Show-Biz U.

The courses offered in the 150-page catalogue run from suspense ("The Hazards of Being Male") to adventure ("A Three-Week Study Tour of the Argentine Pampas, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego") and pop psychology ("Fairy Tales: Keys to the Psyche"). Indeed, the entire U.C.L.A. extension school is planned and promoted like a network's fall lineup of television shows. The similarity is no accident. "Our programs and those on television have the same threads," says Extension Dean Phillip Frandson. "Like TV, we mirror the needs of the public."

From the extension building on the southwest corner of the Westwood campus, Frandson, 50, presides over a growing domain with an annual enrollment of 128,000 students and a $12 million budget. The bustling prosperity of the extension school confirms Frandson's belief that each of the school's 4,255 courses should be titled and designed like a new television series--to grab the viewer's attention. In the extension school, therefore, a course in American history from 1940 to 1950 is called "The Cultural Milieu of a Decade of War and Peace: a nostalgic reappraisal of an era that dramatically changed our world."

A standard marriage-and-the-family sociology course becomes "A Psychology for Lovers: and for people who want to fall in love with their mates, their children, their colleagues, and themselves."

Despite the lavish staffing and spending, some students say the extension school promises more than it delivers. Andy Meyer, an executive at A. & M. Records, was disappointed by the "This Business of Music" course. "It got the stars there to talk about their careers," he complained, "but it never explained how the business works." Other extension classes never really get off the ground; about 15% are axed each quarter for lack of interest.

Frandson, however, is pleased with the school's overall results. "I'd love to turn my staff loose on TV for six months," he says. "A lot of these courses could be turned into arresting shows between 7 and 10 at night."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.