Overview
University Seminars (US) courses focus on integrative learning objectives by providing vital and distinctive opportunities for students to make intellectual connections between normally discrete disciplinary ideas and between those ideas and the world beyond the classroom. Students are required to take two additional Integrative Learning Experiences after the completion of their First-Year Experience and before the beginning of their Senior Capstone Project; University Seminars may be used to meet this requirement. University Seminars always fulfill at least one Area of Inquiry and at least one Intellectual Practices requirement.
The University Seminar application and selection process is coordinated by the Director of University Seminars.
Learning Goals
Students will achieve all or several of the following:
- Develop a heightened appreciation of the intellectual opportunities provided by exploring the connections between normally discrete disciplinary ideas and methodologies.
- Develop a heightened appreciation of the intellectual opportunities provided by exploring the connections between disciplinary ideas and the world outside the classroom.
- Utilize the small-class environment to develop collaborative relationships with faculty and fellow students.
Course Development Criteria
- University Seminars provide students the opportunity to pursue intellectual connections between normally discrete disciplinary ideas and/or provide students the opportunity to pursue intellectual connections between disciplinary ideas and the world beyond the classroom.
- University Seminars fulfill at least one Area of Inquiry and at least one Intellectual Practice.
- University Seminars are offered at the 200- and 300-level and may not normally carry pre-requisites except under special circumstances.
- University Seminars are small-class environments of not more than 20 students.
- University Seminars may fulfill departmental major requirements at the discretion of each department.
- So long as other criteria are satisfied, University Seminars may take a variety of forms. For example, they may have single instructors or be team-taught, or they may be linked courses in which all students taking one course also take the other and the two courses’ assignments and subject matter are dynamically interrelated.
