Fostering healthy relationships — both romantic and platonic — is something that counselor education doctoral student Shazia Mirza teaches in the online Couples, Families and Intimate Relationships course. Offered in the fall, spring and summer as part of the human services undergraduate minor in the , the course provides foundational knowledge of the dynamics of families, dating and marriage, how to establish stable and satisfying couples and families, the impact of divorce and couples’ education. Notably, the course challenges students to consider their own relational experiences within the academic content.

“This class is about couples, families and intimate relationships, so the name itself is very attractive — after all, we all have relationships, so why not learn about them in a professional way?” Mirza says. The class includes assignments to help students get to know themselves, assess where they’re at in their relationships, and asks them to look at whether they’re building positive relationships and connections.”

Despite being a mental health services course, it’s a good elective open to any student, Mirza says. No matter a student’s career aspirations, they still have relationships with family, clients and peers that can grow from the deeper introspection and foundational knowledge the class provides.

“This class helps students gain awareness of where they are in life and how they can be successful personally, professionally and academically,” she says. “When we are not fully connected with our relationships, whether it is family, friends or partners, we are not satisfied. It can also help students realize if their relationships are negative and how they can change them.”

Some of the other important skills the course teaches are the primary issues that arise in dating and marital relationships, like decision-making, power and control issues, and how to problem-solve through conflict resolution and effective communication.

One interactive assignment students enjoy is creating a relationship genogram — a family tree specifically about relationships. The fun part, Mirza says, is that they can base it on a fictional family from a television show of their choice.

“Their job is to find a popular show, identify those characters, put those characters in the genogram, and describe their relationships and connections with each other,” Mirza says. “For example, Modern Family is a very popular show with many interesting relationships.”

Although students will have to take the class to learn all the ins and outs of maintaining healthy relationships, Mirza offers one key piece of relationship advice that applies to everyone: be flexible.

“In any relationship — it doesn’t matter if it’s with our parents or romantic partners — flexibility is key,” she says. “Don’t have rigid expectations for how your relationship must be. It’s not compromising because you should still establish boundaries, but being flexible is one important thing we can do to maintain possible connections.”

Program Director: Stephanie Wheeler, associate professor of writing and rhetoric, director of undergraduate studies for the College of Arts and Humanities

Instructor of the Taylor Swift class: Emily Proulx, associate instructor of writing and rhetoric

When is the class offered?
The class themed around Taylor Swift will be offered again in Fall 2024. Topics for future semesters are to be determined. Students may take this course twice with a different topic covered for the each class.

How many students are typically in a class?
40

Prerequisites: Composition II (ENC 1102)

From the Program Director

Stephanie Wheeler

How would you describe this course?
A lot of people have a limited understanding of the “theories of rhetoric” because, frankly, it doesn’t sound interesting. We learn from what we enjoy. So, every semester we offer an engaging topic as a gateway into rhetoric. We’ve themed this class around fantasy football, hip-hop, podcasting and Lady Gaga. People are talking about Taylor Swift and we thought it was time to make space for her. The conversations around her music and her life provide us a great runway to develop better written and oral persuasive skills.

What’s the coursework like?
The discussions might delve into Taylor Swift’s music, videos, interviews and what’s being said about her on social media. She’s at the center of public discourse almost daily — politics, complex issues, even her visibility at football games. By digging into all of it, students learn concepts of rhetoric and how to apply them — and they enjoy it.

Do students need to be Taylor Swift fans?
It isn’t a requirement. Whether you’re a fan or not, you need to be open to different ideas and critiques, and you need to be willing confront uncomfortable truths. One student in my Lady Gaga class a few years ago was not a fan, but he came to understand what he’d been missing in Gaga’s work. He still sends me updates about her.

What should be the key takeaway(s) from the course?
If you want to make positive change in the world, you need to know how to move ideas effectively. You do that by understanding rhetorical strategies and appeals in everyday conversations. The takeaway, then, is being a better communicator.

How can a course like this prepare students for a variety of careers?
I tell students if you’re undecided about a major, give writing and rhetoric a closer look — or use it as part of a double major. Good rhetorical skills lend themselves to any profession. We’ve had graduates go into fields like law, psychology, entrepreneurship, Disney Imagineering, and the Peace Corps. They do well because they’ve learned how to think critically through different angles of messages and also shape their own. Think about it: Writing has a place in all parts of our lives, even our Taylor Swift lives.

From the Student

Emma Drauer, junior, writing and rhetoric major

Did you take this class because of your interest Rhetoric in Pop Culture or because of your interest in Taylor Swift?
It’s a mix for me. As a writing and rhetoric major, I’ve enjoyed learning in unique classes — disability rhetoric and marketing your writing have been among my favorites. But this is the first time I’ve taken a course with such personal appeal. I like Taylor Swift and her music, and because of that the class motivates me to think more deeply about her work, the conversations around her and the relevance in an academic sense.

What has surprised you about the class?
I expected to discuss Taylor’s speeches and interviews, and not her music so much. So, I was surprised when our first assignment focused on the visual rhetoric of her music videos and live performances. We even analyzed how her clothes help tell a story. That was a great way to introduce a few concepts of rhetoric alongside the assigned reading.

