COLA 1500

I took this class, America Through Russian Eyes, as a First-Year, first semester. The class is... interesting. In effect, it is a study of relations between America and Russia/The Soviet Union through the lens of Russian perspective. The professor, Georgian in origin, is really knowledgeable in the subject matter. He lived in the Soviet Union for decades and was an arms-deal negotiator. The class is seminar style but it lacks much structure. This is where the main flaw of this COLA appears: this is a class Urbanovich normally teaches as a USEM for 3 credits, shoved into a COLA 1 credit format. The class only meets once a week for an hour and fifteen minutes and this causes problems. There's too much material for the amount of class time. This leads to large amounts of readings in the latter half of the class. The work load for the course itself is very manageable, albeit a little high for a 1 credit class in my opinion. There are between 80-200 pages of reading a week, depending on how far behind the class is running. There are two required books: "Should We Fear Russia?" and "Russia, The Soviet Union, and the United States: an Interpretative History." The latter of the two is out of print. There are many more readings, but they are delivered in the form of PDF on UVACollab. The readings themselves are not very necessary. You're never tested on them and they're only marginally useful for the two papers and some in class discussion. Besides that, there is not much work actually turned in. There are two double spaced 3-5 page papers. The last one is the final assignment as there is no final test for this class. There are also no tests. The only other work throughout the semester is a group presentation. At various points Urbanovich will ask students to collaborate to make a short powerpoint on a given topic about Russian American relations. Everyone must do one at some point. Overall, I found the class to be interesting but very rushed and poorly organized. If you're looking for a COLA to take, this one works but I would recommend looking elsewhere first.