As students browse through the pages of their fall course selection book, a new class that focuses on homosexual issues might catch their eye.

Jeffrey Chown, director of the University Honors Program, said the class is being offered as part of the junior honors experience.

Rob Ridinger, the chair of the humanities and behavioral sciences department, said a name for the class has not yet been chosen.

Chown said students in the Honors Program are required to take a seminar as part of their junior honors curriculum. He said this class is one of 10 lectures students can choose from to fill that requirement.

Ridinger said there were a lot of phone calls from students requesting further education on the topic of homosexuality.

“The class is a way to see how many people will actually take the class,” he said. “It’s a good test bench.”

Other classes offered include Literature and the Holocaust, Business Ethics, Milton and the English novel, Geography and Politics of Canada, Literature and Music, Art and the Culture of the Late 20th Century and Public Policy.

Each of these classes are two hour and 40 minute seminars offered once a week. The class on homosexuality will be offered on Wednesdays, Chown said.

Chown said the seminar will have different guest speakers each week who will address various issues of homosexuality.

“We’re always looking for interesting courses,” he said. “The President’s Task Force on Sexual Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation recommended a pilot course dealing with the topic of homosexuality.”

“I saw Rob Ridinger lecture about AIDS and we decided to offer the course,” he said.

“The class is very beneficial, but the people who need the exposure probably won’t take the class,” said Brian Turkaly, president of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Coalition. “I think it’s beneficial to gay and lesbian students because it makes them knowledgeable of their community.”

“I think there is a great deal of stereotyped information and ignorance around campus and a great deal of homophobic attitudes that aren’t needed,” Ridinger said. “It’s a way for students to see if what they think they know is actually true.”

Ridinger offered a challenge to students to take the class and to see if what they think they know is actually true.

“People hear a lot of things they accept as gospel that simply aren’t true,” he said.