Foundational Experiences

Foundation Seminar

(One writing-intensive W1 course, taken in the fall of the first year)

1. Students will develop writing, reading, speaking, listening and information literacy skills necessary for collegiate-level academic work.
2. Students will develop capacities for independent academic work and become more accountable for their own learning.

Integrated Perspectives Course

(One team-taught interdisciplinary course, taken during the sophomore or junior year, from the list of designated courses)

1. Students will recognize, construct and evaluate connections among different intellectual methods, ways of learning and bodies of knowledge.

Foreign Language Course*

(One course from the list of designated courses)

1. Students will study language as a complex multifunctional phenomenon — as a system for communicating thought and information and as an essential element of human thought processes, perceptions and self-expression — that allows students to understand different peoples and their communities.
2. Students will examine the world, their own culture and their own language through the lens of a foreign language and culture.

Lab Science Course*

(One course from the list of designated courses)

1. Students will develop a unified understanding of scientific theory and practice in modern natural science.
2. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the development of science as an intellectual pursuit and of the ways in which scientific ideas are formulated, modified and come to be accepted.
3. Students will demonstrate skill in the application of scientific techniques and methods, including the collection, analysis and interpretation of data and communication of results.

Quantitative Reasoning Course*

(One course from the list of designated courses)

1a. Students will demonstrate college-level knowledge of a body of mathematical and/or statistical techniques suitable for modeling and analyzing real world questions/situations, and will gain some experience in such modeling, including experience in building, describing, testing, analyzing and making predictions from such models.

OR

1b. Based on a focused course experience, students will apply basic mathematical and/or statistical techniques at a college level of sophistication in the analysis and modeling of real-world questions or problems, including experience in building, describing, testing, analyzing and making predictions from such models.

AND

2. Students will formulate questions and propositions for quantitative analysis, translate the question into a form appropriate for the chosen quantitative model, and interpret and evaluate the results of the model in ways meaningful to the problem at hand. Students will demonstrate the ability to assess the validity and limitations of quantitative models and an understanding of the role of the assumptions made in the construction of these models.

Race, Power and Inequality Course*

(One course from the list of designated courses)

1. Students will acquire contextualized knowledge about the processes (historical, social, political, etc.) by which different forms of power and privilege construct, maintain and enforce structural oppression related to race and identity.
2. Students will acquire the vocabulary and analytical tools necessary to examine critically the disproportionate impact of structural inequality on marginalized peoples and communities.
3. Students will use concepts and methodologies from at least one discipline or interdisciplinary field to interrogate complex interrelationships between individuals, groups and power structures, especially as they have manifested and been contested over time.

Nature, People and Justice Course*

(One course from the list of designated courses)

1. Students will acquire contextualized knowledge about the processes (historical, ecological, biophysical, geological, social, political, economic, cultural, etc.) that have produced significant disruptions to the structures and functions of environmental systems that support life.
2. Students will use concepts and methodologies from at least one discipline or interdisciplinary field to critically examine the consequences of environmental change.
3. Students will reflect critically on their roles — both as individuals and as members of society — in producing, mitigating and adapting to significant disruptions in human-environmental systems, and identify potential courses of action necessary to create a more just and equitable world.

Global Connections

(One course from the list of designated courses)

1. Students will use concepts and tools of inquiry to examine the beliefs, history, social experiences, social structures, artistic or literary expressions, and/or traditions of one or more cultures or societies located outside the United States.

OR

2. Students will use appropriate tools of inquiry to understand the interdependent nature of the global system and the consequences this interdependence has for political, economic and social problems.

*These courses may double count in the Disciplinary Exploration section of the curriculum.