Starting in 2012, as part of its ongoing commitment to inspiring and preparing students for professional careers in current and emerging fields within the context of an education informed by the sciences and humanities, Husson University began revising its General Education curriculum with the following goals in mind:
- Provide a more integrated experience stressing the context and connections of General Education in informing major fields of study
- Develop a greater understanding of the purpose and importance of General Education in the curriculum by students, parents, and faculty
- Better prepare students for the demands of the new century
- Create greater efficiency in the curriculum
- Provide greater choice and flexibility to students
- Continue to meet and exceed accreditation requirements
- Improve assessment of student learning outcomes and share assessment data across campus units to better inform curriculum decisions
The Faculty Forum voted to adopt the following mission statement and learning outcomes during the 2015-2016 academic year. Over the course of the 2016-2017 academic year, the General Education Task Force and General Education Committee of the Faculty Forum began creating a new structure for Husson’s General Education program with hopes that it will be implemented as quickly as possible in subsequent academic years.
General Education Mission Statement (adopted 2015)
The mission of the general education core curriculum at Husson University is three-fold:
- to educate students in broad, foundational knowledge encompassing their larger societies and cultures;
- to educate students in universal and multi-faceted skills including communication, problem solving, and critical thinking
- to open students’ minds to the life-possibilities available to them with a Husson education.
Students build upon this core as they move through their major programs by
- using their cultural competencies to better serve their patients, employers, peers, or customers
- applying their intellectual skills to discipline-specific studies or occupations
- taking full advantage of social, economic, and cultural opportunities to be successful, productive members of their chosen communities.
General Education Outcomes (adopted 2016)
All General Education outcomes require “adequate breadth” by showing a “balanced regard for what are traditionally referred to as the arts and humanities, the sciences including mathematics, and the social sciences.” These outcomes require “offerings that focus on the subject matter and methodologies of these three primary domains of knowledge as well as on their relationships to one another.” NEASC Standards for Accreditation p. 8 https://cihe.neasc.org/downloads/Standards/Standards_for_Accreditation.pdf
1. Knowledge:
Students will demonstrate basic knowledge of human cultures and how those impact the individual, and the physical and natural worlds.
Students will explore, identify, explain, and apply the ways in which knowledge is created about the individual, society and the physical and natural worlds. They will identify and apply methods of quantitative and qualitative investigative research and of presentation.
2. Perspectives:
Students will be able to identify, explain, and apply a wide variety of fundamental human perspectives—global, historical, cultural, racial, gendered, social, economic, religious, political, psychological and geographical—through studies in the humanities, social sciences, arts, math, and science.
Students will integrate knowledge garnered from the course work in general education to shape their informed perspectives on global issues as well as their own lives. Such awareness will help students make intelligent assessments and choices when encountering diverse people, ideas, beliefs and cultures.
3. Thinking:
Reasoning—Students will identify, understand, and be able to use different methods of reasoning effectively.
Problem Solving—Students will rationally solve problems and make decisions through analysis and synthesis of relevant information.
Creative Thinking—Students will demonstrate capacity to analyze, synthesize, and interpret ideas and representations of human experience found in literature, philosophy, psychology and the arts in order to create and express new ideas.
4. Skills
Students will demonstrate essential college level skills associated with reading comprehension, careful interpretation of texts, clear oral and written communication, and use of technology.
Students will demonstrate capacity to gather, analyze, interpret, and articulate quantitative and qualitative information and results.
Upon completion of their general education curriculum, students will have
- Understood, interpreted, and communicated ideas and information using written, oral and visual media.
- Thought critically and creatively to solve unfamiliar problems
- Used quantitative and qualitative reasoning in a variety of general education contexts.
- Demonstrated an understanding of the history, principles, economics, psychology and politics of the United States and the wider world.
- Demonstrated an awareness of different social and cultural perspectives.
- Demonstrated proficiency in computer and information literacy.
- Demonstrated an understanding of how the social sciences describe and explain interpersonal and intrapersonal behaviors
- Demonstrated an understanding of how the biological and physical sciences, social sciences, and humanities describe and explain the natural world.
- Identified and explained aesthetic and ethical dimensions of humankind.
General Education Curriculum (adopted 2017; amended 2019)
I. Core Skills I—10-11 HOURS
EH 105—3 HOURS
*MATH I—3-4 HOURS
*General Education Requirement (Math I) 3-4 credits
Courses meeting the general education requirement for Math I should focus on advancing a student’s symbolic, algorithmic, and deductive reasoning and includes traditional courses such as College Algebra, Pre-Calculus, Calculus and the like. All such courses should seek to support the techniques needed for further study in mathematics, natural sciences, and other quantitative fields. While applications are always important in any course, courses whose primary motivation is to apply previously mastered mathematical skills to specific subject areas or to provide an opportunity to review mathematical skills below a college algebra level would not qualify as fulfilling this general education requirement. These issues must be addressed when a course is submitted for general education approval.
Philosophical elective—3 HOURS (e.g. PH 100, PH 110, PH 204)
PH courses or those in which 80% or more of course effort time, as identified in the syllabus, is focused on philosophical or religious questions or the histories of such thought. Course materials must focus on open-ended philosophical inquiry in one or more standard areas of philosophical concern (ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical aesthetics, or logic) rather than compliance to current professional or legal norms, or natural or social science inquiry.
HE 111—1 HOUR
II. Natural and Social Science Core—13-14 HOURS
*MATH II—3 HOURS
*General Education Requirement (Math II) 3 credits
Math II is the study of how to mathematically draw valid conclusions from data which is traditionally included in the academic field of statistics. Courses meeting the general education requirement for Inductive Mathematics should focus on developing a student’s statistical reasoning to draw conclusions from data and to critique the statistics provided by other sources. Traditional courses in statistics include Introduction to Statistics, Applied Statistics, Bio-statistics and the like. Courses in Inductive Mathematics should seek to support further study in statistics, natural sciences, and other data driven fields. These issues must be addressed when a course is submitted for general education approval.
