A Touch of Class
It’s difficult to complain about the variety of Georgetown’s course selection. The university has offered a fair share of oddball classes over the years, including Witches and Witchcraft, Knights of Old & Harry Potter and Sexing the Past, among many others.
But Georgetown does lack one popular course that Ivy Leaguers in Ithaca, N.Y., enjoy every semester. It’s called Introduction to Wines, and it’s offered to all undergraduates by Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. Enrolled students — over 700 each term — taste and learn about wines from around the world. In the past, wine tasting courses have been offered for credit at the University of California, Berkeley and as part of a “senior minicourse” series at Princeton University.
We admit that the average Georgetown student doesn’t need a class to learn how to drink, but we nevertheless urge the university to create a wine tasting course similar to Cornell’s. Such a class could teach students how to approach wine in restaurants and retail stores, how to pair wines with particular meals and how to shop for wine intelligently. It would almost certainly attract a large number of students, and would likely promote further interest in cultural studies. The university prides itself on educating the “whole person” — doesn’t that include taste buds?
Cautious administrators want to encourage students to drink responsibly and to behave appropriately. A fun, interactive wine-tasting course could promote both objectives far more effectively than the tedious, out-of-touch AlcoholEdu.
The logistics of this idea aren’t particularly daunting. A wine-tasting class would fit naturally into the College or even into the School of Foreign Service as a one-credit pass/fail elective. Costs would be manageable if students were charged a small lab fee, as they are in many science courses. The drinking-age problem could be avoided by restricting enrollment to students of suitable age — though Georgetown could try to acquire a special dispensation from D.C. authorities for younger students.
Some will dismiss this plan as another attempt to justify or even embolden student drinking. This misses the point. We support responsible student drinking, but that means educating students on the benefits and hazards of alcohol effectively. AlcoholEdu may supply accurate information, but most students view it as a burden, not as an opportunity to learn. Non-stop bickering between students and administrators over the university alcohol policy does little to educate students. It only encourages them to rebel against a patriarchal authority.
The creation of a wine tasting course next fall could help to address this problem. It would reconcile two rarely harmonious interests: students’ thirst for fun, stimulating classes and the university’s need to exercise control over drinking on campus. Georgetown should follow Cornell’s lead and offer a wine-tasting course while the time is ripe.
To send a letter to the editor on a recent campus issue or Hoya story or a viewpoint on any topic, contact opinion@thehoya.com. Letters should not exceed 300 words, and viewpoints should be between 600 to 800 words.
Jan 25 2009 at 8:24 p.m.
This is quite possibly the most inane editorial I have ever read. With everything happening on and off campus, this is all you could come up with?
Wow.
Jan 25 2009 at 10:48 p.m.
Sweet jesus on rollerblades, I didn't know you could go any further up the Ivory Tower of Useless S*** to Pay $53,000 a Year to Learn. People die by the thousands in Gaza/Darfur/Somalia/Pakistan and the Hoya finds it most necessary to demand a wine tasting course? How about some actual investigative reporting? Editorials like this are the collegiate equivalent to MSNBC/CBS/ABC/Fox's obsession with missing white/blonde girls. You might as well request a course on how to fake orgasms, brown-nose to your future office manager and ignore reality. If you want to know what kind of wine to order with veal, either ask the waiter or watch "Sideways". If you really think that knowledge of wines and vineyards is essential to your future way of life, then I'm too late, you might as well finish off that cup of Kool-Aid and chase it with some Andre.
Jan 26 2009 at 3:09 a.m.
I sometimes criticize the editorials too, but when they write about Gaza or Pakistan, everyone says, "You can't possibly know enough about this topic. Stick to Georgetown." So they wrote something closer to home. Frankly, I prefer Georgetown-centric editorials. If I want to read about people in other countries killing each other, I'll read a newspaper that gets its information from people in those countries. From the Hoya, I want to read Georgetown.
Jan 26 2009 at 5:33 p.m.
Are. you. kidding. me?
I can't believe someone thought it was OK to publish this. I'm ashamed on Georgetown's behalf.
I wouldn't normally even respond to something so dumb, except to respond to "Damned if you do...": there are ways to make national or world issues relatable to Georgetown students, and to solve the "you don't know enough" problem. I agree that rhapsodising about a topic you know nothing about is pointless, but there's this thing called reporting some Journalists like to use. If, for example, the Hoya wanted to come out to support ending of the bombing of the Gaza Strip, they could talk to campus groups like Students for Justice in Palestine to see what can be done on a local, Georgetown level, and do some research to make sure they get the facts right.
But instead, we get a crappy waste of space comparing Georgetown's needs to those of people about to go into the Hotel business, where they might actually, I don't know, need to order thousands of bottles of wine anually.
Jan 26 2009 at 8:58 p.m.
It says the Cornell course is offered to ALL undergraduates you imbecile, so it seems relevant.
I do disagree that Georgetown has enough 'oddball' electives though
Jan 27 2009 at 1:37 a.m.
a truly great editorial.