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General Education and SigX Curriculum

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The General Education Curriculum

The general education course requirements are intended to ensure that each student has had a broadly based liberal arts education. The curriculum is divided into three parts: Foundations/Integrations, Liberal Arts Perspectives, and Living in the World.

Foundations/Integrations

These courses provide students the opportunity to develop and practice key academic skills, habits, and aptitudes such as critical reading and thinking, process-based writing, reflection on values, and integration.

  • First Term Seminar (FTS): First-year Gustavus Adolphus College students enroll in a fall semester course designated FTS-100: First-Term Seminar (FTS). These small, discussion-based courses support students’ transition to college by practicing skills and habits of mind central to the liberal arts while considering enduring and contemporary questions or challenges. Each FTS, with the help of a Peer Mentor, Academic Leader, and Teacher (Peer MALT), also increases students’ understanding of the academic program and campus resources that support their academic journey. Consequently, the FTS professor serves as the academic advisor until students declare a major or are admitted into a certification program (e.g., Education, Nursing). All FTS courses carry the Writing in the First Year (WRIT) designation. A full list and description of FTS offerings is published for entering students before registration.

  • Challenge Seminars (CHALS): The Challenge Seminar, normally taken in the second or third year of study, bookends the First Term Seminar by providing students an opportunity to collaboratively examine and propose responses to enduring and contemporary questions or challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective. Students will also have an opportunity to engage in reflection about how the college’s mission and their education as a whole has influenced their personal values, plans for life after college, and the role they see for themselves in the world. Like the First Term Seminar, these courses will explore how values relate to a complex challenge and engage students in critical thinking, writing, speaking, and reflection.

Liberal Arts Perspectives

Liberal Arts Perspectives courses introduce students to the method(s) of a discipline and to strategies for critical reading in the dominant genre(s) of the discipline. LAP courses also give students opportunities to use their own language to describe and analyze key concepts or course materials, and write to explore ideas, assimilate new knowledge, and reflect on the purpose of their learning (Writing to Learn).

  • Arts (ARTSC) Artistic disciplines engage in creative and critical processes through which human culture and experience is represented, reinforced, and/or critiqued. The arts expand our capacity for imaginative, interpretive and empathetic engagement in society, and develop the innovative thinking essential for addressing the challenges of our time. In Arts courses, students will participate in intellectual, embodied and practical experiences that open new paths to understanding and interpreting themselves and the world. Students may take a single four credit course to satisfy this requirement or accumulate credits equal to four credits through participation in musical ensembles and lessons.

  • Human Behavior and Social Institutions (HBSI): The social sciences rely on empirical data (quantitative and qualitative) to generate and answer questions, such as: Why do humans behave and think as they do? How do social institutions form and function? How do humans and institutions interact? Courses in Human Behavior and Social Institutions explore how social scientists develop theories that contribute to an understanding of individual and group behavior in various contexts. In Human Behavior and Social Institutions courses, students will learn about and critique both human behavior and social institutions and the methods for studying them.

  • Humanities (HUMN) The humanities examine the question of what it means to be human through the study of literary expression, history, language, and rhetoric. They equip us to understand and evaluate human thought, culture, and history and the ways in which human beings construct meaning from experience. In Humanities courses, students will reflect on what makes a purposeful life through studying literature, history, culture, and rhetoric.

  • Natural Science (NTSCI) Science is the concerted human effort to pursue better explanations about the natural world based on systematic evaluation of physical evidence. This process of discovery allows us to link isolated facts into a coherent and comprehensive web of knowledge. In Natural Science courses, students will examine scientific questions with a variety of methods and tools, including hands-on work in a laboratory setting and the communication of findings.

  • Religious Studies and Philosophy (RSAP) In religion, philosophy, and ethics, people ask questions such as how should we live? On what grounds? What enables us to live that way? These disciplines consider the grounds of beliefs and practices and how beliefs, texts, practices, and ethics relate to each other and to their cultural contexts. In Religious, Philosophical, and Ethical Thought courses, students will gain knowledge and skills necessary to critically analyze beliefs, and practices, and to navigate a world of competing theological, philosophical, and ethical commitments.

Living in the World

Living in the World courses are a combination of 100- and 200- level courses that expose students to modes of intellectual and creative expression across disciplines, identities, and cultures and build skills essential for living and working in a diverse and complex world.

  • Global Affairs and Cultures (GLAFC) Global affairs and cultures courses focus on topic(s) of global reach in relation to human populations. These courses examine those topics in the context of social, economic, cultural, political, or ecological environments, considering global interactions and interconnections (manifested locally, nationally, regionally, or across the entire planet). In order to prioritize diverse voices, GLAFC must include, as much as possible, primary and secondary sources originating from the cultures included in the course.

  • Non-English Language (NEL) Non-English Language courses emphasize the essential role that language study plays in acquiring intercultural knowledge and participating successfully in global cultures. In these courses, students study both the target language and the relevant cultures. Non-English Language Courses prepare to operate between languages and cultures and to under the challenges, past and contemporary, from diverse cultural perspectives.

  • Quantitative and Analytical Reasoning (QUANT) Quantitative and analytical reasoning courses focus on understanding and evaluating quantitative or logical (specifically referring to symbolic or predictive logic) assertions, as well as conducting and communicating quantitative or logical analysis. These courses prepare students to read, analyze, and critique mathematical, logical, statistical, and/or algorithmic analyses and increase their understanding of how such methods are properly used. QUANT courses prepare students to understand and apply mathematical, logical, statistical, and/or algorithmic methods in a discipline-specific context or in the context of the data literacy necessary for professional and/or civic life.

  • U.S. Identities and Difference (USIDG) U.S. Identities and Difference courses explore intersectional identity formation in the U.S. by studying one or more non-majority racial and/or ethnic groups alongside at least one other identity category. In these courses, students examine separate and intersectional identity constructions in context. U.S. Identities and Difference courses provide opportunities for students to reflect on the varied ways in which difference and identity impact policies, institutions, and/or communities in the U.S. and abroad.

Signatures Experience (SigX)

Gustavus students must complete one Signature Experience as part of graduation requirements. The Signature Experience graduation requirement bridges the gap between academic knowledge and practical application of that knowledge in outward facing contexts, and prepares students to connect the value of justice, developed on campus, to their life beyond Gustavus by preparing them to be thoughtful and ethical leaders in the workplace, in their communities, and in the world through a meaningful learning experience.

Students have four options for completing this requirement and, with the guidance of an advisor, are encouraged to pursue the option that is most appropriate given their individual vocational goals and interests. Students may complete more than one Signature Experience. Students must have successfully completed a minimum of 32 credits before enrolling in a Signature Experience.

Students prepare for their Signature Experience either through a preparatory workshop taken before the experience or preparation embedded in the experience itself. After completing the experience, students receive a digital credential related to the experience that will appear on the student’s comprehensive learner record and can be shared on social media and resumes.