ISU faculty and instructors have steered class discussion away from their syllabi to help students deal with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Lesson plans were set back, some classes were canceled and hour-long discussion sessions were held to help students and faculty in any way possible.

Dennis Raverty, assistant professor of art history, teaches a class on Weimar art, the art in Germany during World Wars I and II. He said he planned to discuss the history behind Weimar art and the wars before Tuesday’s events unfolded.

“It felt like a very timely thing to discuss,” Raverty said. “We discussed how one act of terrorism at the time led very quickly to various alliances and a world war. We need to look at the mistakes they made and make sure we don’t do the same.”

He linked Tuesday’s acts of terrorism in New York to the terrorism in Austria that led to World War I, he said.

“People really needed to talk and discuss their fears about the current situation,” he said. “My job isn’t just to teach art history, but also to hold academic discussions that help my students. It was one of the best discussions we’ve ever had in that class.”

Kim Smith, professor of journalism and mass communication, said any current issue can be tied to the courses he teaches.

“I think that in the type of classes I teach in mass media, it’s not difficult to bring public affairs issues into the lesson plan,” Smith said. “Media are the principle way these events are brought to us.”

Smith was in class Tuesday morning during the attack.

“Students very much wanted to discuss it, and I gave them time to do that,” he said.

Professor and chairman of political science James McCormick continued along his teaching plans, but integrated Tuesday’s events into the class with a comparison discussion.

“I teach U.S. foreign policy, so it was pretty straightforward,” McCormick said. “I talked about the Cold War and containment policies . and our discussion of current strategy and policy fit right in.”

Corly Brooke, associate vice provost at the Center for Teaching Excellence, posted guidelines for class discussion on the university Web site to encourage faculty to discuss the attacks.

The guidelines, from the University of Michigan, can be viewed online at www.crlt.umich.edu/tragedydiscussion.html.