Laboratory Science Elective—3-4 HOURS
Science elective with lab. Some courses will have labs embedded in the course, and other courses will require separate lab courses. All qualifying science electives or bridges should have a lab component.
Lab Science Laboratory science electives are science electives with lab that use the scientific method to analyze measured data that is collected and interpreted based on physical, biological or environmental systems' experiment and/or design. For the purposes of this definition, scientific method is:
- asking relevant questions about the things around us,
- developing experiments to test the questions in a search for better understanding,
- collecting new and /or gathering existing data relevant to the questions being asked,
- analyzing the data and/or observations,
- drawing conclusions based on the observations and analysis of the data and,
- reporting the experiment and conclusions in language relevant and appropriate to the area under study.
Laboratory science classes must be either a SC and SL co-requisite pair or a SC class where a minimum of 25% of the class time is used for lab/activities that apply the scientific method and are assessed separately from lecture only material. Courses with science prerequisites are not eligible to be General Education Laboratory Science elective courses.
For courses with separate labs, such as SC 191 and SL 191, both MUST be taken to fulfill the General Education requirement.
Psychological OR Sociological—3 HOURS
Social Science elective met by a psychology or sociology elective or bridge with the goal of demonstrating key knowledge about interpersonal and/ or intrapersonal behaviors. Qualifying courses will have at least 80% of course effort time spent on a psychological or sociological content
Historical—3 HOURS
History elective; the course must be a course in which students will identify and explain key elements in the history of the United States or the world. This course will also have students develop qualitative reasoning skills. Qualifying courses will have at least 80% of course effort time spent on historical content.
HE 112 (Personal Wellness) *Optional
III. Humanities Core—9-10 Hours
Literature elective (prerequisite EH 105)—3 HOURS
EH200+ literature courses and other courses in which 80% or more of course effort time, as identified in the syllabus, focuses on reading and written and oral analysis and/or production of literary texts, their history, meaning, and interpretation, using literary methods.
Fine Arts—3 HOURS
Identifies and explains aesthetic dimensions of humankind. FA-catalogue courses, or courses in which 80% or more of course effort time, as identified in the syllabus, should be focused on fine, visual, or performance art, their techniques, their history, or their interpretation.
Identified and explained aesthetic and ethical dimensions of humankind
Humanities elective—3 HOURS (e.g. CM 100 or PH 100)
Any course that otherwise qualifies as a Fine Arts, FC&C, Philosophical, or Literature Elective, or a non-major general course in speech or human communication.
HE 113 (Personal Finance) *Optional
IV. Perspectives: 9 Hours
Global
Historical
Cultural
Racial
Gendered
Social
Economic
Religious
Political
Psychological
Geographical
Total 41-43 hours
V. Other Requirements
Foreign Culture OR Conversation by proficiency
Husson University wants its students to demonstrate a focused experience with a particular culture. Students may meet this requirement in one of several ways
LC courses, or courses that are focused experience with a particular culture, in which students learn about a different culture from a very personal or family oriented perspective. A qualifying course should explore the different ways of thinking, feeling and acting within a culture. ASL and some travel courses in which cultural learning amounts to 80% or more of course effort time, as identified in the syllabus, should be focused on FC&C outcomes. The teaching faculty member and/or the materials used should exhibit strong insider knowledge of the history, culture, and language of the other culture, and should have a humanities or cultural perspective rather than a social science perspective.
In order to satisfy the FC or C requirement, students must meet one of the conditions below.
- Conversation (Language)
- Passing a language course at Husson University
- Presenting an AP score of 3 or better in a language or an appropriate CLEP or IB exam score.
- Students who already have a demonstrated second-language proficiency.
- Cultural Competency
- Students may take a course that has an “F” tag in a program or General Education. Courses with “F” tags will focus on the study or immersion in cultural competencies. Courses earning this tag will have at least 80% of course effort time spent on cultural competencies.
- Students who have studied in a foreign country and Husson accepts the coursework.
- Students who have had significant (usually 6 months or more) personal or professional travel, study, or living exposure in another country.
Bridge Course
At least one course must be a bridge course. Bridge courses are interdisciplinary courses that show the interconnected nature of different fields in answering key questions. The course can bridge multiple fields.
Writing Intensive Course
One “W” (writing intensive) course beyond the required EH sequence. Must be a 300-level or above course within the academic major or in a closely related area of study. Courses designated as WI courses must pass an appropriate review process and meet the following minimum requirements:
1. Writing assignments must constitute at least 30% of the final course grade.
2. The course must contain at least three different writing assignments, at least one of which must require students to revise in response to the instructor's feedback.
3. Students must produce a total of at least 3000 words (roughly 12-14 double spaced pages) of finished prose, and at least 1000 words of informal response papers, prewriting, journals, or other drafts, not including discussion postings on Canvas.
Sustainability
“The diverse contexts in which sustainability occurs makes the general education curriculum the natural place to ensure all students are given the tools necessary to engage in thoughtful and critical dialogue and debate.” –Campus Sustainability report
The Campus sustainability Committee defined sustainability as “the thoughtful consideration of our resource use to minimize our carbon footprint, maximize our environmental stewardship, and better understand our ecological impacts.” –Campus Sustainability report
Students must take one “S” (sustainability) course: a course with this tag must include incorporate a significant, assessable experience in the course engaging students in the topic of environmental sustainability as defined above.
Community Service
To complete the General Education program, students must also complete five hours of community service and complete an essay that describes how their experience aligns with their professional goals and values.