Describe a typical day in a rhetoric class that analyzes Taylor Swift.
Our instructor, Emily Proulx, usually starts the day by showing memes to spur thought. The memes summarize what people have posted on social media: “She sings too many songs about her exes” or “I want to watch football instead of Taylor Swift in a luxury box” or “Why did she have to announce her new album at the Grammys?” Comments like that help us recognize the difference between being persuasive and being opinionated.

Tell us a concept you’ve learned.
I’d heard about parasocial relationships, which is basically a one-sided relationship. It’s what we have with public figures. To Taylor Swift’s credit, she writes so authentically that we develop this strong sense of knowing her, when we don’t. People who criticize her are doing the same thing. Either way, the parasocial relationship can immediately weaken any rhetorical appeals.

What has been most challenging about the class?
Keeping my papers academic, with a meaningful thesis. I have to catch myself ranting or from falling into the parasocial mode in my writing. It’s easy to casually refer to “Taylor.” I’m learning to be better about properly citing sources.

Your most important takeaway?
If we want to influence people, then we need to articulate our thoughts carefully. Look at Taylor Swift. Nearly everything she does or says will be criticized by someone. How does she respond? I’m sure she’s mindful of her rhetorical strategies. We can learn a lot from her.

Theme: Monsters and Mad Scientists

Instructor and creator: Stacy DiLiberto, lecturer of in the .

When the class is offered: Every semester

Number of students in a class: Class section sizes have ranged from 45 to 300

Prerequisites: None, HUM 2020 is a part of the cultural and historical foundations requirement within the General Education Program (GEP).

From the Instructor

Stacey DiLiberto,

How would you describe the theme of your course?
The “Monsters and Mad Scientists” theme allows for an interdisciplinary study of the humanities, specifically how science has influenced the humanities and vice versa. We explore these connections by studying various monsters and manifestations of monstrosity throughout world societies.

Since HUM 2020 is an introductory humanities course, we cover various types of humanistic disciplines and cultural productions such as literature, film, art, myth, music and philosophy from various periods in history (ancient to contemporary). Monsters are a great case study for all these approaches since they’ve existed throughout human history in various forms and they often reflect our anxieties about ourselves, the natural world and science.

Describe your thought process behind creating this course. What inspired you to explore both science and the humanities together?
When designing classes, I try to imagine what students might like to learn about. I think about what I would want to learn about if I were a student again now, too! I taught a variation of this course at a previous institution, but it was limited, and I knew that I wanted to expand what I already had into a fully developed class. UCF students seemed like a great audience for what I wanted to do, especially since a majority of them are non-humanities majors.

HUM 2020 is a course that offers a lot of flexibility. I’d say no two courses are the same — my colleagues and I approach it differently, which is great. I thought, “If this is a GEP course (it’s required), there will be reluctant students; students who question, ‘Why do I have to take this, especially if I’m a STEM major?’ How, then, can I best reach those students and maybe, just maybe, show them that the humanities are ‘cool’ and relevant to their studies by making that science-humanities connection?” It’s not either, or: science or humanities. The two are connected.

An interdisciplinary course that centers around monsters seemed to, therefore, become appealing. These are subjects I enjoy and feel comfortable teaching and will give me the ability to draw from all sorts of humanities topics and contemporary culture. Plus, who doesn’t want to talk about monsters?

How can students benefit from this course in their future classes or careers?
The skills that students learn in the humanities — to think critically and creatively, to develop cultural literacy, to build empathy for others and their experiences, to look within and outside of themselves — are skills that are useful in any career. For instance, ethics are an important component to medicine or business, and the humanities can help instill that.

What does the coursework entail and what is unique about it?
In every module, we examine a different type of monster, their purpose and function in history and culture, and we make conclusions on what they represent. We start out with monsters from ancient myth and then move to more “popular” monsters such as Frankenstein’s Creature, vampires (including Dracula), and zombies, to more contemporary monstrous representations like Godzilla and artificial intelligence (AI). As a result, we do somewhat of a historical survey of culture, science and humanity.

Depending on the size of the class, assignments range from traditional tests and quizzes to creative projects and presentations. In all sections, we discuss and write about topics in new and interesting ways.

Why is the theme of this course especially important for today and the future?
By the end of the semester, students realize that monsters are representations of our faults and our anxieties. By the last unit, it’s difficult to distinguish between monsters and humans: we can be monsters, too. So, with that lesson, we end with how NOT to be monstrous: how can we do better and be better? That lesson is important today and in the future.

Variations of the same monsters, like vampires or zombies, feature in cultures across time and space and continue to endure in modern popular culture. What do you think this says about human nature?
We humans are always looking for ways to explain ourselves and the world, and to make sense of it all. Monsters have always helped us do that. We find that monsters reflect our fears and anxieties at any given time. Whether it is monsters such as Frankenstein’s Creature to keep us from going too far with science, or zombies reflecting our loss of individuality and even societal collapse, monsters help us exorcise our fears and find meaning.

