Yankee Stadium Course Being Taught at Rutgers... NICE!

From The New York Times:

Typical first-year courses at Rutgers University include biology, calculus, English literature, history and economics. But 20 freshmen — 19 of them Yankees fans — are enrolled in a research seminar called Yankee Stadium.

Mike Glitch of Millstone, N.J., who is leaning toward a major in journalism, or perhaps music education, is on the roster for the 10-week fall course, which examines themes and issues related to the House That Ruth Built.

“Studying the Stadium is more than knowing Paul O’Neill’s batting average in 1998,” Glitch, 18, said. “The stadium has diverse effects on different walks of life, and it’s interesting to study how one building could spawn all that it has.”

Topics of research include the hero in American culture, the pluses and minuses of urban development, and the relationship between public finance and private enterprise.

Theresa M. Collins, a history professor at Rutgers for 17 years, teaches the one-credit course at the Livingston campus in Piscataway, N.J. With 220 applicants, she said, Yankee Stadium was the most requested first-year research seminar this fall.

“The purpose of this course is to open up the minds of these students to the joys of research, especially in places you wouldn’t normally think of it — like Yankee Stadium,” she said. “We often discuss the potential for certain research projects related to the Stadium, which allows the students an opportunity to maximize their sense of learning in this field.”

Wow, what a great class. As part of the course they took a tour of Yankee Stadium in September. It also stated in the article that the would be taught again next September.