Wilson School visiting professor Christopher Wren had not originally planned to broach the topic of terrorism in his class, HUM/WWS 447: Politics and the Media: Covering International Intrigue, until four or five weeks into the semester.
After the horrific events of Sept. 11, Wren had little choice but to introduce the topic during the first seminar, and he has since restructured the course to allow his students to study the flood of news surrounding the attacks.
"The events on Sept. 11 have provided new parameters for the class," said Wren, whose course also focuses on issues such as ethnic conflict, arms smuggling, drug trafficking and money laundering. "All of these issues are coming in together now. So rather than taking them separately and doing them in sequence as I had planned, we're doing them as they flow into each other."
While few classes have changed as dramatically as Wren's course, many have experienced some changes in response to the attacks, including increased attention to terrorism and international politics.
For WWS 450: Special Topics in Public Affairs, a class on the theory and practice of international diplomacy, Wilson School professor Wolfgang Danspeckgruber chose not to modify the course outline, but he has instructed his preceptors to devote the last part of each precept to discussing the terrorist attacks in the context of the course material.
Danspeckgruber, whose class nearly doubled in size after the attacks before he limited it to about 130 students so as not to overwhelm the preceptors, said though he will continue to focus on diplomacy theoretically, he will incorporate the issues surrounding the attacks as they tie into the course.
"It is important that my students first get a grounding in the theory of international diplomacy," Danspeckgruber said. "But the situation today relates to the material of the class so well it is difficult to avoid."
As an addendum to his course, Danspeckgruber started a weekly discussion group through Forbes College so University students could talk and learn more about the implications of the attacks.
Other classes, such as NES 201: Introduction to the Middle East and SOC 250: The Western Way of War, will incorporate additional material into reading assignments or lectures, but will not change the structure or the overall focus of the class.
Sociology professor Miguel Centeno, who teaches SOC 250, explained that since he had planned to cover terrorism before the attacks occurred, he did not need to make substantial changes to the course.
But Centeno added that the large scope of the class prevents him from devoting too much time to terrorism.
"It fits perfectly into what the course was designed to do, so not mentioning it would create more of a diversion than talking about it a lot," Centeno said. "But there are only so many ways I could analyze it in a way that would be relevant to the entire course. The course is too broad for that."
In the Wilson School, policy task forces, in which juniors develop policy solutions to various domestic and international problems, have not changed this semester in response to the attacks.
However, Wilson School undergraduate program director Nathan Scovronick said that the school is considering changes in the task forces for the spring term.
Many students said they felt strongly about the importance of integrating the terrorist strikes and the surrounding issues into their regular classes.
"It's not like we can ignore it," said Tony Ford '05, who is enrolled in SOC 250. "Education can't be static. It must be flexible enough to accommodate what is important in our daily lives, and right now the terrorist attacks are very important."
Centeno said the current situation has provided a real-life example to which students can apply the course material.
"There is a greater seriousness in the way we all talk about it," he said. "We are no longer referring to abstract ideas, but things that could actually happen today."
Danspeckgruber added that the attacks have prompted many of his students to take a more somber and emotional approach to the class.
"Never before have I seen such a serious attitude by my students," he said. "And it is not just an intellectual curiosity, but a psychological one and a personal, deep interest to try to understand this situation better.
"I know people who were in those towers, and I'm sure many students do too," Danspeckgruber continued. "This really touches all of us. Our job is to permit people to deal with this in a manageable way and make the best of the situation."
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