Who is your favorite science fiction monster and why?
I like so many monsters for different reasons (hence the class), but I always come back to Frankenstein’s Creature. He is such a sympathetic monster. I love Mary Shelley and her work; it’s one of my all-time favorite books to read and teach, and it’s a core part of the class. I learn something new from it every semester, and I always love when students realize that the Creature is not the grunting hulk of a monster we see in the classic Hollywood film, but a thinking, feeling, misunderstood creation created by an individual whose downfall is hubris. Knowing Shelley’s backstory makes me appreciate him even more.

From a Student

Aniqa Sikder ’22, Ìęhealth sciences alum with a pre-clinical track

Why did you decide to take this course?
I decided to take HUM2020 because as a pre-medical student, I had never gotten the chance to learn about philosophy and ancient history at the college level.

What do you think is the most challenging aspect of the course?
I initially had a difficult time with historical text analysis, but as I progressed through the course, I improved my critical thinking skills and found myself wanting to learn more about the humanities.

What have you enjoyed most about the course?
I really enjoyed learning about monsters and how they can teach us so much about human nature. This interdisciplinary course has allowed me to truly understand the strong relationship between science and the humanities.

Instructor
Luis MartĂ­nez-FernĂĄndez, Pegasus Professor of history and member of the

When is it offered?
Spring, summer and fall semesters

How many students are in a class?
About 35

Prerequisites
EUH 2000 and EUH 2001

From the Professor

How would you describe this course?
This course is a multidisciplinary introduction to the historical trajectory of the Caribbean. The word multidisciplinary is key because even though it is a history course we read works from literature, anthropology and other fields.

For example, many people have a perception of the Caribbean as an island paradise, beaches and rum. So when I start the course I show students a video from the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority and it presents a perfect view of everything. Then I ask them to read A Small Place by Jamaica Kinkaid and they get a completely different view of Antigua, where the legacy of slavery and colonialism is still pretty much alive.

The course begins with the pre-Columbian era and ends with the present and it covers topics such as the Amerindian societies, European colonialism, the struggle for freedom and nationhood. More contemporary topics such as U.S. expansionism, dictatorships, revolution and challenges to socio-economic development are also discussed.

Why should students take this course?
I start this course talking about why the Caribbean matters. If you measure the areas of the various islands and continental components of the Caribbean it’s not enormous, but this is a [region] where so many first events happened that relate to modernity.

Slavery goes back to antiquity, but in the Caribbean, there was a new form of slavery that was closely related to race, particularly Africans. We also see the beginnings of modern colonialism. Some of the islands, Puerto Rico and maybe a couple more are still colonies. That’s where we find the development of the plantation system, things that were later repeated in the colonies of the U.S. South. So for being a relatively small area of the world it has played a significant role in what we call globalization, colonialism, the exchange of staple products and modern slavery.

This course is part of the Africana Studies program. How does African history and culture relate to what is taught in this course?
The Caribbean is not monolithic, but every island has been touched to some level by the experiences of slavery, resistance, and emancipation and we study common experiences, for example, the slave trade. I like to teach cultural history, so we see the impact of West African culture is still alive in the islands. Haiti is the biggest example of that kind of influence. Haiti can be seen as an African country that was chipped off the coast of Africa and moved to the Caribbean because it has a much stronger African influence. An island like Puerto Rico has that influence but to a smaller level.

What do you hope students learn?
I have three major objectives. The first, that students learn about the developments and the very rich history and cultures of the Caribbean. The second is to learn the historiography of the Caribbean. That means they don’t just learn what happened [through readings] but they also study the people who wrote about it and therefore understand [what they’ve read] is a particular individual’s point of view and they need to be critical of those sources. And the last one is they learn skills that they will use later in life, whether they pursue a career in history or not. For example, reflective reading, not just reading to get done with the reading but actually think in-depth about it, and the ability to put together ideas and arguments in written form.

What does the coursework entail?
There are several course readings and class discussions. Every student also needs to make an oral presentation on some subject related to the Caribbean. They also need to identify a primary document about the Caribbean and analyze it. There are two essay exams, I’m a strong believer in essay questions. Lastly, there is a final discussion paper that’s about 5-6 pages where students must select one writing from the course and they need to connect it and contrast it with another writing they find on their own. Over the years, students have come up with some very creative selections and sources, such as songs sung by slaves in Jamaica.

From the Student

Janine Galindo, public history master’s student

Why did you take this course?
I’ve always been into history, but specifically public history because I think that the main point of knowing history is to teach it to others. It’s really important for people in general to understand history, where we come from, where we are now and where we are going.

I want to become a museum curator and Caribbean history is one of my areas of interest. I’m interested on Caribbean history because my family is from Puerto Rico and I feel like the Caribbean is kind of marginalized. Many people [in the U.S.] don’t really know much about it even though it’s right there next to the U.S. They have a lot of strong ties historically, so I really wanted to know more.

