Goal and Structure of the General Education Program

Goal of the Program:

The goal of general education is to enable you to live a rich, meaningful life by developing: an informed appreciation of the arts, humanities, and natural and social sciences; an ability to intelligently follow and participate in current events; and a sensitive and tutored appreciation of diverse cultures and ways of living.

Structure of the Program:

The first tier, the basic skills courses, is intended to ensure that you have fundamental skills in the modes of organizing, analyzing and presenting information that will be required in the rest of your collegiate studies. Thus, these courses should be taken at the very beginning of your studies. The other general education courses have components in them that address these skills to ensure that you will continue to build on what you have learned in the basic skills courses.

Students are required to complete this part of their general education program in their first 48 credit hours.

The second tier of the program is an introduction to the major arenas of intellectual life: the humanities and fine arts, the social sciences, and mathematics and the natural sciences.

Students are required to take at least one Introductory Course in the fine arts, and two each in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics/natural sciences.

Students may take Introductory Courses concurrently with the Basic Skills courses, subject to course prerequisites.

The third tier of the program allows students to follow interests developed in the introductory courses.

Issues and Perspectives courses address broad issues and often use a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach. Further Study courses are more focused studies in the various disciplines outside students' majors that allow them to follow up on interests developed in the introductory courses.