The General Education Requirement

The general education program of the School of Humanities and Sciences explores human communities - how they form, the ways in which they function, and how they and the individuals within them express meaning. The faculty of the school believes that students can best become productive contributors to their communities by developing the sensitivities, knowledge, and values needed to sustain the complex, diverse democracy that is modern American society.

Students should

· understand their own values, beliefs, and behaviors that have directed them to assume roles they currently hold in their own communities.

· discover how they are affected by the systems and values that govern and perpetuate the larger communities of which they are a part.

· learn the scientific and mathematical ways of understanding, interpreting, and managing their environments.

· learn to analyze and understand the meanings and purposes behind the verbal and visual ways in which individuals and communities express themselves.

· explore how the past of these communities has shaped their present and grasp the reasons behind changes in the natures and expressions of human communities.

· explore how different human communities affect one another when they meet in an attempt to understand systems of belief different from those to which they are accustomed.

To meet these goals, students in H&S must complete foundation, focused curricular choice, and global and historical perspective requirements in addition to the requirements of their specific majors.

Foundation Courses

Writing effectiveness

Effective writing is defined as writing that is clear, focused, and adequately developed in response to an assignment. Such writing is well organized and reasonably correct, according to conventional standards of grammar, punctuation, and usage.

Students can satisfy the writing effectiveness requirement by receiving both

1. a score of 4 or 5 on the College Board Advanced Placement Language and Composition or Literature and Composition Examination and

2. a score of 1 or 2 on the writing department placement test.

Students in H&S who do not satisfy the requirement in this way must complete 377-10600, 377-10700, 377-15000, 377-15100, or 377-16500. At the end of each of these courses, the instructor applies the criteria established for effective writing to determine which students meet the writing requirement. Students are notified of the decision. Students failing to meet the requirement after earning credit for 377-10600, 377-15000, 377-15100, or 377-16500 may then do so either by enrolling in 377-10700 (if credit has not already been earned for this course) or by completing a writing portfolio under the direction of a writing department faculty member. At the end of the semester, the student is notified as to whether the requirement has been satisfied.

Students failing to satisfy the writing effectiveness requirement after completing the portfolio process must satisfy it by meeting guidelines established by their major department.

Detailed information on the portfolio process is available from the writing department and the student's academic adviser. Guidelines for departmental majors are available from each academic department in H&S.

Mathematics

Students must either achieve a score on the Math Placement exam placing them in Group 3, 2, or 1 or, if placed in Group 4, earn a grade of C- or better in 313-10000 or 313-18000.

Focused Curricular Choice

As part of the study of human communities, the general education program of the School of Humanities and Sciences divides its general education curriculum into three broad areas. Each of these areas is further subdivided into two categories of inquiry that strongly relate to and complement one another but concentrate on different aspects of the larger area of inquiry.

By adopting this structure, the general education program recognizes that the goal of investigating human communities both divides the curriculum broadly yet also suggests relationships among courses within the broader areas.

Courses that may be used to fulfill the requirements of the general education program will carry a designation indicating the curricular area and category into which the course is placed. Some courses may be classified in more than one category. Courses that carry dual category designations may be used to fulfill one or the other of the categories but not both. Designated courses that meet major and/or other degree requirements may also be counted toward satisfying the requirements of the general education program.

Course credit earned through College Board Advanced Placement Examinations may not be used to meet the general education requirements of the School of Humanities and Sciences.

Global and Historical Perspectives

A number of courses in the three curricular areas of inquiry cultivate a global and/or historical perspective on human communities. A course is categorized as primarily global in focus if it concentrates on developing an understanding of communities outside the United States. It is categorized as primarily historical in focus if it concentrates on developing a historical understanding of how communities develop and function. A course can be designated as both global and historical if it concentrates on both of these aspects.

Students in H&S must include in their coursework at least 6 credits with a global designation and 6 credits with a historical designation.

Courses satisfying the global and historical perspectives requirements may come from those courses used to satisfy the area/category requirement. A course with a dual global and historical designation may be used to meet the requirement in one or the other perspective but not both. Credits earned in an approved study abroad program will fulfill the global perspective requirement.

Focused Curricular Choice

Area of Inquiry	Category	Credits	Area Total
1. Self and Society - How human communities form and how their members govern themselves	a. Values, beliefs, and behaviors b. Cultures and institutions Either category a or b	3 6 3	12
2. Science, Mathematics, and Formal Reasoning - How humans and their communities explore and reason	a. Science b. Mathematics and formal reasoning	6 3	9
3. Human Expression - How humans and their communities express themselves visually and verbally	a. Language b. Visual and performing arts	6 6	12