"Defining the meaning of higher degrees can provide clarity for institutions, for students, and for a public that seeks to understand what unique educational experience will be had at that particular institution and what makes the investment in that experience worthwhile...Exploring the meaning of a degree thus involves addressing questions about what the institution expects its students -- undergraduates and graduates alike -- to know and be able to do upon graduation, and how graduates embody the distinct values and traditions of the institution through their dispositions and future plans."

- WSCUC 2013 Handbook of Accreditation, pg 29

Meaning can be defined through PLOs and Curriculum Maps

Content and Critical Thinking

1. Employ higher order, multidisciplinary, historically informed critical thinking about American culture.

Diversity

2. Critique the cultural diversity of the American experience, especially in terms of class, ethnicity, religion, gender, and race.

Research and Writing Skills

3. Produce persuasive, nuanced, fact-based interpretations reflecting a close critical reading and sustained analysis of relevant primary and secondary sources.

Theory and Methodology

4. Identify, assess, and integrate different disciplinary, methodological, interpretive, and theoretical approaches to the study of American culture.

Rubrics