Students Give Credit to Many College Elective Courses : Education: The classes can spark the imagination, provide understanding or just be fun. Whatever they are, they bring people closer to graduation.

The aroma of enchiladas drifts through Project Angel Food’s headquarters in West Hollywood. Tables are stacked with plastic boxes of shredded carrots, fruit salad, brownies and cans of high-calorie Sustacal drink. All are destined for homebound AIDS patients, some of whom get no other daily meals--or human contact.

Working in cheerful assembly lines, volunteers prepare the food, pack it in paper bags and cart it to patients’ homes. Among the workers are students from UCLA professor Roger Bohman’s class, Biology 40--AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

The class is a general-education elective, intended to enrich the educational experience and provide some breathing space between required courses.

Some students find elective classes to be eye-openers that widen their horizons, spark new interests or clarify issues in their lives. Others breeze through them, looking for the shortest reading lists and easiest exams.

As budget cuts have reduced class variety and availability and driven up tuition costs, some students find themselves sacrificing in the struggle to satisfy requirements and earn a degree. Fighting for a place in crowded classes and cramming more courses into each semester in a race against rising fees, they savor the rare class that both fires their interest and brings them a few credits closer to graduation.

Students at CalArts learn about the Search for Extraterrestrials or study the history of communities in a class called Pig-Earth. At Cal State Northridge, they explore the history of rock ‘n’ roll or the roots of Chicano and Asian American culture. And given a choice of science requirements, UCLA students tend to pick atmospheric science over physics and Bio 40 over biochemistry.

For some students, Biology 40 is literally about life and death, as evidenced by one term paper:

“I was listening to Dr. Bohman’s opening lecture, and he said people who are HIV infected will die of their disease. It’s the first time anyone told me I will die of the disease, and I hope the people in the class didn’t see the tears falling on my notes.”

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Statistics about the rate of HIV infection among college students are hard to come by. Bohman, a molecular biologist, thinks that a reasonable figure is one in 200.

“That means between two and four students in my class are HIV-positive,” he calculates.

Such hard doses of reality are part of the course work in Biology 40.

Bohman’s class is one of the most popular on campus, drawing about 2,000 students a year. This quarter’s class of 515 practically spills out the doors of the auditorium, and although Bohman admits as many students as will fit in the room, some try enrolling two or three times before they get in.

Concern about the AIDS epidemic is one reason for the course’s popularity, Bohman explains. Academic pragmatism is another.

“One of the ways we’ve fooled the students is, we’ve taken an issue that they think is important, and we’ve given them a little goody, which is you get to fulfill a science requirement,” he says.

Students’ knowledge about AIDS varies, so Bohman covers all the ground--from the molecular biology of the virus to its social consequences and the basics of prevention.

“I think that we all know that condoms minimize the risk of AIDS, but statistics show that college-age people aren’t using them as much as they should,” senior Jill Ratner says. “Maybe, if they weren’t aware or felt like they were invincible, I think this class would definitely bring it home.”

To confront them with the ravages of the disease, Bohman requires students to perform six hours of community service with an AIDS organization. Project Angel Food is among his favorites, and students join a small army of volunteers in the kitchen each weekend.

Only a handful of students deliver the meals, but those who do learn something they could never get from books or lectures, Bohman says:

“If you’re giving me my lunch and I ask you to come and talk to me for an hour because I haven’t had any visitors in a while, that takes it away from the classroom experience and turns it into an emotional experience.”

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While Bohman’s class addresses one of students’ worst fears, lecturer Glen Garrett lures Cal State Northridge students with one of their greatest passions.

“Chuck Barry recorded ‘Maybelline,’ ” he tells his class. “Little Richard wore Maybelline. Little Richard was the first of a long line of musicians to wear mascara on stage.”

What sounds like a prep course for “Jeopardy” contestants is in fact part of Music in Contemporary Society. Or, as students call it, the history of rock ‘n’ roll. Better yet, the class fulfills a fine arts requirement.

Cuing a tape, Garrett explains the first music selection, Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket ‘88,” which Garrett says marks the transition of blues to rock ‘n’ roll.

“R & B deals with problems of mature people--love triangles and infidelity--but rock began to focus more on adolescence,” he says. “You’ll hear that the time wanders and so on, but a lot of people say it’s the first rock record.”

The path of rock history leads backward for Mark Patino, a freshman in an AC/DC T-shirt.

“I play guitar, and I like hearing about old blues players; where they came from, how they started and where the whole music genre came from,” he says.

Garrett even offers technical tips, Patino says: “He’s teaching us the 12-bar blues. I’m interested in that.”

The lecturer is quick to point out that course topics run the gamut from jazz, theater music and minimalists such as Philip Glass, to Mozart, Beethoven and Bach. The focus on rock ‘n’ roll is a kind of sweetener that flavors the class for younger tastes.

“For most students, this is not only the last music class they’ll probably take, but also probably the first,” he says. “I try to teach as much (as possible) about music with a large ‘M.’ But what’s going to keep their attention is if I talk about music that they know about, that’s part of their culture.”

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At CalArts, administrator Cathi Love says classes on modern subjects tend to fill up faster than those on more traditional topics. “A lot of the classes, if they are contemporary, like cultural studies, those tend to be more popular.”

Popular lecture classes, she says, include Image and Identity, the History of Film, Animation Then and Now, the Body of Race, the Search for Extraterrestrials and Pig-Earth, a history of communities. Often, though, students simply want a light workload so they can dedicate more time to studio work, Love adds:

“What they’re looking for a lot of times is an easier class, that isn’t very demanding, which is unfortunate, because the faculty here expects students to carry their weight.”

Most colleges have a core of classes widely reputed as no-brainers. Some “blow-off” or “goon” classes are so well-known they’ve acquired nicknames--”Rocks for Jocks,” “Clapping for Credit” and “Statistics for Blonds.”

Other considerations play into class choice as well.

Mark Reyerson, a third-year biology major at UCLA, says Communications 10 attracts high enrollment despite its weighty reading list. “It’s not easy, but it’s fun. You learn about stuff, like how to speak.”

Sophomore Pat Green gives another reason for the course’s popularity: “It’s the one the most pretty girls are in, so a lot of guys go for that.”

Students at many California colleges also can explore their heritage.

“Asian American classes are real popular,” says Jeff Onuye, a sophomore at Northridge. “They all think it’s an easy grade because they know about their own culture.”

But Jennifer Lin, a business economics major at UCLA, says she took Chinese History precisely because she didn’t know enough about her culture. “I don’t think I would take it because it’s easier. I want to know about my background, where I came from, my roots, what my ancestors went through. I want to be proud of what I am.”

And Denny Jackson, a Northridge senior, says growing cultural awareness is attracting more students to Chicano Studies classes. “Once you learn something and get a little bit of pride, you want to learn more and more. It moves you. It motivates you.”

But although the desire is there, he adds, sometimes the classes aren’t. Diminished funds at state universities now mean fewer choices.

“A lot of times you just have to take what you can get,” says Susan Park, a fourth-year physical therapy major at Northridge. “I think people just try to take the easiest classes with the best professors.”

Thomas Ragle, an international-business major in his fourth year at Cal State Fullerton, puts it more bluntly: “I don’t think you get to pick what you want anymore--they just tell you. Most people I know are just desperately trying to get what they need to graduate.”