Dr. Thill learns that a “Special Topics” course cannot be repeated for credit, several months after setting the summer schedule.

As any student of Classical Studies will tell you, sometimes the gods mess with you, just for laughs. At IUPUI, one of the most important gods is Complexity, God of Course Registration. Unfortunately, we in CLAS somehow offended that god. We scheduled two sequential sections of CLAS-C 491 Special Topics this summer, thinking this would allow students the opportunity to study two Special Topics. But behold: Complexity did decree that an IUPUI student shall enroll in only one section numbered CLAS-C 491, and not one C491 section more.

The IU registration system at work.

We have decided to take a Roman approach to this problem: when the gods close a door, use your iron-studded boot to bust out a window. We used our Liberal Arts Critical Thinking Skills and reasoned that if the registration system is too stupid to recognize whether two classes are actually identical, or just using the same number, then we can turn that to our advantage. And so now both summer sections of CLAS-C 491 have their own alternative numbers, just for this purpose.

Want to take CLAS-C 491 The Black Plague in Summer I and CLAS-C 491 Silent Voices: Sex and Gender in the Roman World in Summer II? Just enroll in one or both classes by their alternate numbers (listed below). It will make no difference to your experience, and either number for a course will count towards your minor(s). Just make sure to hang up plenty of penis-shaped wind-chimes to avert the gods’ wrath (also a Roman thing).