Did You Know...

**Written by Doug Powers

New York University is no longer the only school offering OWS classes. The notion of competition seems so… capitalist… but there it is nonetheless:

Columbia University is offering a new course on Occupy Wall Street next semester — sending upperclassmen and grad students into the field for full course credit.

The class is taught by Dr. Hannah Appel, who boasts about her nights camped out in Zuccotti Park.

As many as 30 students will be expected to get involved in ongoing OWS projects outside the classroom, the syllabus says.

The class will be in the anthropology department and called “Occupy the Field: Global Finance, Inequality, Social Movement.” It will be divided between seminars at the Morningside Heights campus and fieldwork.

On her blog, Appel defends OWS, arguing that “it is important to push back against the rhetoric of ‘disorganization’ or ‘a movement without a message’ coming from left, right and center.”

The course syllabus is here (PDF). Graduate thesis topic: A Brief History of Up Twinkles and Down Twinkles.

Hopefully the course also includes extra credit for an optional essay on the irony of going further into debt borrowing money to pay for a class that teaches students how to most effectively protest student loan debt. Or should we assume the class will be dramatically discounted from Columbia’s usual rates to avoid any hypocritical clash between Occupy Wall Street’s student loan philosophy and what Columbia charges to attend?

Update: Just got this Tweet wondering aloud how one would go about protesting the class. I’d suggest occupying the classroom.

(h/t Gothamist and Big Government)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe