General Education

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As a liberal arts college, Earlham offers multiple disciplinary and interdisciplinary majors and minors in which students cultivate deep and specific knowledge and experience. Equally important, the College expects every student to develop broad, general skills and proficiencies across the curriculum: visual and performing arts, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.

In a world that is increasingly interconnected and complex, we must be able to make use of ideas, not only within traditional spheres of knowledge but across different intellectual and experiential boundaries. Thus, Earlham aims at a general and deeply multidisciplinary education for all students who seek an Earlham degree.

As part of their general education, students complete six credits in each academic division of the College: humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and visual and performing arts. In addition, students meet requirements for first-year courses, analytical reasoning, perspectives on diversity and wellness.
 

Distribution Requirements 

Students are expected to complete six credits in each academic division of the College: humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and visual and performing arts.

  • In the humanities, 100-level language courses do not count toward the divisional requirement.
  • In the natural sciences, MATH 110 and MATH 151 do not count toward the divisional requirement.
  • For courses that are cross-listed in two divisions, students will receive divisional credit based on the listing they use to register.
  • For courses that are cross-listed with a division and an interdivisional program (see list below), students will receive divisional credit based on the home division of the teaching faculty member.
    • African and African American studies
    • Environmental sustainability
    • Film studies
    • Peace and global studies
    • Women’s, gender, sexuality studies
  • Courses with unexpected or non-existent divisional associations will be clearly marked in the Curriculum Guide.
     

First-Year Courses 

First-year students are required to complete an Earlham Seminar I and II. In addition, all students must complete a designated Writing Intensive course within their academic major.

Earlham Seminar (ES) courses teach first-year students general methods of interpretation in reading, writing and classroom discussion that provide a basis for skills they will continue to develop throughout their college career at Earlham and throughout their lives. The Earlham Seminar will also engage first-year students in exploring a topic of interest in an intimate, challenging and collaborative learning environment. These seminars introduce students to successful participation in a learning community and encourage new ways to engage and understand the world. Earlham Seminars share many of these distinctive characteristics:

  • Investigation of a topic and a set of related questions, using multiple ways of knowing, in order to examine intentionally how knowledge is constructed.
  • Grounding in an academic discipline while examining issues with an interdisciplinary scope.
  • Readings that engage a range of perspectives, discourses and values.
  • Emphasis on reading, reflection, writing and oral communication skills, and providing opportunities for students to critique and analyze information, construct arguments, listen interpretively and demonstrate an understanding of various perspectives.
  • Encouragement of personal creativity and confidence in ideas and the development of cooperative learning and research skills.
  • Sharpen interpretive reading skills for analyzing and interpreting different kinds of texts.
  • Strengthen general skills required for coherence and clarity in written expression.
  • Communicate intelligently and effectively both in writing and through participation in group discussion.
  • Become better, more constructive and more open-minded listeners.
  • Develop skills that support and enhance life-long learning and engaged, committed citizenship.

Earlham Seminar I – Local

Each Local Seminar will involve:

  1. The physical exploration of some aspect of Richmond or the surrounding region, in connection with the course subject matter (i.e. moving from within the classroom to outside of it: “inside-­‐out”);
  2. An encounter with relevant material or expertise from Richmond or the surrounding region with the course instructor (i.e. bringing something beyond the classroom inside of it: “outside-­‐in”); and
  3. Student reflection on their local engagement in a written assignment.

Earlham Seminar II – Global

The Global Seminar should model for students that complex transnational issues require:

  1. A depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise not restricted to a single discipline.
  2. Multiple perspectives and effective collaboration across cultural and other differences.
  3. Ongoing inquiry often without closure, involving a variety of strategies.

If a student fails an Earlham Seminar, they are required to complete a Writing Intensive course in their sophomore year for degree completion. At the time of this completion, the “failing grade” in the Earlham Seminar will be changed to a RT.

A student may petition to withdraw from an Earlham Seminar, after midterms are issued and before the last day to withdraw, if their instructor confirms that they are earning a D or F in the course at that time. If a student withdraws from an Earlham Seminar, they are required to complete a Writing Intensive course in their sophomore year for degree completion.

