University of Arkansas Fayetteville - Razorback Yearbook (Fayetteville, AR)

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WHAT CAN I TAKE? Unique Electives Have you ever noticed that the most interesting and stimulating classes are always outside your ma- jor? And for that matter, someone is actually majoring in what most of us can only label as unique electives in our own schedules! Even if our engineering courses honestly electrify our senses, or even if our money and banking lectures really boost our days, we still wander through the racing form every once in a while anticipating a class we may not need, but who knows? You always knew you had an eye for art. Why, who else would have thought the Appollonia poster would look so cre- ative plastered next to the Coors Spring Break ' 84 advertisement? You ' d been saving that one for two years! Aren ' t you the one who every- one considers the dancing machine; a gyrating maniac when the colored lights get going and the stereo level hits the threshold of pain? Yeah, yeah. You always wanted to be ... Enter the world of unique electives. A., B., C. Ballroom dance instructor, Susan Mayes, and colleague, Aubrey Watson show the steps to the dance The Swing , D. stargazing in the class. Survey of the Universe, E. F. for a change of pace and a little sunning, how about a drawing class. The University offers a wide variety of classes (especially if you haven ' t decided on a major yet). But if you have, there are still several classes lurking out in the academic sea which require no prerequisites. Even if a few were recommended, you never worried about the fine print anyway. If you love to boogy, but never got the chance to learn how to learn how to ' partner ' dance, then Ballroom Dancing is your bag. Susan Mayes, the energetic, adorable instructor, will teach you everything from the waltz and the fox-trot to the swing. If you feel you need some grace in your movements or some control over your body, then Beginning Ballet is where it ' s at. Besides wearing clinging leo- tards, you develop a sense of aware- ness and appreciation of your body. If you appreciate you body enough, but would like to develop your inter- est in art criticism and drawing, then the art department offers two basic courses which survey works of art from the Renaissance period and the Stone Age; also, a fundamental drawing class is available to deal with the principles of perspective, line, and techniques. Another fascinating class that stu- dents can depend on to spruce up their days and nights is Survey of the Universe. Labs are described as hav- ing nightime observations with telescopes. What a wonderful chance to gaze at some real heavenly bodies! These are only a select few of a huge number of highly thought pro- voking courses available to those of us who dare to be different (for a while anyway). After all, we have to graduate someday, but we all need a break from the rigors of academic pursuits. Thank goodness for unique electives. Unique Electives 29

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I NEED A BREAK - Unique bleciives 08

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LIVING LIFE Rappelling and Rock Climbing Falling from the brow of a 2,000- foot high cliff ranks in the nightmare ratings with the bad dreams about steaming locomotives jumping their tracks to follow you and about the time you walked into your grade school classroom and realized that you had worn only your scivvies. Luckily, we awake from those nighttime tragedies in a pool of sweat with the assurance that we ' ve imag- ined the whole thing. Luckily, we survive the next day fully-clothed and fearless of the Burlington Northern train. Luckily. So why tempt fate by walking to the edge of a sandstone bluff? Why hurl oneself off with no more than a rope or two securing your life? Why climb a crag, grabbing for nubbins of stone, when an easy ascent is just a hundred yards away? When I first tried my hand a rappelling, I don ' t know that I ever thought about why I was doing what I did. I was an adolescent in the company of three junior high friends. In 1973, we would do just about any- thing crazy enough to get ourselves labeled crazy. And, rappelling, as new and seemingly scary as it was for Ozarkers, provided just the tick- et. Rappelling, or decending a vertical surface via ropes, caught on quick in Arkansas because of the high lime- stone bluffs along many of the rivers and creeks. Rock climbing, however, matured more slowly. Limestone cliffs are often too soft and flaky to support strong footholds or handholds. Few years passed, though, before climbers found the hard Atoka sandstone stratum and began search- ing out the less-frequent, less- accessible sandstone bluffs. Thinking back, it ' s a wonder that we didn ' t kill ourselves somewhere along the line. Rappelling was so easy that it encouraged you to make a mistake. If you could hold a rope and walk back- ward, you possessed all the needed physical prowess. The real skill came in knowing how to tie knots, whether your rappelling gear was rigged prop- erly, and when to retire a worn rope. Why do something so easy and yet so complex? Was this a death wish? Was it for the rush of adrenalin at the edge? No. Rock climbing destroyed those notions. Climbing proved a physical challenge. We would wedge our arms or jam a fist into a crack, lean back against that friction of flesh against stone, and move upward for another hold, secure in the knowledge that if we slipped, someone above us, our belayer, would catch us on our safety rope. Death wasn ' t an option with an experienced belayer controlling your unexpected falls. And you had to survive today ' s climb, you wouldn ' t waste a big surge of adrenalin on the first tough move. You had to ration your stength or face burnout before the summitt. So the adrenalin-junkie theory was out. If not for that momentary high, if nor for the short glimpse of mortality, what made us do it? Why go at it? Why try? Watching two novices last weekend try their luck at rappelling and climbing on bluffs at Sam ' s Throne, a rock outcropping in Newton County, put me in mind of those questions again. Deborah Pope (bot- tom far left)and Anne Pearson (bot- tom right) revealed all the timidness and exuberance I had felt in my first trial-and-error attempts at mountain- eering. Watching them struggle at the edge or try an unsure move made me conscious of the why ' s and wherefore ' s. They were taking their fears as challenges and overcoming them. They were pushing beyond what they knew they could do and doing the unknown. They were reifying in their minds the notion that life is not a dream which turns our good or bad by sheer luck, but rather that living means making decisions and climbing forward through good and bad points in the faith that, by overcoming to- day ' s fears, you can boldly attack to- morrow ' s difficulties. Charlie Alison