The Interdisciplinary Model
Our current general education model has a wide range of offerings. This can make it difficult for students to appreciate why general education is important. This model aims to make it immediately clear what a general education program is meant to do, and why it is important.
This program is 42 total credit hours.
Interdisciplinary introduction
3 credit hours:
- This course requires some explanation. Three faculty from three distinct designators (across at least two colleges) will create a course around a theme (perhaps one of the United Nations’ sustainability goals or some timely, pressing issue like artificial intelligence). Three sections of this course will be generated. Each faculty member will spend five weeks on the theme as their discipline would approach it in one of the three sections, and then they rotate sections. Three sections will see how three different disciplines approach a particular theme, which will help students understand why they might choose one type of approach over another and the importance of understanding various approaches to the same topic.
Core courses
15 credit hours/one of each of the following:
- A composition course
- A foundational math course
- A quantitative reasoning course
- A critical thinking course
- An oral presentation/difficult dialogue course
Academic approaches
12 credit hours/one of each of the following:
- A course in the arts
- A humanities course
- A natural sciences course
- A social sciences course
Becoming an engaged citizen
9 credit hours/one of each of the following:
- An ethics course
- A racism/civic engagement course
- An intercultural understanding course (experiential learning, including study abroad)
General education capstone
3 credit hours:
- A reflection on one’s experience in this program