The Writing Intensive course that students who fail an or withdraw from an Earlham Seminar must take in their sophomore year is in addition to the Writing Intensive course already included within every student’s declared major.
 

Perspectives on Diversity Requirement

Liberal education today must include preparation for effective citizenship in a diverse multicultural society and in a pluralistic global setting. The perspectives on diversity requirement encourage students to reflect on identity formation and its place in social, global and historical contexts, as well as to develop an awareness of their own and others’ worldviews. To achieve these ends, students satisfy the requirement in three areas:

  1. Domestic: Students must complete one course (a minimum of three semester hours) with a United States focus that meets the criteria below.
  2. International: Students must complete one course (a minimum of three semester hours) with a focus outside of the United States, that meets the criteria below.
  3. Language: Students must complete two basic courses (a minimum of 8 semester hours) or demonstrate equivalent competency by examination in a designated second language.

Domestic Diversity 

We exist within a history of systemic cultural, political and economic oppression and privilege. In the domestic diversity portion of the requirement, students examine the ways groups define themselves and have been defined within this context. The groups addressed in this requirement are usually identified in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, class or ethnicity. Courses may occasionally address other socially constructed categories that have been used to name and control, and for which there are significant bodies of scholarship.

Courses with a domestic diversity designation meet three or more of these criteria:

  • Address the ways marginalized groups define and express themselves and the contexts in which these definitions are constructed.
  • Examine the ways in which definition is an act of power.
  • Discuss how such global forces as imperialism, globalization and socialism have shaped ideas, groups, institutions and/or the natural environment.
  • Explore theories of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ethnicity or other sociallyconstructed categories.
  • Place the above categories in historical or contemporary contexts.
     

International diversity

Learning to see through the eyes of other peoples and cultures is essential to becoming a citizen of the world. In the international diversity portion of the requirement, students study cultures outside of the United States, examining these cultures’ self-definitions and their interaction with external forces. This invites an expanded worldview and greater understanding of cultural perspective.

Courses with an international diversity designation meet three or more of the following criteria:

  • Address the self-definition and self-expression of particular cultures.
  • Use comparative analysis of different cultural perspectives.
  • Study countries or cultures using theories of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ethnicity or other socially-constructed categories.
  • Discuss how such global forces as imperialism, globalization and socialism have shaped ideas, groups, institutions and/or the natural environment.
  • Examine the concepts used to interpret and compare cultures.
  • Study the past or present interactions of groups or cultures within their political, economic, ideological or natural contexts.

Further notes about the diversity requirement:

  • Courses that address both United States and international issues may count for either the domestic or the international part of the diversity requirement, depending on the focus of the course or, when focus is equally weighted, on the preference of the faculty member. A single course may not fulfill both the domestic and international parts of the requirement.
  • Although domestic or international courses must ordinarily provide a minimum of three semester hours, course credit through off-campus programs may be more flexible. For example, two courses meeting appropriate criteria and together providing a minimum of three semester hours may satisfy one part of the diversity requirement.
     

Language

Language is at the heart of the human experience. Studying languages in their cultural contexts helps us to develop greater awareness of ourselves, of other cultures and of our relationships to those cultures. A knowledge of other languages and other cultures is also a powerful key to successful communication: knowing how, when and why to say what to whom. Furthermore, studying languages opens connections to additional bodies of knowledge in the arts, social sciences, natural sciences and domains outside our present frames of reference. Through comparing and contrasting languages and cultures, we develop greater insight into our own languages and cultures and realize that there are multiple ways of viewing the world. Participation in multilingual communities in a variety of contexts and in culturally appropriate ways leads to fuller engagement in the global community.

To fulfill the language component of the perspectives on diversity requirement, students must complete one year of one language while at Earlham OR demonstrate language proficiency as judged by the Department of Languages and Cultures.

Students who take a language placement examination and/or who are recommended by the department for a second semester of a language course will satisfy the language requirement by taking that course.

