Saint Mary's College

General Education Program

"The liberal arts are most liberal, most liberating when they rest on complete rather than on partial truth." Sister M. Madeleva, C.S.C.

Purpose and Goals Statement

At Saint Mary's College, students become liberally educated women with the breadth of knowledge to understand the cultural, social, spiritual, and natural worlds in which we all exist. This breadth of vision enables each student to ground her specific major area of study in this larger context.

The General Education Program at Saint Mary's College brings to every student an intellectually vigorous education reflective of the College's overall mission. Proficiencies and courses in the General Education Program especially reinforce Saint Mary's commitment to the education goals identified in its Mission Statement:

• gaining the ability to think clearly about complex problems
• acquiring the capacity to communicate with precision and style
• studying freely and critically the rich heritage of the Catholic tradition
• developing cultural interests and aesthetic appreciation
• thinking critically and creatively about human culture and about the natural world
• developing competence in quantitative skills and in modern language

The Saint Mary's General Education Program enables every student to develop a breadth of knowledge beyond exposure to different content areas. Designated courses in the General Education Program provide explorations into the characteristic ways of knowing in specific disciplines. For example, students not only learn about philosophy; they also learn to think like philosophers.

The flexibility of Saint Mary's General Education Program provides a genuine opportunity for the student to shape the plan for her own intellectual development. Each student is able to choose from among a number of options within a coherent framework, and an advising program provides information and guidance necessary to empower her to fashion her own general education.

The Framework

The Saint Mary's College General Education Program incorporates three areas of requirements: proficiencies, discipline-specific designated courses, and additional designated courses.

1. Proficiencies - These requirements address oral and written communication in English as well as one other modern language. Students are required to achieve a general level of competence in written English and advanced writing competence in their chosen major discipline. Students are also required to develop an appropriate level of competence in a modern language other than English.
2. Designated Courses in Specific Disciplines - This eleven-course component reflects our conviction that different disciplines, in addition to teaching their specific content, teach "ways of knowing" characteristic of that discipline. The required designated courses in the disciplines introduce students to a wide variety of ways of knowing. Saint Mary's General Education Program acknowledges and reflects the long intellectual tradition of higher education by including artistic, historical, literary, mathematical, philosophical, religious, natural scientific, and social scientific ways of knowing. Any combination of courses which can be chosen to satisfy the Designated Courses requirement will provide the student with experience and practice in all these ways of knowing.
3. Additional Designated Courses - This three-course component gives the student the opportunity to build additional depth or breadth into her General Education Program. She may, for example, choose to enhance a proficiency skill by electing a general education course in Speech Communication. She may augment the depth of her understanding of a particular way of knowing by choosing a second course in that area. She may extend her understanding of the complexity of knowing by choosing a course which emphasizes ways of knowing in an interdisciplinary context, for example, through courses such as those offered in Humanistic Studies, Mass Communications, or Women's Studies.

The Particulars

The Saint Mary’s College General Education Program is outlined below.

Required Proficiencies

Writing Proficiency (the "W")

Writing in the Major (the "Advanced W" implemented in the major)

Competence in a modern language (equivalent to 2 courses)

Required Designated Courses in Specific Disciplines (11 courses required)

1 designated Fine Arts course (Music, Art, Theatre/Dance)

1 designated History course

1 designated English Literature course

1 designated Mathematics course

1 designated Philosophy course (Phil 110)

2 designated Religious Studies courses (including RlSt 201)

2 designated Laboratory Science courses (Biology, Chemistry, Physics)

2 designated Social Science courses (Economics, Political Science,

Psychology, Sociology/Anthropology, Women's Studies)

Additional Designated Courses (3 courses required)

1 additional designated course in up to three of the following disciplines

Fine Arts (Music, Art, Theatre/Dance)

English

History

Mathematics

Philosophy

Women's Studies

and/or

1 or 2 designated courses in both or either of the following disciplines

Communication

Humanistic Studies

All Saint Mary's students fulfill the proficiency requirements. The following degree programs allow exceptions to the breadth of the course requirements in (2) and (3) above: Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and some Bachelor of Science majors.