Duluth Catalog 2011-2012

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Liberal Education Requirements Effective Fall 2012

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Students who begin at UMD in the fall 2012 will be required to fulfill the following liberal education program requirements.  Students who began at UMD prior to the fall of 2012 may also follow these requirements to fulfull their liberal education program.  See the Catalog Use guidelines.

Mission Statement: The Goals of a Liberal Education

A liberal education prepares individuals to lead productive and socially responsible lives in a diverse and rapidly changing world.  The Liberal Education Program at UMD helps students develop competencies that can be adapted for use in any occupation and by virtually any individual.  Liberal education at UMD is not restricted to any particular part of the curriculum but is woven through each student’s course of study, including core requirements and requirements for the major.

The new program includes detailed criteria that bind courses together and help to create a common experience across the disciplines.  It promotes greater integration of liberal education throughout the student’s undergraduate education by encouraging the incorporation of liberal education courses into the major and in upper division courses. 

Liberally educated students are “Prepared, Informed, and Committed.”

Prepared to:

• identify, analyze and solve problems, demonstrating critical and analytical thinking competency within and across various fields of knowledge
• think creatively, demonstrating intellectual curiosity, imagination and flexibility
• communicate effectively through writing and speaking
• work productively, independently and through collaboration
• access, evaluate, and make use of information gathered through multiple methodologies

 Informed about:

• the foundations of knowledge and inquiry about nature, culture and society
• the past and its relevance to the present and the future
• controversies and unanswered questions in multiple domains of knowledge

 Committed to:

• life-long learning
• civic engagement and social responsibilities
• knowledge and competence across cultures
• considering ethical implication of ideas and actions
• understanding contemporary global issues

Total Credit Requirement for the Liberal Education Core

The new Liberal Education Core requires a maximum of 39 credits of course work; however, a single course can be used to satisfy multiple requirements, reducing the total number of credits. 

Part I. Language and Reasoning Skills (9 credits)

a. Writing and Information Literacy -WRIT 1120 (3 credits)

b. Oral Communication and Languages (3 credits)

c. Logic and Quantitative Reasoning (3 credits)

Part II. Knowledge Domains (21 credits)

a. Natural Sciences (6 credits, 2 designators, 1 lab)

b. Social Sciences (6 credits, 2 designators)

c. Humanities (6 credits, 2 designators)

d. Fine Arts (3 credits)

Part III. Key Topics (9 credits)

a. Global Perspectives (3 credits)

b. Cultural Diversity in the US (3 credits)

c.  Sustainability (3 credits)  

• An LE Core course that meets the criteria for part II (Knowledge Domain) and part III (Key Contemporary Topic) may be used to fulfill both requirements.
• A course in the major that meets the criteria for parts Ib, Ic, II and/or III may be used to satisfy both major and LE Core requirements.

NOTE ALSO WHERE APPROPRIATE
¹Course may also fulfill the Global Perspectives category
²Course may also fulfill the Cultural Diversity in the U.S. category
³Course may also fulfill the Sustainability category

Writing and Information Literacy

Course develops students’ skills in written communication as well as information access and use. WRIT 1120 or its equivalent must be completed during the first two semesters of attendance at UMD as part of the UMD liberal education program or Minnesota Transfer Curriculum. Entering freshmen who score a 4 or above on either of the Educational Testing Service Advanced Placement examinations in English: Literature and Composition or Language and Composition are granted 3 credits for WRIT 1120. Students scoring a 32 or above on the ACT English exam are exempt from WRIT 1120. UMD Honors students are exempt from WRIT 1120 when they have taken WRIT 1017—Freshman Seminar: Honors, The Rhetoric of Popular Culture. Students must contact their Student Affairs Office for this exemption to be processed. For more information, contact the Department of Writing Studies.

Writ 1120          College Writing                                                        3 cr

ORAL COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGES

Courses in this category focus on the knowledge and skills of effective oral communication and/or language competence in languages other than English.
                      

LOGIC AND QUANTITATIVE REASONING

Courses in this category develop students’ logic and/or quantitative reasoning skills and enable them to apply these skills to a variety of everyday situations.

NATURAL  SCIENCES

Courses in this category focus on the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theory of natural phenomena, including methods of natural scientific investigation. 

Students must complete one course with a lab component.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Courses in this category focus on those branches of knowledge that investigate how cultural, social, and structural factors influence human social behavior, including methods of social scientific investigation.

HUMANITIES

Courses in this category focus on those branches of knowledge concerned with human thought and culture, including methods of inquiry typically used in humanistic study.

FINE ARTS

Courses in this category focus on students’ abilities to think and act with creativity, demonstrating intellectual curiosity, imagination and flexibility, including methods of inquiry used in the aesthetic appreciation of static and kinetic fine art.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Courses in this category focus on issues facing at least one country other than the United States, with an emphasis on shifts in cultural, economic, political, and social relationships.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE UNITED STATES

Courses in this category focus on the culturally complex social fabric of the United States to help students enhance their abilities to interact with the diverse groups that make up our nation.

SUSTAINABILITY

Courses in this category focus on ways in which the science of the natural environment interacts with economic, social, and political forces in a local, national and/or global context.