Last week, the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) announced the implementation of its new general education requirements, which will replace the A&S core curriculum, effective this August.
Students enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences will need to determine whether to continue working toward completing the old requirements (commonly known as the 鈥淎&S core curriculum鈥�) or choose to switch to the new A&S general education (or 鈥済en ed鈥�) curriculum.
Does this affect me?
This change primarily affects students enrolled in A&S, but it also will impact students in the Leeds School of Business, the School of Education and a small number in the College of Music.
If you are graduating in May 2018 or August 2018, this change does not affect you, as the new gen ed requirements do not become active until fall 2018.
I鈥檓 an A&S student. Do I need to switch?
Current A&S students who will graduate in December 2018 or thereafter can continue to work toward completing the old requirements (the 鈥淎&S core curriculum鈥�), or they can choose to switch to the new A&S general education curriculum if that is more advantageous for them.
However, most current A&S seniors and juniors and even many sophomores will be best served by completing the A&S core curriculum. The current students most likely to benefit from a switch to the new A&S gen ed requirements are students who are freshmen this year and have not yet completed much of the core.
Only students who enroll in August 2018 or later will be required to satisfy the new general education requirements.
How do I choose between the core curriculum or the new gen ed requirements?
Students should work with their academic advisor, who can help them determine which path is right for them.
What are the new gen ed requirements?
There are three basic categories of requirements:
Skills requirement (9 credits)
- Foreign language (third-level proficiency)听
- Quantitative reasoning and mathematical skills (QRMS) (3 credit hours)
- Written communication (3 lower-division and 3 upper-division credit hours)
Distribution requirement (36 credits)
- 12 arts and humanities credit hours
- 12 social sciences credit hours
- 12 natural sciences credit hours, including a lab
Diversity requirement (6 credits, but may count for double distribution)
- United States perspective (3 credits)
- Global perspective (3 credits)
Where can I get more information?
Students have two choices:
-
Students can make an appointment to see their academic advisor by logging in to MyCUHub.
- Students can attend one of the general education 鈥淪witch Labs鈥� that the College of Arts and Sciences鈥� academic advisors will be hosting from mid-March through May. (These sessions are designed to help students assess whether gen ed is a better fit than the core curriculum in terms of their graduation goals.) More information about the Switch Labs will be coming soon, and students should be on the lookout for an email from their advisors.
In addition, the new gen ed requirements are spelled out in detail on the College of Arts and Sciences website.
