Ronald Reagan The Subject Of New Eureka College Course 'Reagan 101'

In a possibly brilliant PR stunt, Eureka College will soon offer a three-day course on its most famous graduate and the United States' 40th president: Ronald Reagan.

Today's traditional college students were born after Reagan's administration, so the course, titled "Reagan 101," comes at a critical moment in United States history.

Luckily, Reagan experts are standing by to help. The Bloomington Pantagraph reports that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will join visiting politicians, journalists and best-selling author Craig Shirley, who has written two books about Reagan, in exploring the president's significance in the 20th century. Shirley will be the college's first visiting Reagan Scholar and will teach Reagan 101.

The three-day class will run Oct. 22-25. The Associated Press notes the Indiana college will offer the class free of charge, and CSPAN veiwers can catch the first class there as part of the channel's Lectures in History series.

A shorter version of material likely covered in the class can be found on Wikipedia. It's as yet unconfirmed whether the fact that Jelly Belly created the blueberry jelly bean in honor of Reagan's inauguration will receive significant attention.

It's more likely the class will concentrate considerably on the Reagan administration's events and legacy, which include implementing supply-side economic principles later called "Reaganomics," cutting inflation, surviving an assassination attempt, invading Grenada, bombing Libya, starting the "War on Drugs" and managing relations with the Soviet Union.

Reagan majored in economics and sociology at Eureka, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1932. He also posthumously inspired the term "Reaganing," defined by noted fictional television executive and Republican Jack Donaghy as managing a long series of complex situations perfectly and with ease. See some Reaganing examples in the videos below: