Overview of the Central Curriculum
The Central Curriculum contains five complementary sections, each containing multiple requirements and focused on specific elements of the University Learning Goals (ULG).
Section 1. Richness of Thought
4 semester hours in Analytical Thought
4 semester hours in Literary Expression
4 semester hours in Artistic Expression
Among the goals of the Richness of Thought area are teaching students to debate the definitions of literary text, canon(s), and the relationship between them; to abstract a problem into a symbolic or mathematical model or framework; and to articulate an understanding of the ways in which art can serve as a medium for recognizing and understanding the diversities of human experiences. These requirements are designed to address ULG#1.
Section 2. Natural World
4 semester hours in Scientific Explanations
Also focusing primarily on ULG #1, students completing the Natural World requirement will be able to describe the philosophical underpinnings of science as it is used to explain the natural world and to evaluate the validity of information presented as science.
Section 3. Human Interactions
4 semester hours in Social Interactions
4 semester hours in Historical Perspectives
4 semester hours in Ethics
4 semester hours in EthicsIntensive courses
0–8 semester hours (depending on placement) in World Language courses*
*The policy related to accommodations for the World Languages requirement may be found under “Services for Students with Disabilities” in this catalog. The policy related to determining placement for World Languages courses may be found under the “Language Placement” in this catalog.
The objectives of this area of the Central Curriculum lead students to demonstrate an understanding and evaluate how the methods of analysis from the social sciences are used to identify issues and explore conflict within a contemporary context; to describe the way past events and trends are relevant to the present; to articulate the implications of ethical questions for human life; and to compare and contrast another language and culture with their own. These learning objectives support ULGs #1 and 4.
Section 4. Intellectual Skills
Designed to address primarily ULG #2, this set of requirements focuses on developing and strengthening an integrated set of intellectual skills that will enable students to address complex problems from a variety of approaches. Elements of these requirements also focus on ULGs #3 and 4, personal and ethical development.
4 semester hours in First-Year Seminar
8 semester hours in Writing Intensive courses
Through this area of the Central Curriculum students should learn core intellectual skills such as developing, strengthening, and marshaling an argument for written expression.
Section 5. Connections
This group of requirements primarily supports ULGs #3 and 4, promoting a mature understanding of self and one’s relationship to others.
4 semester hours in an Interdisciplinary course
4 semester hours in Diversity
4 semester hours in Diversity Intensive courses
A Cross-Cultural experience that may or may not bear credit, depending on the specific experience selected by the student
2 semester hours total in a Cross-Cultural preparation course and a Cross-Cultural reflection course, the latter to be taken after the student returns from the Cross-Cultural experience; or a 4 SH GOEX course which includes embedded preparatory and reflective elements.
Study in this area of the Central Curriculum will lead students to have a fundamental understanding of multiple theories and principles of diversity, to demonstrate a complex understanding of culture, to reflect on their personal growth, social responsibility, and the value of active participation in human society, and to show an appreciation of how different academic disciplines can supplement and reinforce one another.
Details of the Central Curriculum Requirements
Richness of Thought
A major emphasis of the Central Curriculum is to bring students into contact with the richness and depth of various modes of human thought, including analytical thought, literary expression, and artistic expression.
Analytical Thought
Analytical thinking is a valuable tool for both problem solving and for exploring, understanding, and evaluating information and ideas. It involves breaking apart ideas, arguments, or problems into components, determining the significance of each component relative to the others, and using these insights to synthesize a solution or conclusion. Significance of the components is explored using formal and informal processes such as abstraction, deduction, pattern recognition, or symbolic manipulation. Courses that satisfy the analytical thinking requirement will focus on one or more of these processes, in addition to the technique of translating problem components to or from an abstract model and interpreting the results of such problem-solving.
Learning goals:
Abstract a problem into a symbolic or mathematical model or framework. (ULG 2a)
Interpret such a model or framework in terms of a real-world construct. (ULG 1b, 2a)
Reason from precisely stated principles using deductive methods and draw valid conclusions. (ULG 2c)
Recognize, manipulate, and reason from or about abstract patterns. (ULG 2b)
Artistic Expression
The fine and performing arts at once reflect and influence the world around us. A critical understanding and appreciation of significant expressions from historical and contemporary artists are therefore essential. Both aid in developing an intellectual and emotional awareness of the internal and external forces that shape our shared and varying complex human experience. The learning goals for artistic expression courses are applicable for all students, whether they identify as practitioners, critics, or receivers of the art under investigation.
Learning goals:
Demonstrate an understanding of the essential elements and creative processes that constitute the art(s) under examination. (ULG 1a, 1b)
Articulate an understanding of the ways in which art can serve as a medium for recognizing and understanding the diversities of human experiences and the relationship between art and its audiences. (ULG 2c, ULG 3a)
Articulate an informed understanding of the art(s) under examination by identifying aesthetic traditions/inquiries and cultural interactions associated with the discipline. (ULG 3a, 4c)
Literary Expression
A Literary Expression course helps students understand and engage with written texts; fosters their participation with creative and scholarly interpretive communities; and trains them to examine the relationship of texts to larger socio- political power structures. Through the study of a wide range of literary texts and through creative practice, students investigate and analyze an array of approaches to producing, circulating, and/or interpreting literary texts that are or have been relevant to scholars, creative writers, publishers, editors, public intellectuals, activists, and educators. Students are thereby introduced to the ways that reader reception is shaped by a variety of socio-cultural and epistemological factors: subjectivity, identity, diversity, economic production, social and environmental justice and injustice, and the ethics of representation.
Learning Goals:
Explain or demonstrate ways that literary texts generate meaning by considering: the creative process (issues of form and craft), analytical frames (issues of interpretation and critique), modes of dissemination (issues of distribution and technology), and/or reputation (issues ofsocial and cultural capital). (ULG 1a, 2b)
Critically and/or creatively investigate how a literary text reflects, even as it helps to construct, its relation to socio-political power structures, by referencing race, class, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, ability, nationality, religion, science, nature, and/or technology. (ULG 2b)
Critically and/or creatively engage with the aesthetic traditions, conventions, canons, and/or assumptions associated with understanding written texts as works of art. (ULG 1a)
Natural World
The Scientific Exploration of the natural world is essential to contemporary life. The Central Curriculum emphasizes that all students need coursework in the sciences.
Scientific Explanations
The scientific explanations requirement is designed to enable students to understand science as a way of thinking about the natural world. These courses emphasize the use of scientific investigation to explore questions about the natural world and focus on science as a human endeavor with social and ethical implications. A sound understanding of scientific principles is critical to being able to make informed decisions as an individual and as a citizen.
Learning Goals:
Demonstrate knowledge of fundamental components (e.g., nomenclature, classification, methods, principles, and relevant technologies) of the scientific discipline(s)studied. (ULG 1a, 1b)
Summarize how theories are proposed, revised, tested, and accepted by the scientific community. (ULG 1b, 2a)
Apply one or more methods used by science in a research setting (whether in the field, laboratory, or a combination of both) to gather and evaluate information for analyzing and solving problems. (ULG 2c)
Explore how science intersects with the broader society, including topics such as ethical decision making, public policy, and sustainability. (ULG 4d)
Human Interactions
The objectives of this area of the Central Curriculum include leading students to demonstrate an understanding of the methods of analysis from the social sciences are used to identify issues and explore conflict within a contemporary context; to describe the way past events and trends are relevant to the present; to articulate the implications of ethical questions for human life; and to compare and contrast another language and culture with their own.
Social Interactions
Interpreting social interactions is a process in which the practices of people are scientifically observed and are assessed in light of how subjective experiences affect those practices. The Social Interactions requirement enables students to understand sustained, structured, and informal engagement with culture and the social environment. Examining individual behaviors and institutional forces through methods of social science analysis, students are offered opportunities to investigate societal conflict and arrangements through prevailing social theories and to explore the social construction of knowledge.
