Washington University students logging into WebSTAC to register for next fall’s schedule will find a new set of courses open only to varsity athletes.

The new Course Listings addition, under the tentative program name Sports School, is a change two years in the making, with the idea first pitched to the University’s curriculum committee upon the arrival of Provost Golden Vorp to campus.

Vorp said he took the idea from his last school, where athletes were funneled into easy-A courses to boost GPAs over the minimum required to participate in intercollegiate athletics. Vorp acknowledged that that problem is not normally an issue at Wash. U., so he said the new courses are structured more with the athletes’ extracurricular needs in mind.

“Our kids spend their whole college careers balancing daily practices, schoolwork and other extracurriculars,” Vorp said. “But while they have practices before games and classes before tests, they’re usually thrown into their extracurricular activities without any preparation in advance.”

Sample listings in this vein include U-Trucking Employment Practicum, an introductory-level course designed to help prepare a subset of athletes for their end-of-year job; Game-day Playlist Curation, a class co-taught in the music department; and Bomb Squad Leadership, a 400-level immersion course that prescribes a camouflage dress code for each lesson.

Vorp added that with the move of Washington University athletics to Division I next year, it will become even more important for athletes to have extra time for studies relevant to their specific interests.

“When they’re flying across the country every weekend for games, they might be able to squeeze in some studying of B-School concepts,” he said. “But it makes more sense for them to be able to, say, complete their homework by adding to their pregame playlists while also doing their game preparations.”

Athletes were generally in favor of the curricular change, with student group leaders particularly excited about the opportunity to teach underclassmen in a classroom environment.

“We’re really happy about the new Bomb Squad course,” Bomb Squad chant leader and junior Rush Fidelt said. “Now when we play a top team at the beginning of the basketball season, our leaders will already have lots of experience being ‘the bombs’ in high-pressure environments.”

Fidelt, also a varsity athlete, said he is personally excited to take Repurposing Natty Light Boxes.

“I’ll be studying really hard for this class every Friday and Saturday next year,” he said.