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Draft Catalog
Liberal Arts Core
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Coordinator: Peter McCormick
Email: mccormick_p@fortlewis.edu
Fort Lewis College believes that a liberal arts education develops habits of mind necessary for global citizenship and lifelong learning. Our student-centered liberal arts curriculum fosters critical inquiry, effective communication, aesthetic appreciation, quantitative reasoning, and an understanding of different historical and cultural perspectives. The liberal arts curriculum provides an interdisciplinary foundation for learning in the major and empowers students for success in their professional, personal, and civic lives.
Learning Outcomes:
- Civic Engagement: Students will participate in activities of personal and public concern that are meaningful to the student and socially beneficial to the community. In the process, they will develop the combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to make and reflect on that difference.
- Creative Thinking: Students will be able to combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original and imaginative ways that involve processes of thinking, reacting, and working characterized by a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.
- Critical Thinking: Students will be able to analyze information and ideas from multiple perspectives and articulate an argument, opinion, or conclusion based on this analysis.
- Diversity & Global Learning: Students will be able to critically analyze and engage complex, interdependent structures and constructs (such as natural, physical, social, cultural, economic, or political) and their implications for individuals, groups, communities, or cultures. Students will also develop awareness of diversity, learn the importance of inclusivity and seek to understand how their actions affect both local and global communities.
- Information Literacy: Students will be able to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use that information for the task or problem at hand.
- Inquiry & Analysis: Students will be able to engage in inquiry as a systematic process of exploring issues/objects/works through the collection and analysis of evidence that results in informed conclusions/judgements.
- Oral Presentation: Students will be able to deliver well-prepared and purposeful presentations that are grounded in credible information and organized effectively.
- Problem Solving: Students will be able to design, evaluate, and implement a strategy to answer a question or achieve a goal.
- Quantitative Literacy: Students will be able to use quantifiable information and mathematical analysis to make connections and draw conclusions. Students will understand and create arguments supported by quantitative evidence and clearly communicate those arguments in a variety of formats.
- Written Communication: Students will demonstrate competency in written communication with the ability to write and express ideas across a variety of genres and styles.
The curricular components of the Liberal Arts Core at Fort Lewis College are:
- First-Year Launch (one course)
- Communications (two courses)
- Mathematics (one course)
- Arts and Humanities, History, and Social and Behavioral Sciences (minimum of 15 credits)
- Natural and Physical Sciences (two courses, one with an associated laboratory)
A Liberal Arts Core (LAC) Certificate links together several LAC courses from different disciplines under a common theme. Student may complete one (1) LAC certificate. Students are still required to complete all Liberal Art Core Requirements regardless if they complete a LAC certificate.
Note: In addition to completing an LAC Certificate, students must fulfill all the requirements of the Liberal Arts Core.
Click here for a one-page printable summary of the Liberal Arts Core requirements.
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Liberal Arts Core - Credits: 32-34
All Fort Lewis College degrees require the completion of the Liberal Arts Core (LAC). Liberal Arts Core requirements may be satisfied by major requirements. (aka. “double dipping”)
See Liberal Arts Core for course choices
| First-Year Launch Course |
1 course |
FLC 100 (Credits:1) |
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| Communication |
2 courses |
COMP 150 AND one CO2 course (Credits: 6) |
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OR |
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One CO2 course AND One CO3 course (Credits: 6) |
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| Mathematics |
1 course |
One MA1 course (Credits: 3-4) |
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| Arts & Humanities |
2 courses |
Two AH courses (Credits: 6) |
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| History |
1 course |
One HI course (Credits: 3) |
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| Social & Behavioral Sciences |
1 course |
One SS course (Credits: 3) |
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| Additional AH/HI/SS |
1 course |
One additional AH or HI or SS course (Credits: 3) |
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| Natural & Physical Sciences |
2 courses |
Two SC courses - one MUST include a lab (Credits: 7-8) |
First-Year Launch (FYL)
First-Year Launch courses (FYL) help students to develope awareness of campus resources available to support their learning as they take part in co-curricular activities and events in the campus and Durango communities, while developing a connection to an instructor mentor. First-Yeal Launch courses use an inquiry-based process of discovery, culminating in a reflective, student-produced capstone. In these courses, students will have the opportunity to choose topics/problems they want to pursue more deeply on their own. In addition, all students will develop study, productivity, and time management skills under the mentorship of their instructor and in collaboration with peer learners.
Students are required to complete one FYL course, typically in the fall or spring of their first year. Students’ options for this requirement are determined by admission, advising, and department policies.
