September 17, 2004

A university vision (#11)

I. Mission Statement (with purposeful plagiarisms from Furman University):

"The primary mission of this university as a liberal arts college is to teach students how to think across a wide variety of disciplines. The academic program also encourages students to engage ethical issues and critically examine inherited assumptions in an environment of openness, honesty, tolerance and mutual respect that protects freedom of expression and fosters the open exchange of ideas in the continuing search for truth and knowledge."

II. Principles:

Knowledge is defined as: "the act, fact, or state of knowing" (Webster's New World Dictionary, 1986). We interpret this definition to mean that knowledge is content, process, and expression. Our curriculum explicitly emphasizes and values each of these aspects of knowledge by requiring students to: 1) acquire information across a range of disciplines (content); 2) learn to think critically across a range of disciplines (process); and 3) communicate that knowledge skillfully (expression). Finally, to use this knowledge effectively, students must be literate members of our society who understand the major dynamics of our current cultural, historical, and natural context.

These goals are manifest in the following principles:

1. Students should be exposed to central tenets in the disciplines of the
humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. (content)

2. Students should learn to use the tools of artistic and textual analysis,
scientific analysis, logic, and quantitative analysis. (process)

3. Students should be able to write and speak effectively. (expression)

4. To meaningfully contribute to humanity in the 21st century, students
should develop a fundamental level of multicultural literacy, ethical
literacy, environmental literacy, and informational/technological literacy.
(context)

Corollary:
5. If they happen to fulfill these objectives while also pursuing a specific
career path to earn tons of cash, so be it. Remember, "j - o - b" is not a
four letter word. Our idealistic students who want to save the world are
less likely to do so if they become another academic.

These principles are manifest in our requirements for graduation. All students must meet the following distributional requirements. A course can fulfill only one content area requirement, but multiple skill requirements (see below). Courses can count towards the GER and major.

 

SKILLS

 

 

expression

critical thinking

context

 

 

writing

public speaking

artistic/textual analysis

scientific analysis

logical/quantitative analysis

multicultural literacy

ethical literacy

environmental literacy

informational literacy

 

CONTENT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cr. Hrs.

1. GER's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lit/Music/Fine Arts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

History/Religion/Philosophy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

Natural Science/Math

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

Social Science

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

Language/Computing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Contemporary Issues Seminar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Major

x

x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

40-52

Capstone experience

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

Skills Requirements

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

 

B. Skill Areas:

One fundamental purpose of a liberal arts education is to be able to think in different ways; to apply the correct analytical tool to a new problem. Our university explicitly teaches students how to think and how to express their ideas. To do this, our courses not only focus on content, but also on process, expression, and context. Obviously, specific courses will focus on these goals to different degrees. All courses will contain particular content. However, for courses to qualify for 'skill development', that skill must become a legitimate, concrete, identifiable and significant element of the course. The skill will be taught intentionally, rather than only as a consequence or correlate of the content.

C. Course Credits:
Courses will be either 'standard' courses and will earn 4 hrs. credit, or they will be 'seminars' and will earn 2 hrs. credit. The purpose of seminar courses is to examine a more restricted topic in greater detail.
All four credit courses, including GER courses, must apply 3 (and only 3) skill areas.
All two credit courses, including Contemporary Issues courses, must apply 2 (and only 2) skills areas. Contemporary Issues courses are expected to apply 2 context skills in an interdependent manner.

III. Graduation Requirements:

A. Credits:
128 credits earned in 4-credit courses
6 credits earned in 2-credit seminars (Contemporary Issues)
134 credits total

B. Distributional Requirements:

1. GER Courses:
All students must earn GER credits listed above.
AP courses will earn 4 course credits, but not "skills" credit.
GER course can be applied towards the major.


2. Contemporary Issues Seminars:
Over the course of a student's academic tenure, they must earn credit for three different "Contemporary Issues" courses (2 credits each). One course must be taken in the first year, and one must be taken in the second year, and one must be taken in either the third year or later.

3. Majors:
All students will major in a particular course of study. The major program will consist of a minimum of 10 required courses (40 credits), and a maximum of 13 required courses (52 credits). There must be courses in each major that fulfill skills requirements in at least writing and public speaking. It is expected that the majority of courses within each major will also fulfill other skills requirements. In fact, it is hoped that each major will attempt to offer as many different context and critical thinking courses as is legitimately possible within that discipline. In addition, interdisciplinary courses could fulfill interesting combinations of skill requirements while also earning major credit.
All students will conduct a capstone experience in their major. Typically, this will be a novel, independent experience such as independent research or independent study. The 4 hrs. of credit are included within the major.

Posted by love at September 17, 2004 04:47 PM
Discuss this proposal in the forum, or leave a comment below!

Comments

One of the things that I remain undecided about is whether disciplinary knowledge, or "ways of knowing," should be highlighted in the curriculum (that is to say students should have a class in "thinking like an historian," thinking like a chemist," and so on) as we do in the current curriculum, or if this should be something that comes as a byproduct of other approaches. I think the disciplinary differences are of profound importance, but there may be other goals (justice, empathy, sense of self and others) that may take priority.

Posted by: Lloyd Benson at September 19, 2004 09:18 AM