Lifelong Learning - Spring 2012 Courses

Lifelong Learning Contact Information

Online, Undergraduate Course Offerings
Each semester, UI&U offers a wide array of college courses that are available for the non-degree seeking student. Courses can be taken for undergraduate credit (4 credit hours) or for no credit (Audit Only).  In Audit Only course status, students enjoy the opportunity to learn the subject material without having papers or tests graded or recorded, no college credit nor final grade are provided and no record or transcript is available.

All courses award undergraduate credit hours, a transcript of which can be used to transfer credits to other universities. For recognition of CEUs, student should check with appropriate professional certifying body in their field of work.

The spring/summer semester offers 8 and 16 week courses, dependent on the course. For additional details about the courses along with registration information, contact lifelonglearning@myunion.edu or 800-618-1946.

Course Descriptions
ACC 236 - Managerial Accounting - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Marcus Patterson
The course focuses on the analysis and interpretation of accounting concepts and on the internal use of accounting information in the managerial decision-making process especially in planning and control operations.

BUS 101 - Intro to Business - 8 weeks starting 6/25/12
Frederick Read
The course is directed toward the recognition and understanding of how businesses operate in both the United States and in global environments. It covers the basic aspects of opening a business, discusses the management techniques of leadership, motivation, and employee empowerment. The course also presents necessary business information on financial management, the forms of business ownership, and entrepreneurship. The basic concepts of human resource management, the ethical and social responsibility issues facing today‘s business manager, and the necessity of producing quality goods and services are discussed in detail.

ECO 221 - Macroecon - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Robert Spinelli
Macroeconomics examines the economy as a whole and offers a perspective on how government economic policies affect daily life. The course focuses on inflation, unemployment, the business cycle, the market system, fiscal policy, supply and demand, the balance of trade, comparative advantage, and money and banking. It also compares Keynesian and Classical economic theories as they relate to macroeconomic policy.

ENG 101 - College Writing - 16 weeks starting 4/30/12
Eric Mast
This course focuses on developing composition skills and writing techniques. Students will practice planning, drafting, and revising effective, well-organized expository and argumentative essays. Students will demonstrate an ability to use language effectively and to express themselves clearly.

PHI 201 - Intro to Philosophy  - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12 and 6/25/12
Jonathan Eskridge
The student will become familiar with the various kinds of philosophical thinking through this survey of the different branches of philosophy, such as ethics, knowing, metaphysics, cosmology, religion, aesthetics, and logic. The focus will be on the introduction of the philosophical point of view through the exploration of some key philosophers, beginning with Plato.

For Educators
LSTU 341: Literacy in Public Schools - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Nancy Reid
Hybrid course with VT residencies May 5, June 1 and June 16
Location: Brattleboro, VT and Montpelier, VT (alternating)
As a classroom or community, how can we create enthusiastic and skillful readers? Students will delve into the many issues and controversies surrounding literacy instruction in our K-12 schools and communities, related to literacy instruction in K-12 schools. Literacy here is defined as reading, writing and spelling.

LSTU 357: Identity & Society in the Internet Age - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Heather McCollum
This seminar will examine the effects of new digital technologies from a number of disciplinary perspectives, concentrating on 21st century communications technology (the internet), although we will also consider some earlier technological changes and their social, psychological, and cultural consequences. We will critically analyze and evaluate claims and the assumptions, values, and (occasionally) data that underlie them.

LSTU 360: Lure of the Sea: Whaling, Smuggling, and Piracy - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Linda Gray
We will use the lens of maritime history to examine the colonial and early Republic period in the United States, 1500-1850, focusing on the inhabitants of the eastern seaboard to better understand their thoughts and interests. Who were the first residents? What really happened to Moby-Dick? How were women included or excluded? What defines the era of the Clipper Ship? Traditions of piracy, fisheries management, treasure hunting and world-wide exploration all had their beginnings during this period.

LSTU 361: Women in 20th Century America: From Suffrage to Personal Politics  - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Karen Madden
The seminar's objectives include enriching students' knowledge of American women in the twentieth century and developing critical, analytical, and communication skills by integrating the disciplines of reading, discussion, research and writing. Building the framework of American women's history, we will address the women's suffrage movement, women and war, women and The Great Depression, women in the Civil Rights Movement, the "feminine mystique" and personal politics.

For Published or Aspiring Writers
LSTU 334: Creating a Graphic Novel - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Peaco Todd
In this seminar, each student will create a memoir piece in the form of a graphic novel – in this case, graphic non-fiction, while exploring examples of the genre as well as basic storytelling and drawing techniques. Drawing ability is not a prerequisite: the seminar will focus on research and written narrative which then can be illustrated, if necessary, very simply or in another medium such as collage or photography.

