New Core General Education

Quantitative reasoning skills are vital for understanding and predicting many personal and societal conditions. Students develop a habit of mind that includes analyzing, evaluating, and communicating situations logically and precisely. These skills are essential in all fields of study and their development should be enhanced and refined throughout the college years. Courses focus on topics necessary to make informed decisions in today’s world such as logic, numeracy, and statistics.

• Outcome: Analyze quantitative data to reason and communicate arguments across varied contexts (Quantitative Literacy VALUE Rubric) 

Reading and writing are used to effectively communicate ideas and to become educated citizens. These skills are essential in all fields of study and their development should be enhanced and refined throughout the college years. This category improves students’ abilities to read and write with clarity, precision, and depth of understanding. 

• Outcome: Develop ideas effectively in writing by integrating evidence with clarity and precision (Written Communication VALUE Rubric) 

Speaking and listening are used to effectively communicate ideas and to become educated citizens. These skills are essential in all fields of study and their development should be enhanced and refined throughout the college years. This category improves students’ abilities to speak and listen with clarity, precision, and depth of understanding. 

• Outcome: Create and deliver presentations to influence diverse audiences' knowledge, attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors (Oral Communication VALUE Rubric) 

Literary texts (oral, written, cinematic, multimedia) imagine what it means to be human. Students critically read a diverse range of texts to both extract and construct meaning. Literary analysis asks students to recognize and use a text’s literary elements, to articulate the contexts that contribute to the text’s meaning, and to consider how meaning differs depending on point of view 

• Outcome: Analyze texts to find and construct meanings utilizing literary elements and contexts (Reading VALUE Rubric) 

It is important to gain a sound understanding of oneself in relation to others and an understanding of the social institutions that people create and which serve to influence our lives. In these courses, students use critical analysis to investigate the influence of social institutions on personal attitudes, values, and behavior in order to gain an understanding of oneself in relation to others. 

• Outcome: Apply strategies to analyze the influence of social and behavioral systems on personal attitudes and interpersonal relations (Problem Solving VALUE Rubric) 

ECO 376 is cross-listed with THA 376. RGS 150 is cross-listed with SOC 150. Cross-listed courses may only be taken once.

Research in the social and behavioral sciences has demonstrated the importance of social relationships, belonging, and mindset for success. This category supports students in developing the knowledge, experiences, and skills that contribute to success in college. These skills are essential in all fields of study, and their development should be enhanced and refined throughout the college years.  

• Outcome: Reflect on and apply learning and social skills that contribute to success in the first year of college and beyond (Foundations and Skills for Lifelong Learning VALUE Rubric) 

The study of the global, interconnected past provides context for understanding the present: what is past is prologue. Students will utilize modes of inquiry to examine historical events and phenomena that have occurred across time and place. Students will construct an understanding of the past by developing historical questions answered through arguments supported by various forms of historical evidence and scholarly research. 

• Outcome: Examine historical events from multiple perspectives, formulating a conclusion based on evidence and scholarly research (Critical Thinking VALUE Rubric) 

The arts represent a fusion of the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual realities of the human condition. Study of the arts leads to heightened aesthetic experiences and deepens cultural understanding. This includes courses that focus on understanding, appreciating, and experiencing the fine and performing arts. 

• Outcome: Analyze artistic elements to foster creative thinking and deepen cultural appreciation (Creative Thinking VALUE Rubric) 

As the health and prosperity of our society becomes more dependent on science and technology, individuals must be sufficiently knowledgeable about scientific facts and applications to make skilled decisions concerning their use. In these courses, students learn content and principles within the natural sciences, how scientists use the scientific method as a way of understanding the world, and how to critically evaluate claims from a scientific perspective. Students also experience the “doing” of science first-hand in a laboratory setting. 

• Outcome: Analyze scientific facts and applications to draw informed conclusions through systematic inquiry in a laboratory environment (Inquiry and Analysis VALUE Rubric) 

The well-being of individuals and communities is inseparable from the health of the environmental systems that sustain them. Students gain the knowledge and skills to improve their own well-being through the application of the dimensions of wellness (such as physical, emotional, intellectual, environmental, social, spiritual, occupational) and engage in ethical reasoning about how individual decisions and actions impact the wellness of others in the world. Through courses in this category, students recognize that caring for oneself and caring for the world are interconnected dimensions of a healthy, sustainable future.  

• Outcome: Analyze sustainable and ethical principles of multidimensional wellness to address complex challenges. (Ethical Reasoning VALUE Rubric) 

We live in an interconnected world in which understanding of cultures and societies is essential. Students will explore cultural and ethical perspectives different from their own; reflect on how their own cultural rules influence their behavior and how others view them. 

• Outcome: Apply knowledge of global communities through critical engagement with diverse cultural practices and/or languages (Global Learning VALUE Rubric) 

ANT 312 is cross-listed with HIS 312. Cross-listed courses may only be taken once.

An essential goal of general education is to prepare students for informed and responsible participation in a diverse democracy. This category emphasizes understanding how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and other intersecting identities shape the civic, social, cultural, and political life of U.S. communities. Courses in this area examine systems of power and inequality, explore historical and contemporary struggles for justice and inclusion, and foster civic knowledge, empathy, and engagement across difference. 

• Outcome: Interpret varied contexts to interact with diverse and intersectional U.S. communities (Civic Engagement VALUE Rubric) 

ANT 362 is cross-listed with RGS 362. ENG 210 is cross-listed with RGS 210. ENG 215 is cross-listed with RGS 215. Cross-listed courses may only be taken once.