What's the difference between a DeCal, a 98/198 special studies, or a student-initiated class?

As Gertrude Stein once wrote, "A rose is a rose is a rose." This kind of applies here. At one level there's no difference: all are different terms for what can be the same thing.

Basically, many--though not all--departments allow for students to initiate and facilitate a "directed group study" class, set aside as 98, for lower division, and 198, for upper division. (Some 98/198s are facilitated by graduate students, some by staff, so not every department's 98/198 classes are done by undergrads...) DeCal, short for Democratic Education at Cal, is a student group whose mission is to advocate for, support, and publicize classes initiated and facilitated by students. The DeCal student group has been around since the early 1980s, and their success in publicizing classes has led, over the years, to the term "decal" functioning as a near-synonym for "student-initiated & -facilitated class.

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