What did you enjoy most about the course?
I liked the readings and learning about the many close ties between the United States and the Caribbean. They have a lot of shared history and it was really interesting to read more about that. But I really liked an assignment we had that required us to look at a painting, analyze its symbolism and elements, and write about it. We wrote about our feelings, contextualized the painting, and applied it to historical events and culture.

What was the most challenging aspect of the course?
I earned a bachelor’s degree in animation at another university in 2008. So getting used to being a student again — especially in 2020 — was my biggest challenge. Not only are things done differently now because of COVID, just getting use to digital learning and meeting on Zoom. It was a little difficult, but once I got the hang of it, it was fine.

What were some of the lessons you took away from this course?
There was a god named Ogun from the Yoruba culture in West Africa and he, like many other gods and goddesses from that region, were transferred over to the Caribbean and transformed in a way that slaves could still worship them under the guise of Catholicism. To this day there are celebrations, rituals and paintings in his honor.

The process these African gods underwent is called syncretism,Ìęwhich is the blending of certain characteristics of different cultures to create something new — in this case, Santeria and Voodoo.Ìę It was interesting to see how African slaves living in the Caribbean had to be creative so they could hold onto certain aspects of their culture.

As someone whose family is from the Caribbean, having a country of origin that is a tiny island feels pretty insignificant compared to someone from France, Scotland or [other European countries]. Being in this class made me realize that not only is Caribbean culture very rich, but it does have an impact and significance to the world even to this day.

SOW4343: Macro Level Roles and Interventions in Social Work

Faculty
Susanny Beltran, an assistant professor in UCF’s

When is it offered?
Summer and fall

Prerequisites
SOW 3300ÌęPractice I: Generalist PracticeÌęandÌęSOW 3352ÌęPractice II: Interpersonal Skills

From the Professor

There are 27.6 million victims worldwide at any given time. — U.S. Department of State

Why should a student take this class?
This class is all about action. The entire course centers around creating change at the macro level, whether it be at the organizational, community, or policy level. Students are often eager to get out in the “real world” and have an impact, especially after several semesters of learning to assess problems and apply theories to inform their practice. They get an opportunity to partner with a community group or organization and apply all the skills they’ve learned. This includes interpersonal skills, assessment skills and planning and implementing of interventions. They find it rewarding to see the impact their projects have.

What does the coursework entail?
This course has a service-learning designation and as such, a main component involves partnering with an agency to develop and implement a macro-level intervention to support their needs. Students have worked with mental health organizations, high school sports teams, and support groups, where they help to develop training programs, write grants, fundraise, and more.

“Students are often eager to get out in the ‘real world’ and have an impact, especially after several semesters of learning to assess problems and apply theories to inform their practice.” — Susanny Beltran, UCF faculty

What role do social workers play in helping survivors of human trafficking?
Social workers are involved in supporting survivors of human trafficking in a variety of ways. They are often in the frontlines providing support for survivors interacting with systems such as healthcare and law enforcement. They are also involved in providing trauma-informed care, coordinating medical services, and helping survivors access resources to rebuild their lives. At a macro level, social workers work with populations to provide education, raise awareness and develop programming to both prevent human trafficking as well as build capacity for supporting survivors. More broadly, social workers are involved in policy help to impact the systems that contribute to human trafficking.

What do you hope students will learn?
I hope students learn the importance of engaging in the sanctioning process, regardless of the nature of their social work practice (micro, mezzo, macro). All social workers are called to engage in supporting and there are many big and small ways to make a difference.

From the Student

Daniel Tiongco, a senior studying social work

Why did you take this course?
We usually look at the micro side of social work — how does this impact the person? But in Dr. Beltran’s class we were able to study the macro part of social work, where we understand that the community and society have a lasting impact on the individual’s life. I was interested in seeing how social workers can impact an individual’s life on a broader scale.

What did you like most about the course?
Our service project where we donated backpacks with supplies to survivors of human trafficking helped me see how we can make a difference firsthand. When they receive a backpack and our support they have hope to start school again and start their life toward the person they want to be: a survivor.

“It’s surprising to learn how human trafficking doesn’t happen on a micro level, but it’s a community issue. I learned that Waterford Lakes is a prime location for human trafficking.” — Daniel Tiongco, UCF student

What is the most interesting thing you learned?
It’s surprising to learn how human trafficking doesn’t happen on a micro level, but it’s a community issue. I learned that Waterford Lakes, (which is located near main campus) is a prime location for human trafficking. For example, there’s a residual effect of what we post on social media — our geotags specifically, can unknowingly make us vulnerable to traffickers. It’s closer to home than we think.

What was the most challenging aspect?
Our service project was completed as a group so coordinating everyone’s schedule may have been the most challenging aspect. Beyond that, understanding that as we learn, each social work student has their own application of the methods, so collaborating with everyone to meet the client’s needs was the most important.

Course description: Examines history and growth of Hispanics/Latinos in U.S. media, including early depictions in media and current landscape of Spanish and English Hispanic/Latino media.

