VIII. Final Document for the new curriculum

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

1. Successful completion of 32 regular semester course credits, including a maximum of one course credit in designated health and exercise science activities (HES-100 to HES-199). Courses taken in January Term do not count toward this total.

2. In addition to the 32 regular semester course credits, students will complete at least two January term course credits. January term courses would carry major or general education credit only by exception. Such exceptions will be granted for experiences intended to utilize the unique four-week time frame of January Term for departmental or general education courses.

3. Two years (16 regular semester courses minimum) are required in residence, including the senior year. The senior year may be the last two semesters preceding the conferring of the degree or at least nine of the last 12 regular semester courses taken toward the degree. Exceptions to the senior year residency are made for students enrolled in Study Abroad Programs sponsored by the College and in cooperative programs with other institutions leading to a B.A. and professional degree. At least three courses of the 16 must be taken outside of the major department.

4. Three designated writing courses from at least two different departments with a substantial component of writing. One of these courses must be taken in the first year (normally in the First Term Seminar). At least one designated writing course must be taken as part of a student’s major, and at least one must be Level II or higher.

5. An approved major.

6. A cumulative grade point average of 2.000 or higher. Each graded January Term course will be included in calculating the grade point average.

7. Completion of the core requirements from either Curriculum I or II.

CURRICULUM I (Distributive Core) [see Academic Catalog for Curriculum II]

1. First Term Seminar: As part of their first semester course schedule, Curriculum I students entering Gustavus Adolphus College as first-year students enroll in one course designated FTS-100: First-Term Seminar (FTS). The FTS is a small, discussion-based course that introduces students to skills and habits central to the liberal arts: critical thinking, writing, speaking, and recognizing and exploring questions of values. The FTS professor will serve as the first year academic advisor. Each FTS carries a writing designation; FTS courses do not carry a general education core area designation. A full list and description of FTS offerings is published for entering students before registration.

2. Completion of a non-English language requirement: Curriculum I students will pass the beginning sequence in a non-English language (the first two courses constitute the beginning sequence in all such languages) or will demonstrate equivalent proficiency.

3. General Education Core: Each Curriculum I student must complete a total of nine general education courses, including at least one course from each of the following nine areas. General education courses may be offered at any level. Courses can fulfill more than one general education requirement. No more than two courses from the same department may be counted.

I. The Arts (ARTS)
Through modes of expression such as painting, sculpture, music, dance, theatre, and film, artists clarify, intensify, dramatize, and interpret the world in all of its physical, social, and spiritual aspects. Courses meeting this requirement in the visual and performing arts develop a more comprehensive understanding of the creative process and foster a lifetime involvement with the arts. These experiences enable students to recognize and value the integral role that the arts play in society; such experiences enable students to express themselves and their ideas in creative ways.

Courses in this area will:

1. promote understanding of the interaction among the arts, culture, and society;
   
2. develop analytical, interpretive, or evaluative skills appropriate to the study, performance, and/or creation of at least one of the visual and performing arts;
   
3. develop intellectual and experiential awareness of the form and content of at least one of the visual and performing arts;
   
4. promote awareness of the interrelationship between artist and audience;
   
5. foster the development of personal expression and creativity;
   
6. develop meaningful standards by which to evaluate, interpret, and/or create works of art; and
   
7. develop an understanding of the creative process.
   
   

II. Biblical and Theological Studies (THEOL)

The requirement of one regular semester course in the Christian tradition is a curricular expression of the College's long-standing commitment, articulated in the Mission Statement, to foster in its students a "mature understanding of the Christian faith." Included in such a mature understanding is a careful consideration of the role of religion in human life.

A course meeting this requirement explores the importance of understanding religion as part of a liberal arts education. It does so through a biblical and theological study of the Christian tradition. The study is both critically self-conscious and constructive. It also includes a critical interpretation of biblical texts.

These courses seek neither to inculcate the Christian religion nor to dismiss it. Rather, such courses help students develop a critical understanding and appreciation of the Christian tradition as an important entity in itself, and as an important element in world cultures.

