By David Hertz

The Experimental College, EXCO, is holding a kick-off event for its spring semester classes this Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Coffman Center at the University of Minnesota campus. EXCO has received an action fund grant for the first time this year. Students will be able to meet facilitators, explore EXCO’s 50 plus class offerings, take alternative education workshops, and register for the term starting in February. This semester EXCO will also be starting a partnership with Waite House Community Center in Minneapolis to provide classes for their programming; at least one of the classes, hip-hop dance, will be taught by a Macalester student.

“I just think it’s a good opportunity to learn in a different way,” said Nick Huelster, ’11, one of the students involved in getting the new semester of EXCO offerings off the ground,”I think that Mac students get caught up in the Mac bubble, and we’ve heard a lot about students… who don’t participate in the Twin Cities community, and EXCO is a great way to get out in the community and do something you wouldn’t normally be doing.”

Since its founding in 2006, EXCO has provided free classes on unusual topics at various locations in the Twin Cities. Classes are typically held once a week in the evening during the week or on the weekend.