Instructor:ÌęKatidia “Katie” Coronado, Nicholson School of Communication and Media associate instructor

When is this course offered?:ÌęThis class is typically offered in the fall

How many students are typically in a class?: About 80 students

Are there any prerequisites for this course?: Must be an undergraduate students who has taken SPC 1608 (Fundamentals of OralÌęCommunication) SPC 1603C (Fundamentals of Technical Presentations), COM 1000 (Introduction to Communication), or C.I.

How would you describe this course in one sentence?
A unique class that gives students an opportunity to learn about Hispanics and LatinX contributions in media in the United States.

Why should students take this course?
Students will learn about communities that are typically underserved and how media impacts and has impacted them.

What are three major things students learn in this course?
They will learn about the impact of Hispanics/LatinX professionals in media. One professional is Cuban singer, Celia Cruz, migrated from Cuba because of the communist regime. She was one of the most recognized artists in Spanish language music. She is known internationally, and her work remains a legacy in the U.S. and beyond. Also, news anchor Ilia Calderon, the first Afro Latina to anchor a [major U.S.] network newscast in Spanish is featured in [the textbook for the course Latinx Voices: Hispanics in Media in the U.S.]. Another example is Hollywood actor, John Leguizamo, who wrote the foreword and expressed his support for this type of coursework at a university level.

[Students will also] learn about industry research from respected academics and experts and how they can use this information proactively when they graduate.

What do you hope stays with students after they have completed this course?
I hope students can make informed decisions about the media industry based on what they learn in the class, whether they choose careers in management, on-air or behind the scenes.

UCF physics Professor Humberto Campins is part of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which aims to bring back to Earth a sample from asteroid Bennu, which is between Mars and Jupiter. The near-earth asteroid could pose a hazard to the planet sometime in the future, but because of its location may hold clues about how the solar system formed. The attempt to recover a sample from an asteroid is a first for NASA.

The mission is being led by the șŁœÇֱȄ of Arizona in Tucson. The spacecraft is expected to perform the “touch and go” maneuver to collect a sample in October. It’s the climax of a mission 10 years in the making.

Campins, an international expert on asteroids, is part of the imaging team and he temporarily relocated to Tucson to avoid travel back and forth from Florida during the pandemic. He didn’t want to risk getting sick and missing the big moment. Then he had an idea: ÌęHis move could give students an amazing opportunity to not only hear about concepts and absorb book knowledge, but to get a first-hand look at science in action.

“Because I can teach remotely [during the pandemic], it provided me a golden opportunity for my students to live a NASA mission with me,” says Campins, who is leading the Comets, Asteroids and Meteorites class.

Campins kicked off the semester Tuesday via Zoom with a lecture that began with a single slide. It had the phrase “Welcome to an Unusual Semester” on it. The word “unusual” was crossed out. On the next line it said “Welcome to a Unique Semester,” but “unique” was crossed out. On the final line it said “Welcome to a Historic Semester.”

“This is a historic time in so many ways,” Campins says. “There’s a lot of loss, but there are also moments of opportunity. This is the most exciting time of my career. Nature is surprising us and there is excitement in that. I want to share that with my students and there’s no better way than doing it right from where it is happening.”

Campins promises that his students will get to hear about the mission in real time and he plans to provide a tour of the facility, which is not open to the public. The students will also get to hear about how scientists collaborate, argue and resolve disagreements.

“They’ll get to hear about it all,” he says.

The students will also have to keep up. Aside from OSIRIS-REx, Japan’s Hayabusa2 is on its way back from asteroid Ryugu with a sample. Ryugu is located between Earth and Mars and the Japanese Space Agency mission collected the sample in 2019. The information expected from those missions and the data already collected from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko should keep the students busy. This will all be part of class discussions.

The OSIRIS-REx mission has already made news. Several peer-reviewed papers in the journals Nature and Science have been published based on observations made getting to Bennu.

“There are a few more surprises we’ll be sharing very soon,” Campins said. “And we’ll have to see what else we find when we actually complete the mission. My students are going to be among the first who will get to digest and discuss what we are publishing. For scientists, it doesn’t get better than this and I hope my students get a taste for it and continue to pursue it.”

Fifty years later, anniversary celebrations, films, music and books about Woodstock demonstrate that the spirit of the festival is alive and flourishing.ÌęGeorge Weremchuk, a saxophonist and associate professor of music in the School of Performing Arts, teaches UCF’s popular “Survey of Rock Music” course, which includes Woodstock in its curriculum.

“The festival came at a time when the young people of America needed that musical outlet,” he says.

How did he become such an expert? “I’m a fan of the music,” Weremchuk says with a smile.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Weremchuk says. “They try to duplicate it, and you just can’t fabricate it. Everything just kind of came into balance.” The location was ideal, the lineup was incredible and it was strikingly peaceful for such a massively attended event.

Although plans for an official three-day anniversary concert this month have been cancelled, you can embrace the spirit of Woodstock this week alongside the global community with these little-known facts about the festival from Weremchuk.

1. Though the festival was named for the town of Woodstock, New York, it actually took place on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, 60 miles southeast of Woodstock.