Learning goals:
Identify and define ways in which social interactions between individuals and/or between individuals and institutions help shape the world around them. (ULG 1c, 2b)
Demonstrate an understanding and evaluate how the methods of analysis from the social sciences are used to identify issues and explore conflict within a contemporary context. (ULG 2b)
Give examples of the ways in which the construction of knowledge in the social sciences is based upon prevailing theories and experiences. (ULG 1b, 1c)
Historical Perspectives
Understanding how past events, attitudes and perceptions impact our current viewpoints and shape our future is an essential intellectual viewpoint that helps students deal responsibly with who they are. The Historical Perspectives requirement focuses on shaping students’ skills for understanding and ‘doing’ history as a way of thinking about our world.
Learning goals:
Understand how historians acquire and evaluate information, including how they
a. Differentiate between primary and secondary sources and utilize both these sources to analyze historical events. (ULG 1b, 1c)
b. Recognize various categories(written, oral, visual, performative, material) of both primary and secondary sources. (ULG 1b, 1c)Describe the way past events and trends are relevant to the present. (ULG 1a)
Analyze changes overtime by tracing connections through/via chronological narratives. (ULG 1a)
Articulate the ways in which diverse historical actors shape and are shaped by historical events. (ULG 2a)
Recognize that various types and perspectives of historical analysis exist. (ULG 2b)
Ethics
The Central Curriculum Ethics requirement provides a general introductory course on normative ethics within a theoretical and/or applied context. These courses engage students in philosophical and/or religious ethics, such as outcome-based, rule-based, or character-based approaches.
Learning goals:
Recognize the various dimensions of ethical questions and their implications for human life. (ULG 1a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d)
Demonstrate an ability to use at least one moral principle or theory to construct or assess an ethical argument. (ULG 2a, 2b)
Develop a reasoned argument for an ethical position and defend it from possible objections. (ULG 2a)
Understand the concept of moral standing and its significance for ethical questions. (ULG 2a, 4a)
Ethics Intensive
The Central Curriculum Ethics Intensive Course serves the purpose of teaching students the critical importance of ethical reasoning in a given field of inquiry or realm of human practice. Examples might include medical ethics, business ethics, environmental ethics, research ethics, ethics of clinical psychology, accounting ethics, etc. Foundations laid in Ethics courses are critically applied here, so it is advisable for students to take this requirement following completion of the Ethics course requirement.
Learning goals:
Demonstrate an understanding of ethical reasoning as it relates to specific course content. (ULG 1c, 2b)
Critically analyze ethical positions or standards related to course content. (ULG 2b)
World Languages
The World Language requirement is designed to give students a foothold in the broader world by equipping them with the basic tools to make human connections and explore the richness of world cultures in a language other than English. A second language is a vehicle for appreciating diversity and exploring culture both in the U.S. and abroad, and it promotes global citizenship, an underlying objective of the Cross-Cultural Requirement. It fosters the exchange of ideas and perspectives in cultural contexts, and it hones analytical and other intellectual skills applicable to all areas of learning.
Learning Goals:
Demonstrate an ability to understand writing used for everyday situations, needs, and experiences, including cultural phenomena and practices. (UGL 1c, 3a, 4c)
Demonstrate an ability to understand spoken language relating to everyday situations, needs, and experiences, including cultural phenomena and practices. (UGL 1c, 3a, 4c)
Demonstrate an ability to exchange information in spoken conversations relating to everyday situations, needs, and experiences. (2c)
Demonstrate an ability to write about everyday situations, needs, and experiences. (2c)
Completion through the 102 level (or its equivalent) of any language other than English fulfills this requirement.*
* The policy related to accommodations for the World Languages requirement may be found under “Services for Students with Disabilities” in this catalog. The policy related to determining placement for World Languages courses may be found under the “Language Placement” in this catalog.
