GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Although movies like Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park have done much to add a little visibility — and sex appeal — to the work of archaeologists, the discipline remains one which has not been accessible to most college and university undergraduates, particularly in West Michigan.

That will soon change, however. A recent decision by the Faculty Senate at Calvin College implements a new minor in archaeology at the comprehensive, liberal-arts institution, making Calvin one of just three schools in the state of Michigan to offer either a major or minor in archaeology. Wayne State in Detroit offers both a major and a minor, while the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor offers a minor.

Calvin College professor of history Bert DeVries is on the Archaeology Minor Committee and is excited about the new offering.

"A lot of high school students have an interest in archaeology," he says, "but it sort of tapers off when they get to college. It's exciting to think that Calvin can be a place where that enthusiasm is encouraged and developed. I speak to a lot of junior high school students about archaeology and they're fascinated by it. They can't get enough of it."

DeVries, an avid long-distance runner, has been at Calvin since 1967 and during that stint has spent the equivalent of 12 years doing field work in Jordan. He will draw on that vast experience in teaching two archaeology courses at Calvin — an Introduction to Archaeology offering and a more advanced course called Field Work in Archaeology. That latter course will likely take students to Umm el-Jimal (on the fringe of the desert in Northern Jordan) for summer 1996 field work; it also may involve digs in West Michigan.

Students who minor in archaeology also will take four elective courses from a cross-section of academic disciplines, including art (architectural history for example), biology (courses such as comparative vertebrate anatomy), engineering, geography, geology, Greek, Hebrew, history, Latin, religion and sociology.

DeVries thinks it's important for Calvin to offer a minor in archaeology. "We've had what one might call an actual but anonymous minor for a few years now," he says, "with archaeology being a significant component in different religion, history, art and sociology classes, among others, but I think it's important to give students the opportunity to take a specific minor in archaeology. It will give students a cohesive identity and accessibility. Over the past century archaeology has played an extremely significant role in the expansion of knowledge and understanding of the material side of human culture. It's an important discipline in which a school like Calvin should take a leading role."

Although the bespectacled DeVries hates the stereotypical images of archaeologists like Indiana Jones ("I never wanted to be known as an Indiana Jones," he says with a smile), he does acknowledge the role Hollywood has played in bringing one of his lifelong loves to greater public consciousness.

"The movies have made people more aware of archaeology," he says, "but they're trash, particularly the Indiana Jones movies. It's just not archaeology in any sense of the word."

DeVries does acknowledge, however, the excitement of archaeology. "A find can be an alluring thing, he says, "a real adrenaline rush. But it's not all glamour and treasure hunting. There is a lot of painstaking, boring work that takes place on a dig. That's one of the things that our students will find out. That doesn't mean we're trying to discourage them or steer them away from archaeology. It just means that they'll be getting a realistic picture."

DeVries says students already are signing up for the new minor and will be taking a number of the elective courses. The Introduction to Archaeology course will be offered in the spring of 1996 with the Field Work in Archaeology offering to follow that summer in Jordan.