Courses in this area meet the following criteria:

1. The course will be in the Christian tradition, construed to embrace, in its several variations, the developing body of communal belief, thought and action that has served to identify the church of Jesus Christ from its beginnings to the present.
   
2. The course will be both critically self-conscious and constructive.
   
   1. The course will be critically self-conscious, requiring specific attention to the methods used to analyze particular facets of the Christian tradition and presenting the Christian tradition not as an object that a student must accept or reject, but as an empirical and normative historical totality that a student can come to understand.
      
   2. The course will be constructive, i.e., critical analysis is to be complemented by the endeavor to present coherently, as a challenging and fruitful religious option, an ecumenical understanding of the Christian tradition.
      
3. The course will:
   
   1. give students an elementary cognitive grasp of some of the historical, contemporary and emerging future expressions of the Christian faith;
      
   2. expose students to critical textual interpretations of the Bible, including the historical context in which it was written;
      
   3. help students learn to think religiously and theologically, i.e., to recognize the religious and theological dimensions of cultural, political, and intellectual issues;
      
   4. introduce students to the nature of religious language and symbolism and the critical interpretations of religious claims; and
      
   5. encourage students to think critically about their own religious convictions.
      

III. Literary and Rhetorical Studies (LARS)

The purpose of the Literary and Rhetorical Studies requirement is to help students revel in the beauty and power of the word; understand and enjoy the life of the mind as embodied in books and formal oral communication; and place themselves within the human community of story-tellers, poets, orators, essayists, playwrights, satirists, and critics.

Courses in this area will:

1. introduce students to the history and specific conventions of one or more literary and rhetorical genres;
   
2. teach the rudiments of formal and critical analysis as well as close reading;
   
3. consider the historical and cultural circumstances in which texts are produced and received;
   
4. help students to formulate questions about texts and raise issues of meaning and value; and
   
5. provide a context for appreciation of oral and written rhetorical and literary discourses and/or give students opportunities to develop personal expression and creativity.
   
   

IV. Historical and Philosophical Studies (HIPHI)

Philosophy investigates the nature of reality, knowledge, and values. History analyzes past events and constructs narratives that seek to explain those events. Thus, courses in Historical and Philosophical Studies critically interpret records of and reflections on human thought, action, and values across time and place and among diverse cultures and peoples.

Courses in this area promote understanding of human thought in the context of historical developments, and historical developments in the context of their relation to questions of meaning and value. Historical and philosophical inquiries require that we ask fundamental questions about the construction and creation of knowledge, the roles of objectivity and subjectivity in the search for truth, and the relationship of human agency to theories of historical causation. Philosophers undertake their inquiries with awareness of the historical context in which ideas develop. Historians consider the intellectual milieu in which past events unfold and are interpreted.

Courses in this area will:

1. promote understanding of human thought and historical events across time and place and among diverse cultures and peoples;
   
2. promote understanding of human thought and historical developments in the context of the construction of meaning and value;
   
3. pose fundamental questions about the creation and construction of knowledge;
   
4. inquire into notions of and assumptions about truth in philosophy and history as well as in other academic disciplines; and
   
5. prepare students to formulate their own questions and undertake their own investigations into philosophical and historical studies.
   
   

V. Mathematical and Logical Reasoning (MATHL)

Courses in Mathematical and Logical Reasoning introduce the student to the methods and applications of deductive reasoning. As such, they focus on underlying axioms, theorems, and methods of proof. Considerable emphasis is placed on the application of these ideas to the natural and social sciences. They also place some emphasis as appropriate on the history of the discipline, its philosophical assumptions, the strengths and limitations of its methods, its relation to other disciplines, and its relation to social and ethical problems. Students are required to take one course in Mathematical and Logical Reasoning.

Courses in this area will provide students with:

1. knowledge of the language of mathematics and logic;
   
2. familiarity with mathematical, logical, algorithmic, or statistical methods;
   
3. knowledge of the practical applications of axiomatic systems and of mathematical or computer modeling; and
   
4. appreciation of the role of the deductive sciences in the history of ideas, and of their impact on science, technology, and society.
   