Students who place beyond the point at which the College requires work in a second language do not receive a reduction in the number of credits needed for graduation nor do they earn any credits on their transcript.

For students whose first language is something other than English: Students who propose to use English as their second language will validate their proficiency level in English via either the TOEFL exam, the SAT Reasoning Test or a reasonable equivalent.
 

Wellness Requirement 

Wellness at Earlham is defined as an active, lifelong process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more fulfilling and healthy life. Goals of Earlham’s wellness requirement include:

  • Promoting balance among academic, occupational and recreational aspects of life.
  • Providing opportunities to fulfill human needs such as belonging, achieving, competing, participating, socializing, exercising, relaxing and having fun.
  • Promoting positive health and wellness behaviors for individuals and the community.

Wellness is an integral part of general education because understanding and caring for one’s physical, psychological, spiritual and community selfhood is a fundamental prerequisite for all knowing. Further, the wellness requirement promotes a lifelong focus on both personal and community health in the broad sense, and on skills applicable to maintaining bodily kinesthetic, intellectual and emotional effectiveness.

Students may fulfill the wellness requirement by:

  • Completing four wellness activity-based courses

OR

  • Taking and passing one analysis-based course designated as a wellness course AND completing two wellness activity-based courses.

Note: Participating and successfully completing a season of a varsity sport fulfills half of the wellness requirement (counts as two wellness activities). Participating and successfully completing two seasons of a sport completes the wellness requirement. Club sports may be counted as one wellness activity.

Activity-based courses aim at promoting physiological health, as reflected in cardiovascular functioning, muscular strength and conditioning, motor coordination skills and flexibility. Activity courses involve regular and extended practice of the activity as approved by the Athletics, Wellness and Physical Education program—typically at least 18 hours spread over seven weeks. Activity courses are ordinarily graded on a credit/no credit basis.

Analysis-based courses focus on the integration of cognitive and experiential learning, connecting experience with strategies for reflection, integration and continuation. Typically courses are personally directed; they focus on building knowledge and skills that contribute to creating wellness in one’s personal life and on helping students make choices toward a more healthy and fulfilling life.

Earlham’s emphasis on community entails a recognition of the individual’s responsibility for the society’s overall approach to wellness. Therefore, Wellness courses focus on a practical approach to the cultural dimensions of health and wellness, including issues of social location and social justice, and incorporate training in how to access and assess information related to wellness. Classroom work may be supplemented by student participation in experiential cocurricular workshops or programs on such topics as sexuality, substance abuse, eating disorders, use of performance-enhancing drugs in athletics, the use of prayer or stress management.

Analysis-based courses carrying the wellness designation may simultaneously satisfy other general education or major requirements for that student if appropriately designated.
 

General Education Policies 

  1. Students who matriculate as first-year students (but not transfer students) are expected to complete all or most of their graduation requirements by taking Earlham courses (including approved courses on Earlham off-campus programs). They can not fully satisfy any of the four divisional distribution requirements with advanced credits. Every new first-year student must complete an Earlham Seminar I and II in their first year.
  2. Transfer students and their advisers should work closely with the College registrar at the earliest opportunity after admission to determine which courses, if any, may be accepted at the time of transfer to meet general education requirements. Earlham has articulation agreements for transfers in place with some specific institutions, and these agreements may be relevant to the general education requirement. Only courses that clearly meet the general education goals as specified will be approved as meeting Earlham’s general education requirements.
  3. Substitutions for general education courses from other academic institutions: Students who wish to fulfill a general education requirement by taking a non-Earlham course to meet a general education requirement (for example, a summer course at another institution, or a course through another institution’s off-campus program) must seek approval in advance from the registrar. Petitions for such substitutions are available on the Office of the Registrar’s website.
  4. AP credit: Advanced Placement (AP) credits do not count toward Earlham’s general education requirements.
  5. IB credit: International Baccalaureate (IB) credit cannot be used to fulfill any of Earlham’s general education requirements.
  6. Senior petitions: Students (and their advisers) should be aware that CPC does not accept general education petitions for waivers or substitutions from seniors later than the middle of the semester preceding their final semester at Earlham.