Students can now sign up for an LGBT-based English 250 course for next semester through the new LGBT non-residential learning community.

Kathryn Jaekel, English lecturer, first proposed the idea and will be teaching the class. She said her department and administration has been very supportive and helpful through the process of starting the new learning community.

“We want students to see how learning to write summary or learning to write argument effectively and organize it well with good information is beneficial in their own discipline classes,” said Jeanine Aune, senior lecturer of English who is in charge of setting up English course links to learning communities.

Jaekel said the class will learn the same skills as all English 250 classes, but the readings she will provide will have to do with the LGBT community and LGBT issues.  She said the readings will give the class a point of entry into the different lenses and ways people view things.

“This is a student group that I think has a lot of great things to say,” Jaekel said. “So I thought it would be really cool to get us together in this one course and talk about the academic and talk about the social and about how those mix and how they overlap.”

Aune said she thinks a lot of students consider English 150 and 250 as more of a general education classes and don’t think about how important communication and writing skills are for every discipline.

“Everybody is welcome, this is not only for lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual folks, anybody who considers themselves an ally or a part of this community,” Jaekel said.

To register for the learning community, students must type in the reference number 2051210 before they sign up for any of their classes.  Once a student has used the learning community reference number, they can then type in the reference number for English 250 section TM, 3299560.

Jaekel said she cannot stress enough that if a student doesn’t type in the learning community reference number first, they will not be able to sign up for the class. The TM section of English 250 is the only class offered through the LGBT learning community for next semester.

Aune said learning communities have to have some outside link to the material.  The class will partner with the LGBT Student Services office and will attend Out 2 Lunch sessions that have been set up by Brad Freihoefer the LGBTSS coordinator.

“I’m really looking forward to the pilot program working well and word of mouth spreading that there’s this great opportunity that you can have here at Iowa State,” Aune said.

Aune said she would love to see learning communities carry on throughout students’ four years at Iowa State.

Jaekel is the assistant director of ISU communication foundation courses and does a lot of curriculum work.  She started thinking about having the LGBT-based English 250 course last year.  Jaekel said at no point was there a struggle when she was proposing the idea.

“I hope that this is with increased visibility and with increased partnerships across campus will further the work that the [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Student Services] office does and that many of us do to make this less of a stigmatizing topic,” Jaekel said.