LSTU 364 Waking the Muse: A Writing Workshop - 8 weeks starting 6/25/12
Julia Crane
Explore creative writing from three angles: First, inspiration: bypassing the inner critic, drawing on the other arts for inspiration, and other exercises/tricks to generate writing. Second, craft: what to do with that piece once you have some words on the page, and how to get from a cruddy first draft to a much better piece of work. Finally, for those who want to continue creating with words, we'll look at what supports a writing life (reading, observation of self/others/the world, attention to language.)

LSTU 365 Travel Writing - 8 weeks starting 6/25/12
Peaco Todd
Students will explore the craft and art of travel writing by reading six examples of the best of travel writing, as well as a text on the genre, and, with prose and art (drawings, photography, etc., at any level of proficiency), create their own travel essays: about their neighborhoods, exotic locales or places in between. Great travel writers use the gift of their perception, lyricism, humor and imagery, not only bring the world back to their readers but discover that they are altered by their own experiences.

For Mental Health Counselors
LSTU 358 Alcohol & Drug Abuse Counseling*  - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Patricia Burke
* if space allows, first preference to UI&U BA students
Students will explore the psychological theories of counseling most prominent in substance abuse treatment including the Stages of Change, Motivational Interviewing, and Cognitive Behavioral Counseling approaches. Students will engage in experiential learning activities such as video or audio taped role plays with a focus on developing specific counseling skills based on these theories.

LSTU 370 Neurobiology of Addiction - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Jody McGrath
This seminar will acquaint students with basic anatomy and physiology of the nervous system and neurons, with synaptic transmission and transmitters, and with a variety of drugs and their effects on the body/mind of individuals, Students will gain an understanding of the neurobiological basis and nature of drug addiction, and the main components of a "reward system" and its connections to major brain regions involved in motivation and emotion.

For Sustainable, Local Food Business Development
LSTU 340: Ecological Agriculture: The Art & Science of Gardening with Nature in Mind - 8 weeks starting 6/25/12
Tatiana Schreiber
Explore the complex interactions and interdependence of the multitude of soil organisms, insects and plants in an agricultural environment , focusing on vegetable gardens, small fruits and berries, orchards, and the larger landscape in which these food systems exist. We will also investigate agroecological farming systems in other regions of the world, to see how we can make connections between local and global cultural, economic, political, and ecological processes; and examine social movements of small-scale farmers internationally, as well as fair trade, domestic fair trade, and localvore movements.

For Artists
LSTU 317: Self as Subject - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Lucinda Bliss
In Self as Subject, students will explore developing a visual language for describing personal experiences, ideas, fantasies, and emotions through the study of self-portraiture, defined broadly to include painting one's mirrored image as well as expressing one's ideas, experiences, and emotions through imaginative mark making. Students will work with drawing and painting media, learn basic tools, techniques and methods of exploration in the visual, read artists' autobiographies and supplemental articles, view regular presentations and film clips, participate in online dialogue, and write reflections and 2 papers.

LSTU 356: Drawing as Awareness - 8 weeks starting 6/25/12
Sarah Sutro
In this seminar we will explore several ways of approaching drawing, from literal description of everyday reality, to working from chosen photographs, to inventing our own personal perspective. All these require awareness. Through a series of exercises and drawing problems students will develop a relationship to line, shade, texture, and tone using a choice of several mediums such as pencil, charcoal, ink, wash, and conte crayon. Come to this course prepared to draw, write and think. This seminar is appropriate for students with all levels of artistic ability and experience.

LSTU 334: Creating a Graphic Novel - 8 weeks starting 4/30/12
Peaco Todd
In this seminar, each student will create a memoir piece in the form of a graphic novel – in this case, graphic non-fiction, while exploring examples of the genre as well as basic storytelling and drawing techniques. Drawing ability is not a prerequisite: the seminar will focus on research and written narrative which then can be illustrated, if necessary, very simply or in another medium such as collage or photography.

LSTU 368: Art on the Street - 8 weeks starting 6/25/12
Cathy Stanton
Art on the street-- outside of conventional gallery settings--raises complex questions about the relationship of public and private space, the power of visual images, who has the power to display or erase those images, the relative authority of the artist and the art world, and differing definitions of what art actually is. We will blend a social scientific approach to thinking about the many meanings of public art with investigation of a variety of visual public cultural forms, including murals, art cars, graffiti, "street art," "yarn bombing," monetary currency, and body decoration. No prior experience necessary.

For Historians
LSTU 331 The Sixties - 8 weeks starting 6/25/12
Jay Moore
This seminar is a multi-faceted, inter-disciplinary exploration of the history, politics, arts and culture of the 1960s decade including the Civil Rights Movements, the Vietnam War, the Counterculture and the subsequent "Culture Wars." Focus will be on the U.S. but some international events such as the Third World Liberation Movements and the Paris "Days of May" will also be explored. Course includes a research project involving oral histories with "Sixties People", or other Sixties-related topic, which will be turned into a Web site to share with others, ensuring that students learn how to "do" history.