The festival had a couple different names: Bethel Rock Festival, the Aquarian Music Festival, but the name Woodstock came from the town of Woodstock, New York, where there was a community of artists and musicians who lived there—artists like Bob Dylan. “Two of the organizers of the event had the idea of opening a recording studio in Woodstock,” Weremchuk says, “so the first idea was to have a concert to help fundraise for this recording studio.”

The site where the festival was held, a dairy farm belonging to Max Yasgur, was the organizers’ fourth attempt at a venue: they had struck out in Woodstock, Saugerties and Wallkill before finally finding their location in Bethel.

2. At the time, Woodstock was the largest outdoor music festival, and it’s still one of the largest music festivals in the world to date.

Especially in an age without digital communication, it was a miraculous feat to gather that many people from all over the world and to accomplish such a crowd. Organizers posted advertisements in free press and newspapers all over the country, along with a few in a little magazine called Rolling Stone, then only two years old. It was listed as $7 a day for admission.

“The fact that everything aligned so perfectly and the festival actually happened is a miracle.” — George Weremchuk, associate professor of music

“They thought maybe 150,000 people, 50,000 a day. They had no idea how many people would come,” Weremchuk says. “During that weekend of the festival, it actually became the second or third largest city in New York.” The small rural area didn’t have the infrastructure to support 400,000 people. “The locals didn’t want hippies there,” he says. “There had already been festivals in previous years and the locals didn’t want that many people invading their little bucolic towns.” Due to this pushback, organizers barely obtained permits by Aug. 2. “The fact that everything aligned so perfectly and the festival actually happened is a miracle.”

3. Before plans for Woodstock took shape, two of the event organizers had placed an ad in the Wall Street Journal that read: “Young Men with Unlimited Capitol Looking for Interesting and Legitimate Ideas.”

Several events in the late 1960s served as a catalyst for the festival’s massive draw, such as America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. “Many of the people who attended the festival were against the war and protested it,” Weremchuk says. The Civil Rights Movement was also heavy in the minds of people that age. “The two people who could have changed things were assassinated: Martin Luther King Jr., and a few months later, Robert Kennedy,” Weremchuk adds. Young people became disillusioned with government and what they thought America stood for, and a counterculture evolved. “Some attendees felt they were the only people in their town that believed what they believed in and looked the way they did, and all of a sudden, you have hundreds of thousands of like-minded people together and there was a community that many of these people didn’t know existed.”

4. Woodstock was scheduled to end in the evening of Sunday,ÌęAug. 18, but due to rainy conditions, it concluded on the following morning, with Jimi Hendrix playing the last set at 9 am.

Although Jimi Hendrix had become popular before Woodstock, his rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner was his breakout performance. “People who heard it were dismayed and thought he was unpatriotic, this American who had served in the Army. They didn’t realize the sounds and feedback he could create with his guitar evoked the sounds of bombs exploding and machine-gun fire.” The festival was a starting point for many of the bands, like Santana; Sly and Family Stone; and Crosby, Stills and Nash. “Many of these bands were from San Francisco and didn’t have any exposure anywhere else, and they went on to become internationally recognized and established.”

5. Even with such a large audience, event organizers lost more than $1 million hosting the festival.

Because the organizers ran out of time, the builders had to triage between building necessities like ticket booths, fencing or the stage. “They couldn’t get the fences built in time to be able to charge admission,” Weremchuk comments. “There were already tens of thousands of people there a few days before the start of the festival. Some people had paid for tickets in their hometowns, but the vast majority just showed up and walked in.”

Weremchuk was invited to present on the by the Orange County Library System. Join him to learn more about the history of the festival at the downtown branch of the Orlando Public LibraryÌęon Thursday, Aug. 15, at 6:30 p.m. in the Albertson Room. Registration is encouraged.

If you are interested in the course “Survey of Rock Music” enrollment is still open for the fall semester. Learn more about the courses and other music electives on the .

INR 4404 – Space Law

Description

A look at how rules and laws regarding outer space pertain to nations, corporations and individuals — and who should be making and enforcing them.

Instructor

When is it offered?

Usually once a year

How many students in a class?

20-30

Prerequisites

Junior standing

From the Professor

Why is studying space law important?

In the early years, there wasn’t a whole lot of general interest in the area because only nation-states were doing space exploration. Now with the commercialization of space, who can participate in and impact the solar system is rapidly changing. NASA is relegating some of the more operational side of things to companies like United Launch Alliance and SpaceX while the space agency returns to its original mission, which is research. So there’s much more interest now and need for a wider audience examining space law.

Why do you enjoy teaching this course?

It’s an area for students that is different. With Star Wars, Star Trek and CGI, there’s an interest in space. I wanted to introduce students to this new area of law, rather than the traditional ones.

How did laws for outer space first come about?

Any time that you have nation-states that are interacting in something, there have to be some sort of rules of the road, some sort of ground rules for those interactions. Once Russia launched Sputnik in 1957, the United Nations decided to form the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which still exists. The first thing that we did then was set up the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, which remains the cornerstone of human activity in outer space. For example, the treaty bans the placement of weapons of mass destruction in space or on any celestial body and seeks to promote peacefulness in outer space, among other things.

