Communiversity-a program established and implemented in the 1970s and '80s in which students, faculty and staff have the opportunity to teach classes on subjects not part of typical curricula-will restart with a three-week session this winter, members of the Student Union said. The program will run from Jan. 22 to Feb. 15, according to a campuswide e-mail sent out by this year's Communiversity Coordinator and Castle Senator Rebecca Wikof '10 last Wednesday. Communiversity was also restarted with a session in winter 2005 by Aaron Braver '07, then the East Quad senator.

"The idea is Brandeis teaching Brandeis and to give someone something that they couldn't necessarily get inside a Brandeis classroom," said Kimberlee Bachman '08, Student Union director of academic affairs.

Members of the Union said that this year's noncredit minicourses may include juggling, cooking and knitting. Students can sign up to teach a class until Nov. 12, and professors, staff and graduate students also received letters inviting them to participate, and to submit applications by Nov. 16, Wilkof said.

Bachman explained that planning for the program last academic year "fell under the radar," but that she trained Wilkof to be this year's coordinator because of Bachman's enthusiasm for the project's continuation.

Bachman said Communiversity's organizers are planning to advertise the program and book rooms earlier this year. "People will hopefully be anticipating Communiversity when they get back [from break] instead of . seeing stuff for the first time," she said.

Wilkof said she hoped students would expect Communiversity to occur every year, and that the program could become a model for other institutions, noting that a similar program takes place year-round at the University of California at Berkeley.

Bachman said the Department of Student Activities is co-sponsoring the program this year by helping to finance advertisements and materials for the classes.

Wilkof said she first became interested in Communiversity after hearing about it from older students.

"Everybody's got something sort of quirky and cool about them [at Brandeis]," she said. "It would be wonderful for everybody to learn from each other."

Wilkof said that sign-ups for classes for members of the Brandeis community begin on Jan 14. She said she has already received eight applications for people interested in teaching classes. Whether all applications to teach will be accepted depends on the final number of applications and the numbers of rooms available, she added.

Also the first-year graduate students are invited to participate in Communiversity, Wilkof said.

"There's a divide between grads and undergraduates, and I think that it would be nice if we could learn something from them, especially in this fun way," she said. "I approached my UWS teacher to teach a class, and she said she's fantastic at knitting, so she's going to teach that."

Wilkof said that if there are enough classes, she will be able to offer a semester of Communiversity after February break as well.

Bachman taught American Sign Language during the last Communiversity program. "That class was pretty cool because it triggered demand for a class for credit," she said. For the first time this year, the Biochemistry department offered a class called "The Biology and Culture of Deafness."

"I attribute that a lot to the interest in Communiversity," Bachman said.

Daniel Weisz '09 also taught a class last time. "I think it's great that it's coming back," he said. "Hopefully I'll try and do another juggling class."

"Maybe I'll know how to knit by the time I graduate college," Wilkof joked about of the program. "We could teach anything-we could have Harry Potter 101.