Creative, exciting, distinctive: CentreTerm is here!

RELEASED: January 3, 2008

DANVILLE, KY—When many students at other colleges are dragging themselves back to the same old coursework after the fall semester, Centre students are getting ready to travel to Turkey or Australia or to take fascinating courses in topics ranging from "Literary New Orleans" to "Mathematical Impossibilities," to "Myth and Science Fiction" to "Lincoln: A Political Study."

Creative topics, independent research, off-campus programs and internships are the rule, not the exception, for CentreTerm (the College's distinctive, three-week January term). The locations for off-campus study and the courses offered change from year-to-year depending on the interests of students and faculty. Among a number of options, this year's off-campus sites will allow students to explore:

• "Cultural History of Central Europe" in Germany

• "Religion and Politics" in India

• "Fusion of Cultures" in Spain

• "Natural History of the Eastern Caribbean" in Puerto Rico

• "Law and Economics: American Colonialism" in Hawaii

Centre is unusual among colleges with its 4-1-4 structured academic year. Students take four classes in the fall and four classes in the spring. In between, they participate in CentreTerm, three weeks of total immersion into fascinating, interdisciplinary subjects. Students take one class with a professor who is teaching only one class. This intensive short term allows students and professors the opportunity to get to know one another even better.

During CentreTerm, all first-year students take a freshman studies course designed to provide a small-group learning environment that engages students and faculty in an intensive intellectual experience and fosters basic educational skills—how to read critically, think logically and communicate effectively.

The CentreTerm experience has brought a great deal of attention to the College. For example, Assistant Professor of Religion David Hall's "Basketball as Religion" drew widespread notice, being featured on National Public Radio and as a nationally syndicated Associated Press story. Stodghill Professor of Modern Languages Ken Keffer's class "The Art of Walking" was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education and was named one of the top-10 unusual college courses in Microsoft's Encarta online encyclopedia. National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Sociology Beau Weston's "Cafes and Public Life" was the subject of international interest, appearing in publications in virtually every corner of the globe, with a combined circulation of more than eight million. ("The Art of Walking" will be taught again this CentreTerm.)

For more information on CentreTerm, check out Centre's Web site all through January for special features on classes, internships and off-campus study. Also, for course descriptions of this year's CentreTerm classes, click here.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.