How could the announcement of the United States Space Force as a sixth branch of the military affect space law?

I should think that one might simply use the analogy of armed forces that we have for other areas like air, sea, landÌę— space would be another one of them. And the question then would become, “Do we want to try to be proactive and create regulations governing what would happen out there before they actually happened?” or “Are we going to see what happens and then write regulations in the aftermath of that?” We do have some articles in the Outer Space Treaty that tell us to some aspect that outer space is demilitarized. It’s certainly denuclearized. To what extent then do we now have to go in and clarify all that with the actual existence of a Space Force? In one sense, we’ve thought about a Space Force for a long time, but it was theoretical. Now, we may seriously need to address this.

What do you think is the No. 1 legal problem stemming from human activity in space?

I think it’s changing. In the early days, one of the major areas from a legal perspective was looking at the availability of, or the allocation of, slots in the geostationary orbit because that is a very limited resource. Now, where we privatized and commercialized much more of the activities in space, the legal issues are going to revolve more around things like ownership: Who has a right to extract minerals from the moon or from other celestial bodies? From asteroids? We still don’t know where some entities end and the other begins, like airspace, which nation-states own, and outer space, which belongs to everybody. So that’s a brave new world of law that we’re going to have to deal with, which is radically different from what it was historically.

From the Student

-Madison Redington, political science major with a concentration in international relations

What prompted you to take this course?

I took this course in Fall 2018 because I really liked the professor. I also don’t really know much about space other than the scientific aspect of it, and I was interested to learn more about the legal aspect. It’s such a different concept and a totally different world up there so it’s interesting.

What did you like the most about the class?

It gave me a new perspective of what exactly space is and all the opportunities out there. So I definitely learned a lot of really fascinating concepts of how we are applying rules and laws that we apply on Earth and how we’re extending those to space and space shuttles, which I never thought about. I never thought about people committing crimes at the International Space Station and who has the jurisdiction over that.

What was challenging about the class?

I’d probably say the workload as far as the amount of reading alone we had to do. We were reading law review articles, so it was definitely really dense reading. Because space and technology are advancing faster than the legal field, there are a lot of gaps you have to deal with when learning about it. You’re kind of trying to put pieces of a puzzle together.

What’s something you learned that stood out?

I’d have to say learning about the different ways that we impact the environment. I’ll never forget learning about how something so tiny as the paint chips off of a satellite or rocket turns into space debris. A millimeter of something can completely destroy something up there because everything goes so fast.

Space Law isn’t currently being offered, but you can register for the course in the Fall 2019 semester.ÌęÌę

HFT 4866C – Exploring Wines of the World

Description

Discover how to use your senses to taste and evaluate wines, while learning about the growing, processing, and production of grape varieties used in making wine.

When is it offered?
Fall, spring and summer semesters.

How many students are in a class?
50 max

Prerequisites
HFT 1000Ìę— Introduction to the Hospitality and Tourism Industry (may be waived with instructor consent)

Minimum age of 21 by first day of class

$70 lab fee

Instructor

Robin Back, David Black or Frank Juge

From the Professor

Why offer an entire class dedicated to wine?

I grew up in a wine-producing family in South Africa. My family has been making wine for four generations. I grew up with wine in my blood, both literally and figuratively. I used to do a lot of wine trainings and seminars, and for a time I taught wine schools at Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival. I really enjoyed the educational side of my work, and I saw teaching wine courses as a huge opportunity. It really can be a useful life skill.

What’s very gratifying to me is that I usually start each semester with 50 wine novices sitting in front of me and by the end of semester, I have 50 wine geeks who can pick up a glass of wine and taste it and evaluate it using the correct terminology to describe it. A number of them go on to take the first level of the Court of Master Sommeliers (wine expert and qualified taster) exam. This course prepares them very well for that.

What should students expect to learn?

The curriculum is meant to teach students about how wine is made, where it’s made and what makes one bottle of wine taste different to another based on where it’s grown, which grape varieties are used and the wine-making technique. They also learn how to successfully pair wine with food and what happens when you get those pairings wrong.

I asked a business student once, why are you taking this course? And he said, “I’m taking this because I intend to be very successful in business. If I’m going to be successful, I’m going to have to entertain clients, probably at high-end restaurants. I want to be able to sit down, pick up a wine list, read it intelligently, understand what I’m reading and know which wines to order to go with the food that my guests are ordering because I think that’s going to impress people.” I thought this was a really great answer.

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What makes a good wine?

That’s the first question I ask my students at the start of every semester. I always get blank stares before I tell them, “The answer is very easy: if you like it, it’s a good wine. If you don’t like it, it’s not.”

I always use food as an analogy. We may go to the restaurant and order the same dish. I love it; you hate it. It’s the same dish, the same ingredients, but there may be ingredients in there that one of us likes and the other doesn’t. It doesn’t make it good or bad — it’s just about different tastes.

What makes each wine region special?