Intellectual Skills
College graduates enter an increasingly competitive global marketplace that demands competency in several diverse intellectual skills. In addition, there is an increasing need to bridge and merge disciplines. These needs are addressed in several intensive requirements and the interdisciplinary course.
First-Year Seminar (FYSE)
First-Year Seminar is an integral component of students’ first-year experience, focusing on a topic chosen by each instructor. Students use writing to explore and connect the academic content of the course topic to foster their intellectual and personal development. Additionally, it provides students with vocabulary and strategies for multiple writing tasks.
First-Year Seminar emphasizes how writing skills can transfer to other classes.
Therefore, first-year students learn the terms, methods, and goals of academic writing. It familiarizes students with writing tools, skills, and knowledge. It encourages students to develop their ideas, explore and support them with evidence, logically marshal that evidence, and express themselves in context-appropriate styles.
Learning goals:
Cultivate social and intellectual habits required to thrive in new academic and social environments (ULG 3b)
Demonstrate critical thinking and reading skills to gather, evaluate, and incorporate information from sources (ULG 2a, 2B); (ULG 2a)
Employ writing strategies appropriate to the audience and subject matter (ULG 1a)
Compose across at least two forms of writing to explore how writing conventions shape and are shaped by readers’ and writers’ practices, purposes, and values. (ULG 1a)
Critically reflect on transferring and adapting intellectual and writing skills and knowledge from one context to another. (ULG 3c)
Writing Intensive
The purpose of Writing Intensive courses is to help students further hone their writing skills. These courses are often part of a student’s major. In keeping with best practices in Writing Across the Curriculum studies and in writing studies, we promote a genre-informed teaching for-transfer approach to Writing Intensive courses. Research demonstrates that providing explicit instruction on genre and reflection better prepares students to exercise writing skills across contexts.
Students first encounter “genre” and reflection in ENGL 100 or HONS 100. Writing Intensive courses can expand students’ understanding of those terms and practices.
Learning goals:
Employ rhetorical strategies appropriate for class assignments and discipline. (ULG 1b, 1c)
Learn from and respond to criticism of rhetorical, organizational, and genre- based strategies in their own writing. (ULG 2a, 2c)
Compose in multiple forms to explore the ways genre conventions shape and are shaped by readers’ and writers’ goals or values. (ULG 2c)
Connections
Study in this area of the Central Curriculum should lead students to have a fundamental understanding of multiple theories and principles of diversity, to demonstrate a complex understanding of culture, and to reflect on their personal growth, social responsibility, and the value of active participation in human society.
Interdisciplinary Course
The Interdisciplinary course requirement addresses the ULGs’ emphasis on the “integration” of learning. Such courses enable students to cross the lines of academic disciplines to integrate their learning and investigate complex problems relevant to our diverse, dynamic, and interdependent world. Sophomore standing is required for all interdisciplinary courses to provide students with a sufficient academic foundation to engage in interdisciplinary analysis.
Learning goals:
Critically and/or creatively engage with the course topic(s) from the perspectives of at least two academic disciplines. (ULG 2a, 2b)
Evaluate how different academic disciplines complement and reinforce one another. (ULG 2a, 2b)
Appraise how interdisciplinary study enhanced the critical and/or creative engagement with the course topic(s). (ULG 2c)
Diversity
Diversity courses teach students about the richness of human diversity. They also expose, critique, and confront historical and contemporary sources of social and cultural conflict. Using different frameworks and theories, diversity courses teach students how to investigate issues related to human difference, including how a variety of structures intersect with their own respective experiences.
Learning goals:
Be able to use established frameworks and theories to recognize that diversity includes but is not limited to intersections among race, gender, culture, ethnicity, age, geographic origin, ability, social and economic class, sexuality, religion, and nationality. (ULG 1a, 4c)
Be able to question and critique how power and privilege shape understandings of diversity and identity, their own and others.’ (ULG 3a, 3b)
Diversity Intensive
Diversity intensive courses illuminate how human diversity is conceptualized and actualized in a discipline specific context. Positions of race, gender, culture, ethnicity, age, geographic origin, ability, social and economic class, sexuality, religion, and nationality all play a role in how power and privilege function in our society. This relationship of various human conditions to systemic realities will be an underlying theme or thread throughout the course.