FYL Courses - One course required:
Communication (CO1 and CO2 or CO2 and CO3):
The ability to write effectively and read critically underlies professional projects, civic actions, and academic endeavors. Analyzing whom and what to vote for, reading with an open mind about social, economic, and philosophical issues, and developing the competencies to contribute to the world of ideas in the academy and in the workplace are important. Lower division communication courses provide the foundational work necessary for students to begin to think, read, and write at advanced levels.
Students are required to complete either one CO1 course and one CO2 course or one CO2 course and one CO3 course. Students’ options for CO1, CO2, and CO3 are governed by placement policies developed by the Writing Program. Students should consult the requirements of their degree programs before selecting a CO2 course because some programs require completion of a specific CO2 course.
CO2 Courses:
Completion of CO1 with a C- or higher is required to enroll in a CO2 course.
CO3 Courses:
Completion of CO2 with a C- or higher and Sophomore standing is required to enroll in a CO3 course.
Mathematics (MA1):
Mathematics underlies modern technology, is essential to understanding and critically examining public policy, and is a powerful tool for many disciplines. Pattern recognition, generalization, abstraction, problem solving, careful analysis, and rigorous quantitative argument are important to all well-educated citizens and are the foundation of many professions.
Students are required to complete one MA1 course. Students’ options for this requirement are determined by placement policies developed by the departments that offer MA1 courses. Students should consult the requirements of their degree programs before selecting a MA1 course because some programs require completion of a specific MA1 course.
MA1 Courses - One course required:
Arts and Humanities, History, and Social and Behavioral Sciences (AH, HI, and SS):
Arts and Humanities
Arts and Humanities courses (AH) help students recognize the different ways in which humans have perceived their world, deepen their understanding of how social, cultural, linguistic, religious, philosophical, and historical circumstances shape the human environment, and explore fundamental questions of value, meaning, and modes of expression. There are four types of Arts and Humanities courses: Arts and Expression (AH1); Literature and Humanities (AH2); Ways of Thinking (AH3); and Foreign Languages (AH4).
History
History courses (HI1) involve students in analytical, chronological study of significant human experiences. Through the study of a specific aspect of the human experience, students will learn the interpretive and analytical methods necessary to build accounts of the past and explore how alternative analytical perspectives can create different narratives of the past.
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social and Behavioral Science courses (SS) help students acquire a foundational understanding of the social sciences while gaining insight into contemporary issues and problems. There are three types of Social and Behavioral Sciences courses: Economic or Political Systems (SS1); Geography (SS2); and Human Behavior, Culture, or Social Frameworks (SS3).
Students are required to complete two Arts and Humanities courses, one History course, and one Social and Behavioral Science course. If, after completing the four required courses, students have not earned a minimum of 15 credits, they must take an additional course from the Arts and Humanities, History, or Social Science categories. Students’ options to take modern language courses to fulfill the Arts and Humanities requirements are determined by placement policies developed by the Modern Languages Department. Students should consult the requirements of their degree programs before selecting Arts and Humanities, History, and Social and Behavioral Science courses because some programs may require completion of specific courses.
AH Courses – Minimum of two (2) courses required (Any combination of AH1, AH2, AH3, or AH4):
HI Courses - Minimum of one (1) course required:
SS Courses - Minimum of one (1) course required (SS1, SS2, or SS3):
Natural and Physical Sciences (SC1 and SC2):
Through Natural and Physical Science courses students will gain an understanding of the scientific viewpoint and method and gain insights into the impacts of science and technology on society.
Students are required to complete two Natural and Physical Science courses. One of these courses must be a science with an associated laboratory (SC1). The second course may be from either the SC1 (science with a lab) or SC2 (science without a lab) list. Students’ options for this requirement are determined by placement policies developed by the departments that offer SC1 and SC2 courses. Students should consult the requirements of their degree programs before selecting their Natural and Physical Science courses because some programs require completion of specific SC1 and SC2 courses.
SC1 Courses - Minimum of one (1) course with associated laboratory required:
SC2 Courses – Minimum of one (1) course is required if a second SC1 course is not taken:
State of Colorado gtPathways System
All courses that fulfill lower-division general education requirements that have been completed with a minimum grade of C- or better, are guaranteed to transfer to other Colorado public institutions of higher education under the State of Colorado gtPathways system. These courses were approved for gtP as of publication date. Changes can be made to approved gtP courses at any time; they are not catalog specific. The most accurate listing of courses approved for gtP can be found by searching by attribute on the schedule on WebOPUS. Some of the courses that fulfill lower-division general education requirements may also count for major or minor requirements. See specific programs for more information.
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