<p>In case you guys haven't seen it, CWRU was in the New York Times today, albeit not in a very flattering light: [url=<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/opinion/26Budiansky.html?_r=1&oref=slogin%5Dlink%5B/url">http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/opinion/26Budiansky.html?_r=1&oref=slogin]link[/url</a>].</p>
<p>In the school's defense, I will note that no one here even bothers to think about the SAGES Cafe so we're not that messed up. That and I think a lot of the professors don't even follow the manual anyway.</p>
<p>But then I don't take SAGES, I was the last class not required to do so, and I'm kinda glad about that. :)</p>
<p>Pretty hard to satirize that.</p>
<p>I couldn't tell from the article--is the Sages Cafe real or virtual? A real place where professors/students meet over class/coffee, or is it some sort of extended metaphor used in marketing the SAGES experience?</p>
<p>No, the cafe exists. It's called the SAGES cafe and is on the first floor of Crawford on the main quad.</p>
<p>Ideally it's a place for professors and students to meet and there's a special SAGES seminar room there, but I haven't heard of many people using it for that purpose (the cafe does do good buisness, however, because it's a good place to have a coffeehouse and there used to be one there before it was rebranded).</p>
<p>The SAGES seminar room is used by various SAGES classes. I believe it's the luck of the draw. I had my seminar in their last semester.</p>
<p>I don't think SAGES was made to increase the college's USnews rating. I think it was created out of genuine concern for students' communication skills after they had graduated. How well it approaches this issue is open for judgement. And no, it's usually not a joke class (although it depends on the professor). The professors grade seriously and use the 0-100 (F-A) scale.</p>
<p>well it was an op-ed piece so just someone's opinion anyhow.</p>