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You gotta hand it to Auburn University.

The place has an astounding consistency. Jockshop di tutti jockshops, it now has its trustees busy looking into two new degree offerings:

How to Make Beer.

How to Keep Turfgrass Looking Good.

Margaret Soltan, January 26, 2013 4:08PM
Posted in: sport

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6 Responses to “You gotta hand it to Auburn University.”

  1. Jeremy Bangs Says:

    Are they growing some onions down there?

  2. david foster Says:

    Well, at least there are reasonable odds that someone who takes the beer-making course will be able to make successful beer.

    How good are the odds that someone who gets either or both of the proposed how-to-teach-writing degrees will be any better at teaching writing *after* doing the program than before?

  3. Margaret Soltan Says:

    david: The odds are low.

  4. Chas Says:

    We need brewers! “Malt does more than Milton can to justify God’s ways to man.”

  5. Stavros Says:

    Well said Chas. BTW these are online certificates, not degree programs. There are actual brewing degrees, the best being in Germany.

  6. GTWMA Says:

    There isn’t a university that doesn’t have a bunch of these types of programs. GW has one on “Reading and Literacy” and another on “Online Politics”. I’m assuming the latter offers excellent instruction in writing snarky tweets and blogs.

    As a landgrant institution, Penn State has had one of the best turfgrass programs in the world in its College of Agricultural Sciences for a long time. It’s a demanding program covering the genetics and biology of grasses and the pathogens that attack them.

    There’s a big, wide world out there of people that want to be educated in many different areas. Any reason why we can’t show the same respect to those interested in the science of brewing and grasses as we do to those interested in GW’s extensive offerings on politics and museum management? Each responds to the community of learners in their region. From them, we get well-kept public grounds to enjoy as we walk to a beautifully display in a Smithsonian museum exhibit, and can then head to the local brewpub to enjoy the company of our friends and a local lager or IPA.

    Unfortunately, I can find nothing positive to say about teaching students about Online Politics (OK, maybe they helped secure the public funds for the museum exhibit).

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