   
   

VI. Natural Science Perspective (NASP)

Liberal Arts Perspective courses in Natural Science introduce the student to the mechanics of natural and life processes, and the quantitative basis for understanding these processes. As such, they focus on the evidence, theories, and methods of the natural sciences and place them in a historical context. They also place some emphasis on the strengths and limitations of the methods employed, the philosophical assumptions, the boundaries and connections with other disciplines, and relationships to social, ethical, and political problems.

Courses in this area will provide students with:

1. knowledge of factual information about some aspect of the natural world;
   
2. knowledge of the concepts, principles, and theories that scientists use to organize and explain those facts;
   
3. familiarity with the application of scientific concepts and principles to the solution of problems;
   
4. acquaintance with the historical development and philosophical implications of the scientific concepts; and
   
5. sensitivity to the ethical and social impact of science and technology.
   
   

All courses include a laboratory component to ensure direct experience with naturally occurring phenomena; the laboratory component teaches techniques and methods that scientists use to gather evidence and test hypotheses. The laboratory component will include some elements of observation, collection and analysis of data, and/or other methods of experimentation that involve direct contact with some aspect of the natural world.

VII. Human Behavior and Social Institutions (SOSCI)

Courses in Human Behavior and Social Institutions seek to enable students to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to understand fundamental social institutions and social characteristics of human beings. Courses in this area should systematically address the regularities and variations of human behavior at individual and group levels, including the contexts in which behavior occurs, using perspectives and methods normally attributable to the social and behavioral sciences.

Courses in this area will address the following:

1. theories, principles, and concepts used by the social and behavioral sciences to organize and to explain information about human behavior and social institutions;
   
2. historical development of a particular social and behavioral science, including where appropriate alternative current and historical theories within the discipline;
   
3. methods of collecting and presenting information in the social and behavioral science; and
   
4. social and ethical issues concerning human behavior.
   
   

VIII. Lifelong Fitness (FIT)

Students must complete both the Personal Fitness (FIT) requirement (.5 course) and the Lifetime Activity (ACT) requirement (.5 course equivalent).

A. The Personal Fitness requirement (FIT) encourages exploration of personal values and enables students to recognize and appreciate the importance of lifelong fitness. Students learn how to set appropriate goals to improve fitness, engage in regular aerobic exercise, and acquire knowledge regarding health promotion, disease prevention, and relaxation.

FIT courses (.5 course) will:

1. include a pre and post cardio-respiratory endurance assessment or alternative form of assessment that is appropriate to the activity;
   
2. meet a minimum of three days per week providing activities designed to elevate and maintain heart rate in the target zone for at least 20 minutes per class period;
   
3. provide instruction on exercise prescription including frequency, intensity, and duration;
   
4. teach a safe and effective warm up and cool down;
   
5. include additional information on topics related to health promotion and disease prevention; and
   
6. assess knowledge of the principles of fitness and hypokinetic disease.
   
   

B. The Lifetime Activity requirement (ACT) encourages students to select courses across a range of activity areas based on personal interest. Courses engage students in activity designed to increase muscular strength and flexibility, improve psychomotor skills, and explore the connection between mind and body. Each course emphasizes appreciation of lifetime activity, health promotion, and reduction of risk behavior.

ACT courses (.125-.25 per class) will:

1. meet a minimum of two days per week;
   
2. include a component of physical activity;
   
3. include a skill or performance assessment appropriate to the course; and
   
4. accomplish the objectives listed in the description.
   
   

IX. Non-Western Cultures Requirement (NWEST)

The nature of contemporary world events makes an understanding of non-western and global perspectives a necessary component of any good liberal arts education. It is increasingly necessary for people involved in business, politics, economic development, religious interaction, and everyday life to function across traditional linguistic and cultural boundaries. We are an increasingly shrinking and diverse world and that means that such goals as justice, dignity, peaceful co-existence and cooperation demand both our attention and increased skills and knowledge. Through the Non-Western Cultures requirement, the college seeks to guide students toward the competent use of epistemological models, analytic tools, and interactive/participative opportunities that form the basis for intercultural and cross-cultural perspectives and understandings. “Non-Western” includes both indigenous and non-indigenous immigrant communities residing in otherwise Western European cultures. Courses fulfilling the NWEST requirement will enable students to recognize difference in a pluralistic way while encouraging an appreciation of the importance of difference in common and cultural life.

