General Education: Preparing for Global Citizenship

2014-2015 Course Catalog

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Preparing for Global Citizenship

The general education requirements have been revised.
These General Education Requirements are for First Year students starting prior to Fall 2014 and Transfer students starting prior to fall 2015.

Students are required to meet the specific hours in each area of these general education requirements. The minimum number of hours may be exceeded depending on the courses the student chooses. Additional courses may be added to the lists of course options. The following restrictions apply:

No student may satisfy more than one general education requirement with the same course.
A student may apply no more than three courses from any one discipline toward the general education requirements.
Only two courses designated as pass/fail by the student (grade of P*) may be applied toward these general education requirements. No course in the “First Year Experience” may be taken pass/fail.

A. The First Year Experience (9 credits)

Courses in this area of the curriculum must be completed within the first 26 hours of the student’s academic program. The Liberal Arts Seminar is taken during the student’s first semester at Nebraska Wesleyan. (Students may not designate any courses in the “First Year Experience” as pass/fail.)

The course title for Liberal Arts Seminar has been changed to Archway Seminar, but the coursework will continue to fulfill this requirement.

1. Liberal Arts Seminar [first semester] (3 credits)

The Liberal Arts Seminar is required of all incoming College of Liberal Arts and Sciences freshman students to introduce them to the intellectual practices students must cultivate and routinely exercise to make the most of a liberal education. These practices are the capacity for critical and analytical thought, the ability to express oneself orally and in writing, the ability to conduct research on a given problem and report one’s findings to others, and the ability to collaborate in solving problems.

The primary purpose of the Liberal Arts Seminar is for students to exercise analytical, synthetic, and creative powers while addressing a topic of intrinsic interest. The subject matter of each seminar is important, but equally important is the development of the skills of writing, speaking, articulate discussion, and library research. Seminars may be interdisciplinary in nature, and faculty are actively engaged with students in the learning process, modeling the norms of academic inquiry and discovery.

All College of Liberal Arts and Sciences freshman students (students with fewer than 26 credit hours) who have been out of high school fewer than two years will enroll in a Liberal Arts Seminar during their first semester of enrollment.

All students will take:

2. English Language and Writing (3 credits)

All students will take one of the following:

3. Fundamentals of Communication (3 credits)

All students will take:

B. Developing Foundations (8-10 credits)

It is recommended that courses in this area of the curriculum be completed within the first 58 hours of the student’s academic program.

1. Masterpieces of Literature (3 credits)

All students will take one of the following:

2. Health and Wellness (2 credits)*

All students will take:

Requirement waived for licensed registered nurses.
*Students may fulfill this requirement by successfully passing a proficiency examination.

3. Mathematics (3-5 credits)*

All students will take one of the following courses:

*Students may fulfill this requirement by placing into MATH 1600 Calculus I.

C. Global Perspectives (6-11 credits)

All students must meet the modern language requirement as outlined in C1 and must also complete one course in either C2 or C3.

1. Modern Language (3-8 credits)

Students will acquire, at a minimum, proficiency equivalent to a year of modern language study at the college level, and all students will complete at least one semester of college language study.

Students with previous language study will be tested and placed in the appropriate language class. The modern language requirement at Nebraska Wesleyan can be met in the following ways*:

Satisfactory completion of Stage II (second semester of the beginning two-semester language sequence) (4-5 credits)
Satisfactory completion of a more advanced language course (i.e., Stage III or higher) (3 credits)
Students with previous language study who have been tested and place higher than Stage II may meet this requirement upon completion of one semester in a new language, if they prefer (4-5 credits).
Requirement waived for students who have completed the fourth-year high school language course in a modern language. Students must have earned grades of “B” or higher in each semester of language study.

Requirement waived for native speakers of languages other than English who have fulfilled the TOEFL/APIEL/IELTS admission standard.

*Wesleyan Advantage students (those who complete a minimum of 24 hours through the Wesleyan Advantage program) may meet the modern language requirement in the following ways:

Satisfactory completion of any Stage I or higher modern language course
Satisfactory completion of an approved modern language course designed for nontraditional students: SPAN 1050 Spanish: Spanish for Communication or SPAN 1100 Spanish: Spanish for Health Professionals.

Six hours at ITESM, Campus Queretaro, satisfy C1 and C2.

2. Understanding Another Culture (3 credits)

Courses from this category will include an interdisciplinary approach focusing on a non-U.S. culture, and emphasize at least three of the following aspects of the particular culture being studied:

arts
literature
philosophy
government and politics
customary society
health
religion
history
language
science and/or technology

Select one course from:

 

3. Global Community (3 credits)

Courses from this category possess the following characteristics:

An interconnected approach; fostering understanding of the forces that define how parts of the world relate to each other.
A problems approach; examining current concerns arising out of global interdependence.
An ethics approach; stressing the concepts of global citizenship and responsibility for serving the global community.

Select one course from:

D. Western Intellectual and Religious Traditions (3 credits)

All students will select one of the following courses dealing with the foundations of Western philosophy and religion:

E. U.S. Culture and Society (6 credits)

1. U.S. Society (3 credits)

All students will select one course from the following list of courses fostering an understanding of U.S. society and culture and of the interaction between the individual and society:

2. Cultural Pluralism in the United States (3 credits)

Courses in this category focus either on (1) a comparative survey of U.S. minority groups, or (2) an in-depth concentration on a single group. Such courses will include the following:

A thematic approach; identifying and exploring structures of power and their relationship to society, the economy, politics, and culture.
A problems approach; exploring the nature of ethnic and racial prejudice and discrimination as these have affected and continue to affect the American experience.
A comparative approach; linking the ethnic and racial experiences of different groups, nationally and internationally.
A personal approach; linking the substantive knowledge of the course to students’ own experience in the area of multicultural relations in order to develop empathy, a culturally relativistic understanding, and the ability to communicate sensitively with individuals from other cultures.

All students will select one of the following courses.

F. Fine Arts (3 credits)

All students will select 3 hours from F1 and/or F2.

1. Fine Arts Inquiry

Courses in this category enhance students’ understanding of the fine arts products of culture:

2. Fine Arts Performance and/or Design

Courses in this category enhance the students’ understanding of the processes involved in the performing or visual arts:

G. Scientific Inquiry (7 credits)

1. Natural Sciences (4 credits)

All students will take one of the following laboratory courses increasing students’ appreciation of the natural world and fostering understanding of the impact of science and technology on the individual, society, and the environment.

2. Social Sciences (3 credits)

Students must take one of the following courses emphasizing the social scientific methods of inquiry into the understanding of human behavior, society, its institutions, and their interaction: