Core Competency Definitions

Core Competencies 
All courses are multifaceted and inculcate multiple skills and ways of understanding the world. However, the courses that fulfill the following competencies are designed to provide particular attention to the skills listed below. Students must take one course in each of the following categories. Students may not count more than two courses with the same prefix towards the following requirements: 

Think Aesthetically 
Courses in this category would focus on creating new works of art (e.g., visual arts, music, dance, and theatrical performances), creative writing, and/or analyzing existing works of art and artistic movements (e.g., literature, film, drama, visual arts). 

Reason Formally and Quantitatively 
Courses that fulfill this competency would have a substantial focus on quantitative methods and formal reasoning. Such courses will require students to strengthen analytical reasoning skills based on the use of arithmetical, algebraic, geometric, statistical, logical, and/or algorithmic methods to solve problems. Courses satisfying this requirement emphasize quantitative ways of thinking over rote memorization and the mechanical use of equations. 

Question Scientifically 
Courses in this category will introduce students to the scientific method and how it can be deployed to investigate questions about the natural world. 

Listen, Imagine, and Understand 
Courses in this category will critically examine the meaning-making practices that help people interpret the world. They will expose students to the breadth and complexity of the human experience across time and space--developing the skills of critical listening and reading to cultivate empathy for lives unlike our own. 

Write and Speak Effectively 
Courses in this category will focus on oral and written communication skills. Faculty will devote substantial class time to teaching all stages of the writing process from invention through revision. 

Learn a Second Language 
This competency replaces our current foreign language requirement. Students must complete a language through the 111 level or show competency at that level through a placement exam. 

Examine Power and Inequities 
Courses in this category will explore the ways in which power is constructed, embedded, and employed in cultural, political, and social structures. Courses will consider the effect of such systems on cultures and individuals, as well as efforts to confront inequality. 

Engage Diversity 
Courses in this category will focus on cultures, people, and places historically excluded by the Western academic tradition. Courses will engage issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, and class, and their complex, interrelated histories. 

Act Responsibly 
Courses in this category will equip students to engage as citizens of a diverse and interconnected world--drawing upon various ideas and ideals that guide human interaction, including historical, religious, ecological, philosophical, and ethical frameworks.