This requirement may be fulfilled either by taking a NWEST course or by completing an appropriate study abroad experience.

A. NWEST courses will:

1. focus predominantly on Non-Western material, i.e., material outside Western European cultures;
   
2. provide students with an understanding of cultures, societies, religious worldviews and/or political/economic systems outside of the familiar western context;
   
3. pay attention to the importance of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts in the understanding of cultures/societies, as well as the importance of perceived threats to these factors; and
   
4. provide the student with the tools or opportunity to gain access to an understanding of others' cultures from within the context of those cultures. To meet this goal, the teaching and learning experience in courses which are designated NWEST will include access to some material (written, oral or visual) produced from within the culture/s being studied.
   
   

B. Study Abroad Experience:

1. To meet the NWEST requirement, study abroad must be a semester or yearlong program centered in a Non-Western country.
   
2. Study abroad will provide students with the opportunity to participate in an intensive exploration of, and experience in, another culture through classroom study and daily living.
   
3. All students who study in non-English speaking countries must study the language of the host country while abroad.
   
   

Courses taken abroad may be considered to meet other General Education requirements on a course-by-course basis.

WRITING REQUIREMENT (WRITI and WRITD)

Liberally educated students should write well and use writing both to discover and construct new knowledge and to communicate their ideas to others. Writing is a complex activity; it is a form of creative expression and critical engagement that serves practical and intellectual purposes. Since writing shapes the views of others, courses that focus on writing should help students understand the effects of their own written language. All courses that fulfill the writing requirement at Gustavus emphasize basic rhetorical principles, or the issues that guide our choices when we write to move or persuade others. Such issues include purpose, audience, context, style, and form.

Gustavus requires students to complete THREE designated writing requirement courses from at least two different departments in order to graduate. One of these courses must be taken in the first year (normally in the First Term Seminar or Curriculum II). At least one designated writing course must be taken as part of a student's major, and at least one must be Level II or higher.

Students fulfill this writing requirement by taking two types of courses, WRITING INTENSIVE (WRITI) and WRITING IN THE DISCIPLINES (WRITD). A central goal for all WRITI and WRITD courses is to ensure that students learn to become good choice-makers as writers, considering issues of purpose, audience, context, style, and form. All WRITI and WRITD courses must provide opportunities for students to revise their work and receive the feedback of their instructors and their peers, preferably before the work is evaluated by the instructor. In addition, all WRITI and WRITD courses can be supported by the use of a handbook or style manual and the Writing Center.

CRITERIA FOR COURSES

Writing Intensive (WRITI) courses introduce students to the writing process, writing as a means of learning, rhetorical issues such as purpose, audience, and context, and narrative and argumentative strategies used most frequently by writers educated in the liberal arts tradition. WRITI courses may be offered at levels one and two. Because of the intensive nature of the revision and feedback cycle, WRITI courses should be restricted to enrollments of 20 or fewer students.

All WRITI courses should:

1. discuss issues related to students’ writing weekly. Students might reflect on their own writing processes, discuss the course writing assignments, or consider issues of audience, purpose, context, and argument as they operate in the readings for the course. Course syllabi should reflect such explicit attention to writing topics;
   
2. encourage students to use writing as a means of self-expression, critical inquiry, creative expression, argumentation, communication, and exploration;
   
3. help students to make appropriate rhetorical choices as writers, considering purpose, audience, context, and style whenever they write;
   
4. model and foster a process-based approach to writing by requiring students to draft, revise, and edit at least three formal writing assignments of appropriate lengths; and
   
5. offer students opportunities to write informally; informal writing need not be graded.
   

