General Education Curriculum

All students at The University of Scranton have the opportunity to become liberally educated in the Ignatian tradition. This liberal education will include the development of general skills and skills in the major. It will also include opportunity to develop both depth and breadth in the major, the cognate, and in the areas of natural science, social/behavioral science, humanities, philosophy, and theology. Within the disciplines listed above, students will also take at least two courses that are writing intensive and two courses with a strong cultural diversity component.

Courses that fulfill general education requirements as described in the outline below can be identified in the catalog and course bulletin listings by a letter code in parentheses preceding the course title:

Q	Quantitative Reasoning
CH	Humanities/Culture: History
CL	Humanities/Culture: Literature
CA	Humanities/Culture: Arts
CF	Humanities/Culture: Foreign Languages
CI	Humanities/Culture: Interdisciplinary
P	Philosophy or Theology/Religious Studies
E	Natural Science
S	Social/Behavioral Science
W	Writing-Intensive
D	Cultural Diversity

Courses having more than one letter code indicates that the course satisfies multiple general education requirements; e.g., (CH,W) satisfies both a Humanities/Culture: History and a Writing-Intensive requirement.

Outline of General Education Requirements

Skills Acquisition

Because of its recognition that utilizing information technology, writing and speaking effectively are skills necessary for success in college and in one’s later professional life, The University of Scranton requires that students demonstrate basic competencies in written, oral and digital communication before their junior year. These competencies may be demonstrated by students in one of the following ways:

An examination supervised by Communication Department faculty (for COMM 100 ), by English Department faculty (for WRTG 107 ) and by the Computer Information Literacy Advisory Board (for C/IL 102 /C/IL 102L or C/IL 104 ). These examinations may be taken only once by freshmen and sophomores who have not taken the course in the same skill area.
Successful completion (a grade of C or better) of each skills course: COMM 100 or PHIL 217J for public speaking; WRTG 107 (or WRTG 105 & WRTG 106 ) for writing; and C/IL 102 /C/IL 102L or C/IL 104 for computing information literacy
Successful completion (with a grade of C or better) of the requirements of the department sponsoring the student’s major regarding COMM 100 , C/IL 102 and C/IL 102L or C/IL 104 , and the Eloquentia Perfecta course. Undeclared majors should follow the instructions above. (Note: this does not affect the required writing courses.)

Public Speaking and Writing skills can also be satisfied with INTD 117 - Writing, Research and Speaking .

Subject Matter Mastery

Writing-Intensive Requirement (W): Two courses, variable credit*

One of these courses should be in the major program of study. Writing-intensive courses may also fulfill other major, cognate and/or general education requirements. An advanced course in applied writing (WRTG 210 , WRTG 211 , WRTG 212 , WRTG 218 , WRTG 310 ) may be substituted for one of the two required writing-intensive courses.

Quantitative Reasoning (Q): One course, 3 credits*

A mathematics based course as recommended by the major or chosen by the student in consultation with an advisor.

The Human Person and God

Theology/Religious Studies: Two courses, 6 credits

T/RS 121 - (P) Theology I: Introduction to the Bible
T/RS 122 - (P) Theology II: Introduction to Christian Theology

Philosophy: Two courses, 6 credits

PHIL 120 - Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 210 - Ethics

Theology/Philosophy Elective (P): One course, 3 credits*

Nature

Natural Science (E): Two courses, 6-8 credits*

Two courses in natural or physical sciences as recommended by the major or selected by the student after consultation with the advisor.

Culture

Humanities (CA, CF, CH, CL, CI): Four courses, 12 credits*

Courses in the humanities as recommended by the major or selected by the student after consultation with the advisor. Students must earn 6 credits in one humanities field: foreign language (CF), history (CH) or literature (CL). The remaining 6 credits must come from the other humanities fields, with no more than 3 credits coming from the fine arts (CA).

Integration of Individual and Community

Personal

First Year Seminar : One course, 3 credits
Passport/TAPESTRY Program: Participation in a series of co-curricular activities guided by the professor teaching your First Year Seminar
Provost’s Wellness Initiative

Social

Social or Behavioral Science (S): Two courses, 6 credits*

Two courses in social or behavioral sciences as recommended by the major or selected by students after consultation with an advisor.

Cultural Diversity (D): Two courses, 6 credits*

Two courses with strong cultural diversity content are required. These courses may also fulfill other major, cognate and/or general education requirements.

Electives

Four courses, 12 credits. Students are encouraged to use their general education electives to add minors or second majors where possible. For some majors, specific courses have been recommended in the GE elective area by the home departments. Where no specific recommendations have been made by the home department, any course (with a limit of 3 credits of PHED activity courses) may be used as a free elective. Please refer to the department course listings in the catalog for complete Course Descriptions . If you have a question about how a specific course satisfies a requirement, please contact your advisor, academic advising center, dean’s office or registrar’s office.

Note(s):

* A listing of courses that includes general education designations, if any, may be found under Course Descriptions in the online undergraduate catalogs. The catalogs are accessed through the registrar’s webpage at www.scranton.edu/registrar or directly at http://matrix.scranton.edu/catalogs. General education courses offered for a particular term may be located by accessing the online course schedule, “Course Schedule Search,” through the registrar’s webpage or directly at https://ssbprd.scranton.edu/appprd/syaclst.main, selecting a term, and then searching by course attributes. Not all courses are offered every registration cycle.

General Education Summary

*Subject*	*Credits*	*Courses*
First Year Seminar	3	First Year Seminars
Writing (INTD 117 satisfies the Writing and Public Speaking requirements.)	3 or 6	WRTG 107 or (WRTG 105 and WRTG 106 )¹
Public Speaking	3	COMM 100 ¹or PHIL 217J
Computing & Information Literacy	3	C/IL 102 and C/IL 102L or C/IL 104 ¹
Quantitative Reasoning	3-4	Courses designated with (Q)
Theology/Philosophy	15	T/RS 121 and T/RS 122 , PHIL 120 and PHIL 210 and approved T/RS or PHIL Elective (P)
Natural Science	6-8	Courses designated with (E)
Humanities History Literature Foreign Language Art/Music/Theatre Humanities/Interdisciplinary	12 total 0-6 0-6 0-6 0-6 0-6	Students must take 6 credits in one of the following areas: History (CH), Literature (L), or Foreign Language (CF). (Note that 6 credits in CI, although allowed, do not fulfill this requirement. 6 additional credits from any of the remaining humanities areas, but no more that 3 from Art/Music/Theatre (CA).
Social/Behavioral Science	6	Courses designated with (S)
Writing-Intensive	3-6	Two courses designated (W); one should be in the major²
Cultural Diversity	6	Two courses designated with (D)²
Electives	12	Maximum of 3 PHED activity classes

Total Credits

78-87 based upon major and credit value of courses

¹ Requirement may be satisfied by exemption exam, or Eloquentia Perfecta course (check with the requirements of the student’s major).

² Writing-intensive and cultural diversity courses may also satisfy other requirements in the general education curriculum reducing the total number of credits required.