two needed for graduation, or to use their last quarter or two in college to sample some field they "missed" while working on a major, so senior participation tended to rise in the Spring Quarter.

Fine Print:

• Courses could include up to 25 students, and normally met for 8 (occasionally 10) hours during the quarter, arranged in whatever time blocks make sense. (Eight hours represents approximately one quarter of the number of meeting hours of a 4-unit seminar course without discussion sections.) In theory, some could be day-long symposia.
• Courses in this series were not prmitted to have prerequisites, exams, or termpapers.
• Courses in the 90 series were normally taught by members of the Academic Senate, although some exceptions were occasionally made at the discretion of the Warren provost.
• Instructors were granted a modest research stipend as an inducement to offer courses in the 90 series, which did not count as regular teaching.

The 87 Series: Freshman Seminars

History & Goals: The 87 Series, begun in 2003, was initiated in competition with the 90 series in order to use the term "Freshman Seminars," an idea which became fashionable in higher-education circles in the late 1990s, where small "intimate" classes were touted as a vital part of "the freshman experience." It was rumored that only the potential cost and the potential increase in time-to-degree prevented the Office of the President from making such seminars compulsory for all entering freshmen.

The administration was keen to ensure that this series be limited to freshmen, but because of Advanced Placement credits, many freshmen in fact enter with (or within easy reach of) sophomore standing, so it was decided that sophomores should be admitted on a space-available basis. In actual practice, nothing prevents juniors and seniors from adding the class with the permission of the department/instructor.

(The computer allows graduate students to sign up for any undergraduate course. Instructors in the 87 series are officially advised to have them manually dropped, but obviously there are instructors who do not do so. However graduate students may not count lower-division courses toward their minimum course load, as I understand it.)

Fine Print:

• Courses in this series are limited to 20 students, and are required to meet in 10 (occasionally 8), one-hour sessions. Other combinations of hours are not permitted.
• Courses in this series are not permitted to have prerequisites, but they may have midterm and/or final exams, or require termpapers, and the official guidelines provide that students should expect to spend 2 hours in outside preparation for each hour of class time.
• Courses in the 87 series must be taught by members of the Academic Senate (plus adjunct faculty).
• Instructors are granted a research stipend (three times that of the 90 series) as an inducement to offer courses in the 87 series, which do not count as regular teaching.

The 192 Series: Senior Seminars

History & Goals: The 192 series, initiated in Fall, 2006, is aimed at seniors, but is open to juniors on a space-available basis (and presumably to others with an instructor's add card). It is explicitly intended by the administration to replace the 90 series except for interdisciplinary offerings. No very clear goal is articulated for this innovation, although it may grow from the sense that seniors should be getting upper-division credit for seminars rather than lower-division 90 credit. (Then again, some other educational fashion may be involved of which I am simply unaware.)

Fine Print:

• Courses in this series are limited to 20 students, and are required to meet in eight to ten, one-hour sessions.
• Courses in this series normally require prerequisites. The default is simply a department stamp, but departments are encouraged to add others. (Suggestions are: department majors only, or co-registration in another department course.) Depending upon departments' decisions, this may make most 192 courses unavailable to most students, eliminating the possibility of pre-graduation "sampling" of fields outside a student's major.
• Senior Seminars may require "projects, short papers, or quizzes," and the official guidelines provide that students should expect to spend 1-2 hours in outside preparation for each hour of class time. (In other words, it is recommended that they be less time consuming for students than Freshman Seminars.)
• Courses in the 192 series must taught by members of the Academic Senate (plus adjunct faculty).
• Instructors are granted a research stipend (three times that of the 90 series) as an inducement to offer courses in the 192 series, which do not count as regular teaching. Faculty members will not receive stipends if a department offers more 192 courses in a given year than it offered 87 courses the previous year. (As far as I know, that has not been enforced.)

It will be obvious from all of this that I am in greater sympathy with the goals of the now extinct Undergraduate Seminar (90) program than with the two newer programs, which I see (both individually and separately) as generally being disadvantageous to all levels of students, but especially to upper-division students. As long as there is space, I am willing to welcome all students into both 87 and 192 courses I teach insofar as I am technically able to do so.

Return to top.