Writing in the Disciplines (WRITD) courses draw upon students’ existing writing skills and focus their attention on disciplinary conventions and research methods, as well as the forms and genres valued most within the disciplines. Since each discipline has its own conventions of form, style, language use, methods, evidence, and citation, each department is required to offer one WRITD course. WRITD courses may only be offered at levels two and three. Because WRITD courses require substantive writing projects and intensive revision cycles, enrollments should be limited to 20 or fewer students.

All WRITD courses should:

1. provide students with opportunities to read and analyze examples of discipline-specific writing;
   
2. require students to complete writing assignments that exemplify the structures, genres, and conventions of the disciplines; and
   
3. offer students opportunities to revise their work with the help of an instructor’s feedback.
   
   

"January Term" Handbook Language

The January "Interim Experience" (IE)¹

I. Mission of IE: The mission of the Interim Experience (IE) is to provide ways for faculty and students to take advantage of the January interim's unique qualities in developing courses and other learning opportunities that enrich and expand upon (but do not duplicate) the College's regular semester curricular offerings. The institutional mission of the College calls for balancing educational tradition with innovation, study within a general framework that is interdisciplinary and international in perspective, and preparation of students to lead lives of leadership and service. The goals of the IE are consistent with this larger institutional mission. IE will provide for experiential learning both on campus and off campus through:

• International study and domestic study travel courses
  
• Career exploration and vocational reflection
  
• Courses that are experimental, and/or interdisciplinary
  
• Independent studies and student/faculty collaborative research and creativity
  
• Institutional exchanges with other 4-1-4 colleges
  
• Special opportunities for first-year students to continue their transition to college life and the greater expectations placed on adult learners
  
• Courses that tie-in with designated IE themes. The recent and planned themes include Women's Studies (2000), Environmental Studies (2001), Global Village (2002), Service-Learning (2003), Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creativity (2004), Social Justice (2005), Vocation (2006), Leadership (2007), and Interdisciplinary Studies (2008).
  
  

II. Course Approval: All IE courses must meet the following criteria:

1. Approved IE courses will engage students in ways that specifically capitalize on the unique opportunities provided by the January interim schedule. The course proposal will describe activities that can be better accomplished when students have the opportunity to travel or to spend extended periods of time in the laboratory, the studio, the library, or in other places conducive to discovery and creativity.
   
2. Approved IE courses will engage students (alone or collaboratively) in experiential learning activities. Examples include:
   
   1. a. Hands-on classroom activities (active learning)
   2. b. Laboratory or field research
   3. c. Library scholarship
   4. d. Creative / performance projects
   5. e. Composition
   6. f. Service-Learning / Community Service
   7. g. Debates and other presentations
   8. h. Day trips and speaker visits.
   9. i. Retreats
   10. j. Travel (domestic and international)
   11. k. Career Exploration
   12. l. Leadership development
3. All IE courses will count toward the graduation requirement of two January courses. IE courses have intrinsic value as an experiential immersion, even without the extrinsic incentive of major or general education credit. Therefore, approved IE courses will carry major and/or general education credit only in rare cases; when the proposal demonstrates that the above criteria are met and that the goals intended by the major or general education areas are uniquely met though an IE immersion experience.
   