It’s what we call “terroir” in wine speak, which is a French term but there is no English equivalent. It basically means the “somewhere-ness” of a particular vineyard site. What do I mean by somewhere-ness? It’s the type of soil, the amount of sunshine that it gets, the slope of the land, any shadows from mountains, the amount of rainfall, the amount of wind — all of these factors come together to make every growing site unique.

Red wine should be stored at room temperature, right?

All wine should be stored at around 55 degrees. For drinking purposes, we want our white wines at around 45 degrees and our red wines at around 65. We don’t want them ice cold, as if they’re in a refrigerator. I have this battle at restaurants in Florida all the time where I order red wine and it’s warm. I ask for an ice bucket and they look at me like, don’t you know that you don’t chill red wine? Yes, but room temperature doesn’t mean that it should be warm.

Cork or screw cap — Is one top better than the other?

It really depends on the wine.

New Zealand was the first country to start using screw caps for quality wines that are not usually aged. It’s not just any old screw cap, like you would find on a bottle of Coca Cola. It’s a screw cap specially developed for wine with a little rubber seal that works to keep the wine fresh. Most wines these days are not meant to be aged for 10, 20, 30 years. We’re often going to go to the grocery store to buy a bottle of relatively inexpensive wine to have with dinner tonight. The screw cap is going to give you the taste that the winemaker intended.

On the other side of the coin, you do have wines that you want to age for a while. One of the problems with the screw cap is it can act almost like a time capsule. The wine doesn’t develop as quickly as you may like it to develop. A cork will allow microscopic amounts of air in and allow the wine to develop and age. I believe cork is still the best and most appropriate closure for wines that you want to develop in the bottle, although there will be those who disagree with me on this.

What I thoroughly dislike are those plastic “corks” that you sometimes get on inexpensive wines. Plastic doesn’t expand and contract at the same rate as glass and cork does. You often end up with an oxidized wine because as the bottle expands, the plastic closure doesn’t. It lets air in, and you have a spoiled wine.

What is the proper drinking technique?

When you taste wine, you never fill the glass because you want to be able to swirl it to get some air into the wine to release the aromas.You want a large enough glass that a normal size pour is only going fill a quarter to a third of the glass to enable you to swirl it without spilling it.

You want the opening to be large enough that when you take a sip, you’re sticking your nose into the glass so you can smell it because most of what we taste is linked to our sense of smell. You should hold it by the stem so you don’t warm up the wine with your hand, unless you want to heat it up, such as in the case of a red wine that is too cold.

Go-to bottle of wine?

Although I don’t have a favorite wine, if I was stuck on a desert island and I could only take one wine with me, it would be a Pinot Noir. In all probability, one from either Burgundy in France or Oregon, which are the two parts of the world where they make my favorite Pinot Noirs. Why Pinot Noir? It’s delicious. It has complexity. It has a lot of flavor. But it’s also a fairly light-bodied red wine. It’s going to go with your richer dishes and your lighter dishes. It’s very versatile.

What sets UCF’s courses apart from other colleges?

We teach our students about hospitality in a hospitality environment. When you arrive on the Rosen campus, it doesn’t feel like you’re at a college. It feels like you’re at a resort, and that’s intentional.

The size and scale allow us to have a much broader offering of courses. We’re so fortunate to have this amazing beverage lab. Most colleges would just use a classroom of some kind, but this room is dedicated to our beverage courses. We have a climate-controlled wine cellar. We have a walk-in refrigerator and storage for our spirits. We have a dishwasher and use real, proper-size wine glasses rather than plastic in order to give our students the best experience possible.

From the Student Perspective

-Pretima Persaud, senior

Why did you enroll in this course?

Right now, I work at a hotel. They have a lot of events, whether it’s corporate or weddings or family events, and they do a lot with food and beverage. You need to know what’s going on with the menu because food and wine is the biggest part of your event. I’m also taking the Fine Spirits Management course this semester. That way, when I’m speaking to clients, they know I have knowledge of the subject.

Most challenging part of the class?

The tasting part is iffy. You smell it first, and he asks your opinion. I’ve never really had wine or tasted it or smelled it before, so to me, everything smells the same, tastes the same. I can’t distinguish just quite yet. We’ve just done white wines so far. Maybe when we start red wines I’ll be able to tell a bit more.

What’s been the most useful lesson so far?

We’ve already worked on how to open a bottle professionally at a restaurant. I was a hot mess. Before we attempted, we watched videos and he also demonstrated for us — it made it look so easy. But when you’re doing it yourself, you have to hold the bottle up, which is a little heavy, and then getting the cork out is a situation. You have to really practice to get it in a real setting like a restaurant when you’re in front of people and it’s more nerve-racking.

Part of the class you enjoy the most?

I like that we get the tasting, rather than just reading our text book and coming to class and listening to the lecture. We get real-life experience. And it’s not just local wines. It’s wines from around the world. It’s a great opportunity to get a well-rounded education.

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Registration for HFT 4866C – Exploring Wines of the World is closed for Fall 2018 semester, but four sessions of the course are expected to be offered on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Spring 2019.

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