"Star Fleet officers do not bribe other Star Fleet officers. They just don't do that," says Jared Fujii '11, while teaching "The Ethics and Social Commentary of Star Trek," one of 23 Communiversity classes the Student Union is offering this semester. Only one pupil has shown up to today's weekly, hourlong session on Star Trek, hosted in a basement classroom in Schwartz, and Fujii screens an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for most of the class time.

Yet Fujii's dedication to his subject does not suffer for lack of an audience.

"How familiar are you with the Dominion War?" he asks his lone listener. A prospective history major, Fujii draws a comparison between the diplomatic strategies depicted in the episode and World War II's Non-Aggression Pact.

Even though this philosophically based Star Wars class may not be the typical Communiversity offering in many regards, it does speak to at least two common threads in many programs offered: a relaxed atmosphere and a small class size. These two qualities, many students say, are exactly what make Communiversity work.

Although 318 students are currently signed up for Communiversity courses, many registered participants never actually attend the classes.

While 18 students enrolled in "Time Management for Dummies," taught by Jordan Rothman '09, about 13 have never showed up. Only six or seven of the 13 students signed up for Juggling 101, taught by Daniel Weisz '09, appeared at the first class; Weisz says attendance has dwindled even further since then. Weisz taught the class in 2006 as well and says attendance that year was higher and more consistent.

Still, those who do attend Communiversity classes appreciate the small turnouts, which make for intimate, laid-back settings.

"It's fun because it's really informal," says Emilie Schuler '11 who attends the "Knitting 101" class. Despite being an experienced knitter, Schuler goes because she enjoys the communal atmosphere. The five knitters present at one session chat about campus movie screenings and the upcoming housing lottery as they practice their purl stitches in Hassenfeld Conference Center.

"My life is broken up into 12-minute slots," Rothman laughs. The four students attending his Monday-night time-management session are treated to Rothman's energetic lecture style as he shares his personal strategies for budgeting time to maximize productivity.

Though taught in an austere Shapiro conference room, the informality of the class is clear as instructor and students digress into discussion of professorial grading quirks.

A similarly comfortable familiarity can also be found between instructor and students in Usdan's International Lounge during Juggling 101 lessons. Weisz congratulates Simona Dalin '11, a first-time juggler, on "getting the rhythm as opposed to feeling the individual throws" as Dalin attempts to rotate three balls through the air.

The two commiserate about Dalin's "General Chemistry" class, at one point setting their balls aside so that Weisz can illustrate electron wave functions to Dalin. "See, she didn't explain that in class," Dalin says gratefully.

Perhaps the impromptu tutoring session is possible only because no other students are present until Zack Schwartz '11 appears half an hour later, but it certainly is only feasible due to the relaxed setting in the classroom.

Communiversity was re-instituted a few years ago; no one is certain as to the details of the program's initial establishment at Brandeis approximately 20 years ago.

Castle Quad Senator Rebecca Wilkof '10 attributes the program's absence last year to "not having somebody who's willing to do the grunt work."

"I had heard about Communiversity through a friend before I ran for Senate," Wilkof says, and the idea piqued her interest.

She organized this year's Communiversity program with the help of Student Union members Tania Kupferman '08, Michelle Minkoff '08 and Jenna Brofsky '10. Wilkof says one of the biggest challenges was booking space on campus for all 23 classes.

Student Union coordinators ran two meetings before the start of Communiversity this semester to provide encouragement and information to prospective teachers who were eager from the outset to share their skills.

Weisz, who has been juggling since fourth grade and taught a "Juggling 101" class spring 2006, says he knew right away he wanted to repeat the class when he heard the program was being reinstated.

Similarly, this year's "Time Management" class is not the first instance in which Rothman has offered this type of advice to other students. Rothman has previously shared time-management strategies with residents of the residence hall where he is a community advisor.

"Jordan is very well-known on campus for being an expert in time management," says Ziv Quad Senator Justin Sulsky '09, also a member of Rothman's class.

For the first time this year, graduate students are also contributing their talent, teaching classes on subjects such as origami, knitting and John Cage.

In 2005, the Communiversity program was criticized in the Justice for poor publicity, so Wilkof made student body awareness a priority through flyers, tabling and e-mails.

Sulsky says that Communiversity "has been very successful from the data that I've seen." The committee exceeded its original goal of presenting 15 to 20 classes.

"Thankfully, we had a good budget" to fund Communversity, Wilkof says. The Student Union used the funds they received from the Finance Boardboard to purchase supplies for many classes, such as juggling balls for students of "Juggling 101," yarn and needles for "Knitting 101" and three deluxe Scrabble boards for "Scrabble 101."

Many of these supplies, a testament to the dedication of student organizers, now sit unused.

Fujii is optimistic about the reason for the small presence at his class. He concedes that his class "has a very specialized niche that might be interested in it," but says low attendance is primarily due to scheduling conflicts on the part of his seven registered students.

Plans may be in the works for some sort of event or display to celebrate the accomplishments of this year's Communiversity graduates and encourage more students to join, but according to Wilkof, nothing is firm yet.

"If I could generate interest in a second wave of classes, I would," she enthuses. "Now that I know what I'm doing, I'd love to do it again.