When sophomore Katia Newman returned to the campus this fall, still shaken by the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington just two weeks before, she was relieved to learn that help was available.

"I wanted to be able to talk about it," said Newman, an English and history major who signed up for "Fictions of Terror vs. Real Terror," one of 50 "Perspectives on September 11" seminars created by faculty members to help students cope. Campus life, Newman said, can be "so isolated from the news and world events. I wanted to take this class in order to remember the tragic events of Sept. 11."

Newman's class was taught by English Professor Frederick Burwick, faculty-in-residence at Hedrick Hall on North Campus, where Newman and 14 other undergraduates, along with Hedrick Hall resident director Gerald Lamb, gathered each Tuesday afternoon in a student lounge for lectures and discussion encompassing Aristotle and Kant, political rhetoric and literary imagery.

"Reading a novel, we translate words into visual images," Burwick told the class during a recent session. "Language can trigger visual centers. Can you close your eyes and see the plane crashing into the World Trade Center?"

"Yes," his students agreed, one of them venturing, "The images will never go away."

"In an ordinary context, coming to college is a big transition," said Brian Copenhaver, provost of the College of Letters and Science, who, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks issued a call to faculty across campus to create a series of seminars aimed primarily at freshmen and sophomores. "What happened created another really powerful transition, especially considering that this was, for most students, really the first major event in the United States that plunged everyone into history at once."

The resulting seminars spanned a wide range of disciplines, from "Honor and Shame and the Clash of Civilizations," taught by History Professor S. Scott Bartchy, to "The Role of Art and Technology in Times of War," taught by Professor Victoria Vesna, chair of the Department of Design | Media Arts.

Faculty members were eager to participate in the experience.

"This was a natural for us," said Burwick, who, like the other seminar teachers, received no additional financial compensation for his efforts. "We would have been discussing these issues with students anyway."

Copenhaver himself taught a class: "War, Terror and Violence: Reflecting on Machia-velli." All of the courses, he said, make "concrete connections between what we're all living through and what the business of a university is: teaching and learning."

Chancellor Albert Carnesale also taught a course, drawing on his background in international security to teach "National Security in the 21st Century."

"I learned from the students," Carnesale said, "and I gained a great deal of personal fulfillment from the seminar. Teaching this fall reinforced my confidence in the character and intellect of today's young people."

So many students -- more than 650 of them -- signed up for the once-a-week seminars that the College has scheduled a second series, "Perspectives Post 911," for the Winter Quarter.
In addition, UCLA Extension is offering classes in the coming months to the larger Los Angeles community on topics ranging from "Hope and Resilience" to "Bioterrorism."