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The College of Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum (Core) provides an innovative common learning experience for all undergraduates in the college. The Core invites students to explore four college-wide themes from multiple disciplinary perspectives and to develop important intellectual skills. Students focus on a theme each year: Environmental Awareness (first year), Social and Global Awareness (second year), Critical Thinking (third year), and Citizenship (fourth year). Skills of communication, quantitative reasoning, and critical thinking are taught throughout the Core. Designed to provide a foundation in the liberal arts, the Core reflects the values of the college and prepares students for living informed, thoughtful, and active lives in a complex and changing society.

2023–2024 First Year Theme

Environmental Awareness

All entering students enroll in Introduction to Environmental Issues and a four-credit Laboratory Science course. Students discover science as a process and discuss the role of science and technology in society. The laboratory science course also serves to introduce the scientific method as an approach to knowledge, while infusing consideration of issues pertaining to environmental awareness.

As part of the first-year experience, students enroll in one Humanities Exploration course and a subsequent Humanities or Social/Behavioral Sciences Exploration course. These courses are designed to foster student inquiry into engaging academic topics. Each Exploration course introduces the intellectual tools of the discipline in which it is offered, encouraging students to understand the liberal arts as including distinctive ways of understanding. All Exploration courses promote writing as a tool of expression and explicitly teach critical thinking skills.

2023–2024 Second Year Theme

Social and Global Awareness

Students come to understand the human experience by means of two specific types of courses: Social and Global Awareness (SGA) and Human Traditions (HT).

In the SGA courses, human experience is explored in cultural, societal, national, and global contexts. Students use perspectives and methods of the social and behavioral sciences to examine human interaction and growth. Students complete two SGA courses in the second year.

In HT courses, human experience is examined within the traditions of the humanities. Students inquire into the rise and fall of civilizations; study works of art and literature; and, examine the philosophical, religious, and economic ideas that shaped ancient cultures and the modern world. Students complete two HT courses in the second year, with one focused on human prehistory to approximately 1500 and the other focused on human cultures from 1500 to the present day.

2023–2024 Third Year Theme

Critical Thinking: Human Responses to Problems and Challenges

This theme is offered through students’ major programs of study and builds upon the knowledge and skills students have developed during their first two years. This theme and approach enhance students’ ability to deal with the complex problems and issues they confront in their upper-level major courses. Each academic program requires its majors to enroll in a course where students and faculty engage in informed critical and creative thinking about problems confronting their discipline. Grounded in the thinking process as well as on the issues, students research and identify causes of problems, generate and evaluate possible solutions, and decide upon a plan of action.

2023–2024 Fourth Year Theme

Citizenship

This theme focuses on preparing students to make a difference in the world, their communities, and their professions. Students enroll in an interdisciplinary seminar and participate in community service and civic activity. During this seminar, students discuss personal, professional, and public responsibilities as they anticipate and share their concerns for the world they are about to enter. The seminar challenges students to understand the balance between making a living and making a life. Activities provide the opportunity to weave together various threads of the Core and the major.

2023–2024 Additional Core Requirements

In the third and fourth years of study, students select two Advanced Studies courses outside of their major area of study and based upon their interests. Major areas are broadly defined as the natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences, humanities, professional programs, and interdisciplinary programs. Advanced Studies courses explore methodologies, theories, and/or concepts important within the disciplines in the College of Arts and Sciences.

At some time in their academic career, all students participate in a Creative Arts Experience (CAE) by taking a specifically designated CAE course or by completing an independent project. This requirement emphasizes the value of students’ creative spirits and uncovers gifts that will sustain students throughout their lives.

2023–2024 College of Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum Goals and Learning Outcomes

Students in the College of Arts and Sciences will prepare for twenty-first-century challenges by acquiring and demonstrating a variety of separate but interrelated concepts and skills.

Acquire Knowledge

Students will acquire and demonstrate knowledge of and skills in disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives and methodologies in all of the following areas humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics.

Develop Skillful Thinking

Students will demonstrate their ability to engage in multiple modes of scholarly inquiry including critical thinking, creative thinking, decision making and problem-solving, and quantitative reasoning.

Expand Expressive Capabilities

Students will demonstrate proficiency in expressing original thought through different avenues including oral, written, graphic, and symbolic communication, and artistic expression.

Demonstrate Understanding of What It Means to Act Responsibly and Ethically

Students will show evidence of a greater understanding of their place in the world and their responsibilities by demonstrating these proficiencies at multiple levels, including persona