Learning goals:
Be able to integrate diverse discipline-related perspectives on diversity while addressing specific course content. (ULG 1c, 4c)
Recognize how diversity expands knowledge and equity within the discipline, and how inequalities of diverse human experiences affect the production of knowledge and the practices of this discipline. (ULG 2b)
Global Opportunities(GO) Cross-Cultural Requirement
In recognition of our University’s Learning Goals (ULG) that focus on global citizenship, our Global Opportunities (GO) Cross-Cultural Requirement cultivates in students a stronger understanding and appreciation for the diverse perspectives, traditions, and values that shape our world. The requirement also fosters cultural competence and an ability to navigate and engage with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. By participating in cross-cultural courses and experiences, students gain valuable insight into the complexities of human diversity and develop the skills needed to thrive in intercultural environments.
Students may complete an approved local, national, or international off-campus experience that immerses them in cultural experiences that are different from their own. The off-campus experience does not need to be credit-bearing and may be fulfilled through one of the following programs: GO Short, GO Long, or GO Your Way. All students who fulfill this requirement through an off-campus experience must complete the corresponding 1 SH preparatory and 1 SH reflection courses.
Alternatively, students may fulfill this requirement through a range of 4 SH courses that employ pedagogical techniques that ensure an immersive and comprehensive exploration of cultural dynamics within the context of the underlying course content. Although the content of individual sections will vary, all students who complete a course-based option will interact with members of another culture, reflect on their own cultural assumptions and biases, and build an openness to alternative perspectives.
Completing the cross-cultural requirement supports students’ development into individuals equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for success in an increasingly “diverse, dynamic, and interdependent world.” This cross-cultural requirement enhances their academic and personal development, preparing them to navigate the complexities of a globalized society and contribute meaningfully to a world characterized by mutual understanding and respect.
Learning goals:
Through completion of the cross-cultural immersive experience (either through an off-campus experience or a course-based option that includes pedagogies that enable students to interact with members of another culture), students demonstrate a complex understanding of culture that enables them to:
Recognize and reflect on their own culture, their ethnocentric assumptions, and differences/similarities between cultures. (ULG 4c)
Recognize and articulate ways that their own identities and actions may be understood differently in various cultural settings. (ULG 1c, 3a)
Describe how their cross-cultural experiences help them understand issues in different cultural contexts. (ULG 3b, 4b)
Articulate how their own intercultural growth can enrich their personal development, academic development, and career readiness. (ULG 3c, 4d)
Cross Counting Policy
Courses that fulfill Central Curriculum requirements can also count toward majors and minors. Central Curriculum course with the appropriate designation can also count toward one or two Intensive requirements. For example, PHIL-320 Moral Psychology fulfills the Interdisciplinary requirement while also meeting the Ethics Intensive and Writing Intensive requirements.
Additionally, certain courses may satisfy multiple other requirements simultaneously:
Diversity courses: These can overlap with one other Central Curriculum requirement, combining both into a single course (e.g., SOCI-101 Principles of Sociology satisfies both the Diversity and Social Interactions requirements).
Interdisciplinary courses: These can also overlap with one other Central Curriculum requirement combining both into a single course (e.g., INTD-320 The Sciences satisfies both the Scientific Explanations and Interdisciplinary requirements).
First-Year Seminar courses: These may count towards one other Central Curriculum requirement, except Interdisciplinary, which requires second-year standing.
Capstone Courses
In addition to the Central Curriculum requirements, students must complete at least two semester hours in a capstone course, with a grade of C- or higher, as a part of the major program. The capstone is designed to enrich students’ academic experience by allowing them to demonstrate what has been learned through a concentrated course of study at Susquehanna. This course cannot be transferred from another institution.