By Laura Sanicola

No time to sit in class this summer? No problem.

The Rose Hill Council, a council of associate professors, recently voted to approve virtual summer classes for Fordham students to take outside the classroom, at the discretion of Dr. Maura Mast, dean of Rose Hill.

The decision took place at the April 7 Rose Hill council meeting. The offerings are not new to all Fordham students, as Gabelli students already have access to virtual course offerings.

In an interview with the Fordham Ram, mast said she that virtual course offerings could incentivize more students to continue their education at Fordham over the summer even if they cannot be physically present on campus.

“If students have the option of taking a course outside or doing it online at Fordham, we prefer if they can take it through us,” Mast said.

Virtual courses would be administered through Blackboard and would require student and faculty communication through an online medium. The courses would still be priced at $860 a credit, as the traditional courses are.

Offerings include statistical decision making, texts and contexts, principles of management, philosophical ethics, introduction to sociology and faith and critical reasoning, among others.

A recent poll of Fordham students revealed that a many virtual course if offered to them.

The council also approved a new minor in Judaic Studies, which will offered in the coming academic year.

“With a minor in Jewish Studies students will have an opportunity to forge coherence in the large part of the curriculum that falls outside their majors, and acquire cross-cultural literacy, and an awareness of the interaction between Jews and their Christian, Muslim and other neighbors, and their mutual influence on each other—all this while fulfilling their core requirements,” said Dr. Magda Teter, Shvidler Chair in Judaic Studies and professor of History at Fordham.

The council additionally approved the psychology department’s request to add a diversity requirement for all psychology majors. The requirement will insure that psychology majors take at least one course that focuses solely on diversity.

“Diversity is a critical element of psychology,” said Dr. Barry Rosenfeld, associate professor of psychology at Fordham. “We can’t talk about thoughts, behaviors, or personalities without understanding culture, age, gender[or] sexual orientation.”

Preexisting diversity course offerings in the psychology department include multicultural psychology, men and masculinities, and aging in society.

The Arts and Sciences Council, which  is responsible for formulating recommendations on Academic policies and coordinating their implementation within the Arts and Sciences schools at Rose Hill and Lincoln Center, will next meet on Apr. 20 in Dealy 115 at 3:30.