Curriculum Overview

The proposed curriculum for the Liberal Arts Experience in the College of Arts and Sciences is depicted below.

We provide an overview of the curriculum structures and contents here and a more detailed description of each component and its rationale in the section that follows.

The curriculum is structured around 3 broad objectives of a liberal arts education:

1. 1. 1. Building Critical Intellectual Skills

      2. Exploring Diverse Disciplinary Perspectives and Tools

      3. Tackling Big Questions and Contemporary Challenges from Multidisciplinary Perspectives

To fulfill these objectives, students take at least 12 distinct courses:

• 1 Big Questions seminar (reimagined version of the first-year seminar)

• 2 First-Year Writing courses

• 1 course in Mathematics

• At least 2 courses and 7 credits in each of the 4 areas below:

Human Experience, Language, and Arts:

• Interpreting and Understanding Human Experience

• Creating and Expressing through Arts and Languages

The Natural and Social Sciences:

• Investigating the Natural World (including 1 lab)

• Investigating the Social World

The proposal also includes a new system of requirements called encounters:

Across coursework in the Disciplinary Perspectives and in students’ individual program of studies (e.g., major, minor, free electives), students satisfy 3 encounters in each of 3 areas:

1. Writing (W)

2. Quantitative Reasoning (Q)

3. Contemporary Challenges (CC)

Encounters are opportunities within courses that emphasize and build capacity in central themes or skills present across the curriculum. The encounters system is based on the premise that students develop a richer and more complete mastery of focal skills and themes when there are multiple opportunities to practice and learn about them infused throughout the curriculum. Encounters may be fulfilled through W-, Q-, and CC-designated courses throughout the curriculum, including courses completed for majors, minors, free electives, and courses in the Disciplinary Perspectives.