Graduation Requirements

Curricular Learning Goals
Learning goals are reviewed by our Academic Program and Standards Committee, which consists of students, faculty, and administrators, whenever a new course is proposed or a program is under review. The course and program learning goals necessarily mesh with our curricular requirements for foreign language learning, understanding domestic and cross-cultural differences, enhancing quantitative and writing skills, and appreciating the different modes of knowing represented by the arts and humanities and the natural and social sciences. Dickinson students must take courses designed to meet these learning goals, which give breadth to their education, while developing their analytical abilities and mastery within a major field of study.

First-year seminars: The First-Year Seminar (FYS) introduces students to Dickinson as a “community of inquiry” by developing habits of mind essential to liberal learning. Through the study of a compelling issue or broad topic chosen by their faculty member, students will (as approved by faculty December 2007):

Critically analyze information and ideas
Examine issues from multiple perspectives
Discuss, debate and defend ideas, including one’s own views, with clarity and reason
Develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information, and
Create clear academic writing

Writing in the Discipline (WiD): Preferably completed in the major or other related field, a Writing in the Discipline Course (WiD) offers students direct instruction and practice in writing beyond the First-Year Seminar. Students will learn to (as approved by faculty December 2007):

identify and demonstrate discipline-specific writing conventions;
understand that writing is a recursive process and develop an effective writing process.

Quantitative Reasoning Course: Quantitative Reasoning Courses teach students to effectively use, explore, analyze, and communicate with numbers, data, and logical statements consistently throughout the course content. Both words are carefully chosen: "quantitative" suggests having to do with numbers and relations and logic, while "reasoning" refers to the creation and interpretation of arguments. Courses that focus on the analysis of and drawing of inductive inferences from quantitative data, as well as courses that concentrate on the formulation of deductive and analytical arguments, can satisfy this requirement. Proposals should be submitted using this form to Lorelei Koss.

The following revised learning outcomes support this notion (as approved by faculty October 2022):

Students will formulate and/or analyze complex questions that can be addressed with numbers, symbols, or data.
Students will evaluate and interpret relevant quantitative information to support an argument.
Students will critically analyze quantitative research design and conclusions and communicate any biases, flaws, or misleading information in various approaches and presentation of results OR Students will interpret and translate between multiple representations of quantitative information.

Distribution Courses: Distribution requirements engage students in the full breadth of liberal learning as represented by four fundamental branches of the academic curriculum.

The Arts explore and interpret the human experience through creation, performance, and/or analysis of human artistic expression in the areas of dance, film, music, theatre, visual art, and creative writing. Students completing the course in the arts will be able to (as approved by faculty December 2016):

Understand how art has been and/or is rooted in formal, contextual, and conceptual concerns.
Apply that understanding to artistic creation(s) using language distinctive to the medium.
Develop an informed aesthetic awareness through analysis and/or experience.

The Humanities explore and interpret human experiences and perceptions of the world primarily through textual and conceptual analysis of works of literature, religion, and philosophy. Upon completing the course, students will be able to (as approved by faculty December 2016):

Recognize that distinctive form(s) of expression provide gateways into aspects of the human experience.
Analyze how form(s) of expression respond to aspects of the human experience.
Evaluate how form(s) of expression affect humanity in personal, national or global ways.

Social Sciences seek to explore and interpret social components of the human experience through observation and analysis of structures, institutions, and individuals. Students completing a course in the social sciences will begin to (as approved by faculty December 2016):

Recognize how social and/or cultural processes shape human experiences.
Analyze social and/or cultural components of human experiences.
Interpret examples of social and/or cultural components of human experiences.

Laboratory Science seeks to understand the natural processes that govern Earth and its inhabitants, as well as the universe, through systematic observations and experimentation, formation and verification of theories, and computational methods in a laboratory setting. Students will demonstrate (as approved by faculty April 2013):

the ability to use scientific methods as a way of understanding the world;
knowledge of content and principles within the natural sciences;
the ability to critically evaluate claims from a scientific perspective.

Cross-cultural studies: The college requires three different types of course work to familiarize students with the ways in which the diversity of human cultures has shaped our world. These courses seek to prepare students to be effective citizens in an interdependent world and to be aware of the breadth of voices, perspectives, experiences, values, and cultures that constitute the rich tapestry of U.S. life and history.

Languages: Global Citizens expand their own worldview through the understanding of others as well as through a grasp of the complex relationship between language and culture. In order to expand their horizons and reflect on their own worldview, students must obtain intermediate level skills, which will prepare them to be immersed in another language and culture. Students will be able to do the following at the intermediate level (as approved by faculty December 2015):

engage purposefully with users of the target language
participate in multilingual communities in a variety of contexts and in culturally appropriate ways
use the language to explore the practices, products, and perspectives of another culture, and
view their own language and culture through the lens of another

U.S. Diversity: The United States has always been and remains a place of diversity, contest and inequality. The U.S. diversity course explores the ways in which diversity has enriched and complicated our lives. The course examines the intersections of two or more of the following categories of identity in the United States: race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, sexual orientation, and/or disability. By considering people’s lived experiences as members of dominant and subordinated groups, this course equips students to engage a complex, diverse United States. Proposals for courses to satisfy the U.S. Diversity requirement should be submitted to Jorge Sagastume. Students fulfilling the U.S. Diversity graduation requirement will (as approved by faculty April 2014):

Gain a solid grasp of the course content
Become more knowledgeable about a complex and diverse United States
Enhance critical thinking about issues of position, power and privilege
Recognize the multiple identities that shape our interactions with one another
Develop skills to engage in respectful and civil dialogue with others who have different perspectives

Global Diversity: In the U.S., dominant intellectual and cultural traditions derive primarily from Europe. Courses that fulfill the global diversity requirement encourage students to examine societies and cultures that have been shaped predominantly by other historical traditions. Proposals for courses to satisfy the Global Diversity requirement should be submitted to Ed Webb. Students fulfilling the Global Diversity graduation requirement will (as approved by faculty February 2017):

Understand the distinctiveness and complexity of past or present societies and cultures that have been shaped predominantly by historical traditions other than those deriving primarily from Europe.
鈥婽hink critically about past or present societies and cultures that have been shaped predominantly by historical traditions other than those deriving primarily from Europe.
Engage in respectful dialogue with or about people whose life experience has been shaped by diverse historical traditions.

Sustainability course. Rapid climatic, environmental, social and economic changes present complex and interdependent challenges and opportunities for equitably and sustainably meeting the needs and improving the wellbeing of present and future generations. The causes and consequences of the changes, and responsibilities and capacities for responding, are widely but not equally shared. Students satisfy the sustainability requirement by taking one course that explores questions about sustainability challenges and opportunities, drawing on the knowledge and approaches of the arts and humanities, social sciences and/or natural sciences. Courses that fulfill the sustainability requirement include Sustainability Connections (SCON) courses, which build competencies and knowledge in a field that is relevant to understanding sustainability and apply them to a sustainability issue, and Sustainability Investigations (SINV) courses, which engage students in deep and focused exploration of sustainability.

Students who successfully complete one of these courses will demonstrate abilities to (as approved by faculty May 2018):

Think critically about a sustainability question, problem and/or potential solution
Articulate connections between a field of study and sustainability

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