LIBERAL STUDIES PROGRAM

There are two components to the Liberal Studies Program. The first, called the Common Core, emphasizes communication, quantitative skills and intellectual abilities, as well as an introduction to the urban and Vincentian nature of the University. Integration of the general education program is further enhanced by a series of common experiences throughout the student's educational career. These experiences are the First Year Program (including: Chicago Quarter, Focal Point Seminar, and Writing); Sophomore Seminar on Multiculturalism in the United States; Junior Year Experiential Learning; and Senior Year Capstone.

The second part of the program, called Learning Domains, is concerned mainly with the subjects that make up the conventional liberal arts and sciences curriculum. Breadth of learning is assured by asking students to do course work in six learning domains: Arts and Literature (AL); Philosophical Inquiry (PI); Religious Dimensions (RD); Scientific Inquiry (SI); Self, Society, and the Modern World (SSMW); and Understanding the Past (UP); .

The domains of the Liberal Studies Program represent possible ways of grouping the various kinds of courses taught in the University. They identify and focus attention on areas of inquiry that are significantly similar are to be found, though not all activities carried on within a domain are identical. A person who has received a liberal education has experienced in both practical and theoretical ways the many types of intellectual inquiry represented in the university community. These particular domains facilitate that experience. They represent society’s intellectual life in its theoretical, practical, and artistic moments.

Through the programs of study within the domains, students are invited to create or discover for themselves, however provisionally, a map of the intellectual world.

Finally, pre-collegiate skills in communication and computation are a prerequisite for domain study. Some students are required to take certain skills courses before they can begin the Liberal Studies Program. Moreover, since these writing and computation skills are an integral part of all college work, all liberal studies courses seek to develop these skills further.

MODERN LANGUAGE OPTION

Students who wish to study a Modern Language may do so for liberal studies credit. Those who begin the language at the introductory or intermediate level must complete a three-course sequence for liberal studies credit.

Students who complete a three-course sequence may substitute two of the three courses for liberal studies credit. Students can select one course each from two of the following learning domain combinations: Arts and Literature or Scientific Inquiry (cannot substitute for the lab science requirement); Philosophical Inquiry or Religious Dimensions; Self, Society, and the Modern World or Understanding the Past. The third course of the sequence fulfills open elective credit. Students interested in this option should consult the listing for their college or school in this course catalog to determine the Liberal Studies courses for which the Modern Language Option will substitute.

Note: The Modern Language Option may not be used to meet the language requirement for Bachelor of Arts students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences or School of Education. It may be used for advanced study once the requirement is met. The introductory language sequence will not fulfill the Modern Language Option and will not be counted for Liberal Studies credit for students who are native speakers of the language. The intermediate sequence will not fulfill the Modern Language Option and will not be counted for Liberal Studies credit for students who are native speakers of the language unless the chair of the Modern Languages Department so recommends.