Ball State lets students swap traditional classes for #MeToo immersion
Ball State University will offer a 15-credit hour class during the fall 2019 semester, titled “Rape Culture in the Age of #MeToo,” which students can then substitute for similar courses they need to graduate.
The course, which is being offered through the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry, is titled “Rape Culture in the Age of #MeToo.” The course will be taught by English Professor Jill Christman and coursework will consist of two main components. Christman told Campus Reform Tuesday that the types of courses students are able to substitute with the #MeToo course vary.
For example, a student may choose to fill all of their required electives with the 15 credit hours, or an English major may choose to swap out an essay writing course. Other students, for example, such as accounting majors, may have fewer choices when it comes to the #MeToo course, since, “we’re not going to be doing any accounting,” according to Christman.
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What students will do, according to the course description, is “collect stories of rape culture on campus in order to produce a pilot podcast that synthesizes and contextualizes these narratives.” Students will also “create a report of their findings for presentation at the 2020 Midwest Safety Summit, and produce a set of stories that will be archived and made available on their community partner’s website.”
Students taking the class will receive 15 semester credit hours for their work. The Ball State English Department confirmed to Campus Reform that these credits can act as substitutes for similar required courses for graduation. Christman told the Ball State Daily that students can expect to spend 40 hours per week working on the class.
Ball State charges a flat rate of tuition for students taking between 12 and 18 credit hours a semester. According to the university’s tuition and fee breakdown for the 2018-19 school year, the in-state rate for the 15-credit hour class would be $3,945 and the out-of-state rate would be $12,231.
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The course will be partnering with two non-profits to produce and present work. The Facing Project is a nonprofit dedicated to “creating a more understanding and empathetic world through stories that inspire action.” The course’s other partner, Jana’s Campaign, is “a national education and violence prevention organization with the single mission of reducing gender and relationship violence.” Jana’s Campaign has also selected Ball State University to be the site of its 2019 Midwest Campus Safety Summit in September 2019.
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