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Liberal Arts Major

Mission Statement

The liberal arts major is cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary. It integrates the significant ways of looking at reality developed in the Western world — arts and letters, theology, mathematics, physical sciences, and social sciences — in the quest for truth, justice, and beauty.

Program Learning Outcomes

The goal of the liberal arts major is to produce creative and resourceful thinkers who are:

  1. Capable of intellectual, spiritual, moral vigor; critical and creative thought; and coherent and persuasive communication of ideas.
  2. Knowledgeable about and sensitive to their own and others; social, cultural, historical and religious perspectives.
  3. Aware of the physical world in which they live.
  4. Capable of translating their education into the civic sensibilities needed to serve in church and society.
  5. Capable of pursuing a deeper study of a particular discipline or topic that spans the disciplines.

Entry into the Major

Students should declare liberal arts as their intended major as early in their college career as possible by filing the Declaration of Major/Change of Advisor form with the registrar. The student’s advisor should be from the area of the student’s concentration, and must be approved by the director of the liberal arts major. Application for formal acceptance into the major, however, must be made through the student’s advisor at the end of the sophomore year. Students must also have a GPA of 2.0 or above.

Core Requirements

  1. A distribution of three- and four-hundred level courses in the following areas:
    • Social Studies (2 courses)
    • Arts and Humanities (3 courses)
    • History (1 course)
    • Science/Math (2 courses)
  2. At least one concentration
  3. HIST490 Introduction to Historical Research and Writing and HIST493 Senior Seminar I

Concentrations

Integral to the liberal arts major are concentrations. The concentrations serve as a focal point for the major, adding disciplinary depth. A student may not have both a concentration and a minor in the same area. RELG489 International Study Tour may apply as an upper division elective for some concentrations, subject to approval by the director of the liberal arts major on an individual basis.

The concentration in ancient and classical studies requires:

All of:

At least two of:

At least one of:

For additional history studies, see the Ancient and Medieval Studies concentration, the the History concentration, or the History Major.

The concentration in ancient and medieval studies requires:

All of:

One of:

For additional history studies, see the Ancient and Classical Studies concentration, the the History concentration, or the History Major.

The concentration in art history requires:

All of:

One of:

For additional studies in the history of art, see the Art History Minor.

The concentration in biology requires:

All of:

Electives (18 credits minimum; no more than 2 SCIE courses):

For additional studies in biology, see the Biology Major.

The concentration in communication requires:

At least two of:

Two additional communication (COMM) courses, one of which may be from the 200-level.

For additional studies in communication, see the Communication Major.

The concentration in English requires:

One of:

For additional English studies, see the English Major.

The concentration in history requires:

Two of:

At least three upper division (300 or 400 level) history (HIST) courses.

At least one one of:

For additional studies in history, see the History Major.

The concentration in mathematics requires:

For additional mathematics studies, see the Mathematics Minor.

The concentration in medieval studies requires:

Three of:

At least two of:

At least one of:

For additional medieval studies, see the History Major.

The concentration in music requires:

Three of:

Two of:

All of:

  • Two credits of applied music (private lessons)
  • Two credits of ensemble music

For additional studies in music, see the Music Major.

The concentration in the natural sciences requires:

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Three of:

For additional studies in the natural sciences, see our Biochemistry, Biology, and Chemistry majors.

The concentration in philosophy requires 21 credits, distributed as follows:

Nine lower division credits:

At least one of the following:

Up to three of the following philosophy-related courses, with no more than two courses from the same department (i.e., course prefix):

The concentration in psychology requires:

For more psychology studies, see our Psychology Major.

The concentration in religious studies requires:

  • Completion of the lower-division religious studies requirement (8 credits)
  • A total of five upper-division religious studies courses (15 credits)

Two of the following may be substituted for one of the above religious studies courses:

For more religious studies, see our Religion Major.

The concentration in sociology requires:

For additional sociology studies, see the Sociology Minor.

The concentration in Spanish requires:

All of:

One of:

For additional Spanish studies, see the Spanish Minor.

The concentration in studio art requires the following courses.

All of:

Core art history – three of the following:

One of the following emphases:

Ceramics emphasis

Drawing emphasis

Graphic Arts emphasis

Painting emphasis

Photography emphasis

Sculpture emphasis

Optional:

For additional studio art studies, see the Studio Art Major.

The concentration in theatre requires:

All of:

Three of:

For additional theatre studies, see the Theatre Major.

Next Steps

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