Rocks for Jocks, etc. (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Jonathan Kaufman "A Yale Feast, a Nibble" _New York Times_ Jun 24, 1978;
pg. 19 col 5
"But "gut" courses -- easy courses that guaranteed a high grade with a
minimal amount of work -- came to the rescue.  Among students, the
nicknames of these courses soon became common knowledge:  Rocks for
Jocks, Volts and Dolts, Wars and Whores."



Lenore Skenazy "Gut Reaction" _Yale Daily News_ 9/13/1978 p 2 col3
"Walk into the class late,
Everyone's a-dozin'
Once again I turn around,
That course won't be chosen.

I got the course-shoppin' blues
And I'll tell you what,
I'll take any course in anything
So long as it's a gut.

"Christ figures in the Bible,"
"The Bronx in History,"
"Physics without Numbers,"
"Trees in Forestry."

I'll take music appreciation,
To get an "A" you clap,
Or the course in sleep and dreams where
The final is a nap.

"Moons for Goons," "Rocks for Jocks,"
Even seminars if they'll
Allow me to exercise the option
Of taking them credit-fail.

"Archeological Methods?" -- dig it!
You can pass it just by looking deep,
And "Words for Nerds" and "Wars and Whores"
Are classes I know I'll keep.

Intensive majors make me squirm,
DS leaves me aghast, oh!
Give 110 courses in
Anthro, Afro, Astro!

"Gods for Clods,"  "Math for Morons,"
The options seem so endless.
But for this non-education I plan
I wish that I could spend less."


_Family Weekly_ [Sunday newspaper supplement] 10/1/1978 p 19 col 1
'On the academic side of college life, courses good for easy A's - like
"rocks for jocks" (basic geology) or "astro-gut" (elementary astronomy)
or "moonlight and magnolias" (history of the antebellum South) - are
still called "guts," or, at the University of Wisconsin, "sacks." "



_Yale Daily News_, 10/1/1980 p 6 col 2
"Students don't go to "Introduction to Statistical Methods," they go to
"Counting for Credit." "





Courtney A Coursey, "The CONFI, the CUE, AND GUTS" _Harvard Crimson
2/9/1996 p unk

"Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature Gregory Nagy, who teaches
Literature and Arts C-14: "The Concept of the Hero in Greek
Civilization," also known as "Heroes for Zeros," says the term "gut"
reflects a "strictly materialistic and cynical way of thinking about
something that is much more important.""

"Boris Alvarado '96 says he took "Rocks for Jocks" in part because "it
seemed like the easiest Core [course] in the CUE Guide in terms of work
and difficulty." "

David A. Fahrenthold, "Harvard's Academic Core Gets Once-Over" 6/5/1997
p. unk

"Gen Ed's most famous gut was an introductory geology course in the
natural sciences requirement, known informally as "Rocks for Jocks," or,
as one alumnus put it, "Stones for Scholar-Athletes.""

I was not familiar with "gut" in the sense used above; OED has it back
to 1902.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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