   
   Appendix
   
   IE Policies:
   1. IE Course Numbers: IE courses will be designated by departmental, NDL or IDS designation between 500 and 799. Level I courses (numbers between 500 and 599) are entry level and are suitable for all students. Level II courses (numbers between 600 and 699) are generally accessible by all students but in certain science courses may require specific background. Level III courses (number 700 to 799) are for the more advanced student. (Only those courses exempted to carry major credit would carry the departmental designation and be assigned a number in the traditional 100-199, 200-299, 300-399 ranges.)
   2. IE Instructors: Because of the unique nature of IE courses, staff and administrative employees who are not regular Gustavus faculty may propose to teach an IE course (or team-teach a course with a faculty instructor). All courses will be subject to normal faculty course approval processes, regardless of the employment status of the instructor.
   3. IE Course Length: Depending on the subject or approach of the instructor, it may be desirable to design a course that will be two weeks in duration, rather than a full four weeks in length. In the case where a person offers a course for less that the full four weeks duration, normally that course will be repeated (2 x 2 week course) and will be packaged by the IE Office with another partial-term offering so that each student’s registration will be for the full four-week period
   4. IE Credit: Satisfactory participation is required in two full January interim terms (grade of P, or for courses with a letter grade, an A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, or D). If a student takes courses for more than two full interim term courses, these credits will not count toward graduation. Students will not receive credit for an interim course (4-1-4 exchange included) if the course is similar one they've already completed for credit.
   5. Major/Area Credit: Any Interim term course approved to fulfill a major or a general education area requirement cannot be taken on a pass/fail basis and will not count toward graduation as part of the required 32 semester course credits. It will count toward the two required January interim credits.
   6. First-year students: First-year students must enroll in an IE course. First year students may take a Gustavus Travel Course (GTC) or UMAIE course. First year students may not take career Explorations and Independent Studies.
   7. Grades: Grades not calculated in the grade-point average are: P (pass), I (incomplete), W (withdrawal). A student may withdraw from an IE course anytime prior to the end of the third day without having their course participation recorded on the transcript. Withdrawals after this time will be recorded as a "W".
   In courses with a grading option, students will select (with their instructor) their option by the end of the third day of the interim term (the drop-add deadline). A student may not withdraw from a month-long course after the third week of the interim term. A student may not withdraw from a two-week course after the first week of the course. Courses for which a student is registered after this time will receive a final grade. Non-Gustavus interim term courses accepted in transfer shall not be calculated in the grade-point average (UMAIE courses are an exception). Gustavus IE letter grades, including failing (“F”) grades, are included in the grade-point average calculation.
   8. Cancellation: Courses may be subject to cancellation if they enroll five or fewer students per faculty member teaching the course.
   9. Participation: Students on academic or disciplinary probation are not permitted to enroll in a career exploration, or in UMAIE courses or other off-campus interim term courses. This means that students on probation in the spring may not pre-register for a January travel course, and students on probation in the fall will not be registered for off-campus courses for the following January, even if they were on the list in the spring or summer.
   10. Registration: IE course registration follows the same procedure as regular registration (i.e., priority by class year), with exceptions: first-year students register first, followed by sophomores, juniors, and then seniors.
   11. Overloads: Students may enroll in a maximum of 1.25 courses during the interim term. However, fractional courses beyond 1.0 may not be used to reduce the requirements that each student be enrolled for a normal one-course load in at least two interims. A pro-rated overload fee based on $1,000 for a full credit overload will be added to a student's account.
   12. Course By Arrangement: There will be no provision for Course by Arrangement in the interim term, since IE courses are deemed to be non-equivalent to regular semester courses.
   13. Independent Study: Independent study courses will be counted as fulfilling an IE requirement, but will not count for major or general education credit or toward the 32 semester courses required for graduation.
   14. Travel Courses: International or domestic travel study courses, including UMAIE courses, will be counted as fulfilling an IE requirement, but will not count for major or general education credit, except when such a credit exemption is granted in advance.
   15. Housing Policy:
   While Gustavus requires only two IE credits to fulfill graduation requirements, students are allowed to enroll for the interim term each year. Out of courtesy and respect for those who are enrolled, the College has established a policy that non-registered students may not occupy campus housing during the interim term. Exceptions for special circumstances may be granted on a case-by-case basis by appealing to the Director of Residential Life.
   16. Career Exploration (CE) is an academic program of the College. Course credit must by sponsored by a faculty member from an academic department whose discipline is related to the career exploration. The course shall be graded on a pass/fail basis. See the Career Center for registration procedures.
   17. Transferring to Another 4-1-4 Institution: Students who would like to attend another 4-1-4 college during Interim term may choose from approximately fifty institutions in the United States. A student who is on academic or disciplinary probation will not be eligible to attend another 4-1-4 institution. See the IE Office for 4-1-4 transfer policies and procedures.
   18. Students Visiting Gustavus During Interim Term: Contact the IE Office for 4-1-4 transfer policies and procedures.