Call it Zombies 101. The University of Baltimore is offering a new class on the undead.

The course is being taught by Arnold Blumberg, the author of a book on zombie movies, "Zombiemania," and the curator of Geppi's Entertainment Museum, which focuses on American pop culture.

Students taking English 333 will watch 16 classic zombie films and read zombie-themed graphic-novels (comic books). As an alternative to a final research paper they may write scripts or draw storyboards to delineate their ideal zombie flick.

The university isn't the first to have a class on the undead. Columbia College in Chicago has offered a course on Zombies in Popular Media for years, and at Simpson College in Iowa students spent the spring semester writing a book on "The History of the Great Zombie War."

Last year, The University of Florida made the news when a zombie preparedness document appeared on the college server, which has since been removed. The six-page mock-document preparedness report discussed anticipated outcomes of a hypothetical zombie attack, stating that all UF staff should be equipped with devices such as blackout curtains, chainsaws, firearms, and other improvised weaponry.

Employees with small cars were advised to work from home even in a "Romero-type outbreak" (George Romero being the director of Night of the Living Dead) since small cars are incapable of running over zombies. As if we needed nother reason to keep that Hummer...

Sources: The Baltimore Sun, http:// www.baltimoresun.com http:// www.collegenews.com

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