General Education Program Handbook, 2024-2025

Students working on a project

Students working on a project

Grand Valley State University educates students to shape their lives, their professions, and their societies. The university contributes to the enrichment of society through excellent teaching, active scholarship, and public service. Grand Valley’s liberal education fosters critical-thinking, creative problem solving, and cultural understanding for the benefit of lifelong learning and global citizenship. Liberal education is achieved through the General Education Program, courses in the major, electives, and cocurricular experiences. This handbook outlines the General Education Program.

MISSION |TOP|

The General Education Program prepares students for informed citizenship, leading to responsible participation in local, national, and global communities.

PHILOSOPHY |TOP|

Ensuring that undergraduate students receive a broad general education has been a primary goal of colleges and universities since their inception. In this era of increasing specialization and growing demand for professional expertise, it is vital that we continue to emphasize the value of general learning.

Grand Valley State University maintains that a complete education involves more than preparation for a particular career. A career occurs in the context of a life, and a sound general education helps one “make a life” as well as “make a living.” The university, therefore, remains committed to assuring that all undergraduate students, regardless of their academic major or intended profession, receive a broad education rooted in the arts and sciences.

The focus of our General Education Program is to provide students with an education that balances depth with breadth and the specialized with the general. The General Education Program helps students become literate and enlightened in a number of disciplines, and it fosters their ability to make connections across various domains of knowledge. Such preparation will provide students with the general knowledge and skills necessary to participate intelligently in the discourses that shape local, national, professional, and global communities.

FACULTY ROLE |TOP|

Units with courses in the General Education Program are expected to ensure that all faculty members who teach in the program are knowledgeable about its student learning outcomes. Minimum qualifications for faculty members assigned to teach in the General Education Program include:

Student Learning Outcomes

KNOWLEDGE OUTCOMES |TOP|

  1. about the major areas of human investigation and accomplishment — the arts, the humanities, the mathematical sciences, the natural sciences, and the social sciences.
  2. about their own culture and the culture of others.
  3. how academic study connects to issues in the world.

SKILLS OUTCOMES |TOP|

Graduates are proficient in:

  1. Collaboration: Effectively work on a team.
  2. Critical thinking: Comprehensively evaluate issues, ideas, artifacts, or events before forming a conclusion.
  3. Ethical reasoning: Apply ethical principles and codes of conduct to decision making.
  4. Information literacy: Identify the need for information; access, evaluate, and use information effectively, ethically, and legally.
  5. Integration: Apply knowledge from experiences and multiple disciplines to new, complex situations.
  6. Oral communication: Effectively prepare and deliver a formal oral presentation.
  7. Problem solving: Design and evaluate an approach to answer an open-ended question or achieve a desired goal.
  8. Quantitative Literacy: Work effectively with numerical data.
  9. Written communication: Write effectively for multiple purposes and audiences.

General Education Requirements

Note: Department proficiency or placement examinations do not fulfill General Education requirements. |TOP|

FOUNDATIONS

Courses in the Foundations category introduce you to the major areas of human thought and endeavor. These courses present the academic disciplines as different ways of looking at the world, introduce you to the varied methods used to create knowledge, and acquaint you with major questions and principles of the field. Requirements:

  1. Arts (one course)
  2. Historical Analysis (one course)
  3. Mathematical Sciences (one course or MTH 126 + STA 126)
  4. Physical Sciences (one course)*
  5. Life Sciences (one course)*
  6. Philosophy and Literature (one course)
  7. Social and Behavioral Sciences (two courses from two different disciplines/course prefixes)
  8. Writing (one course)

*At least one of the Physical Sciences or Life Sciences courses must be a lab course.

CULTURES

Courses in the Cultures category prompt you to recognize yourself as a cultural being, and to understand the diverse ways in which people organize life and perceive the world. It enhances your ability to live and work intelligently, responsibly, and cooperatively in a multicultural nation and an interdependent world. Requirements:

  1. Global Perspectives (one course)
  2. U.S. Diversity (one course)

Note: Courses with a Cultures designation may count for Foundations or Issues credit in addition to Cultures credit. See the specific course for details.

ISSUES

Courses in the Issues category provide you opportunities to integrate learning and co-curricular experiences to build connections between prior understanding and new learning. Issues courses are problem-solving courses that encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration within each class. They also develop your understanding of some of the most compelling issues of our time: globalization, health, human rights, identity, sustainability, and the connected topics of information, innovation, or technology. Requirements:

Note: Courses in the General Education Program are subject to change without notice. Consult myBanner for the most accurate information.

Graduation Requirements

GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS |TOP|

As an undergraduate, you are pursuing a baccalaureate degree. To earn your degree, you need to meet certain minimum requirements. Your degree is divided into several components.

University Requirements
These classes help you attain competency in reading, writing, and mathematics.

General Education
You will complete 11–13 courses in the General Education Program. This is a crucial part of your education; these courses will provide you with the skills and breadth of knowledge that are the hallmarks of an educated person.

Major Program
You will complete a major program that will educate you in a specific field. A cumulative GPA of 2.0 is required in the major. Some majors specify higher GPAs; consult the catalog.

Supplemental Writing Skills (SWS)
You must complete two courses from the SWS section that carry an SWS designation.

Other Requirements

Note: A minor program is not generally required for graduation. If you elect a minor, you must earn a GPA of at least 2.0 in the minor.
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Mathematics and Writing Requirements

MATHEMATICS REQUIREMENTS |TOP|

Initial Math Placement

Mathematics Proficiency Testing

MTH 110
MTH 110 is the prerequisite to some courses in the Mathematical Sciences Foundations. The MTH 110 prerequisite is fulfilled by one of the following:

WRITING REQUIREMENTS |TOP|

  1. General Education Foundations Writing requirement
  2. SWS requirement (two courses)

1. General Education Writing Requirement

Students can complete the GE Foundations Writing requirement by taking either WRT 150 or WRT 120 and 130. If you feel confident in your writing skills and have experience writing researched essays, it is recommended you take WRT 150 during the fall or winter of your first year. If you have less experience writing in high school or you would like more practice and support to develop your writing skills, you should register for WRT 120 in the fall and WRT 130 in the winter.

WRT 120 — Strategies in Writing - Stretch I
The first course in a two-course sequence designed for students who desire more time, practice, and support to complete the first-year writing requirement. Students will practice drafting and researching strategies and gain confidence in their writing and research skills. Students develop fluency and master conventions of standard academic writing.

WRT 130 — Strategies in Writing - Stretch II
Continuation of WRT 120. Students learn strategies for research-based writing. They practice writing processes to build well-supported arguments and incorporate sources. Students must earn a grade of C (not C-) or better to fulfill the Foundations – Writing requirement. WRT 120 and 130 or WRT 150 are prerequisites to SWS courses.

WRT 150 — Strategies in Writing
Students practice different kinds of academic writing and learn strategies for rhetorical research-based writing. They practice writing processes to build well-supported arguments and incorporate sources. Students must receive a grade of C (not C-) or better to fulfill the Foundations – Writing requirement. WRT 150 is a prerequisite for any SWS course. Credits: 4

2. Supplemental Skills Writing Skills Requirement

After completing WRT 130 or WRT 150 with a grade of C (not C-) or better, students must take two courses designated SWS. These courses are designated SWS in each semester’s course schedule. Not all sections of a multisection course are designated SWS; only those sections that carry the designation will result in SWS credit. Supplemental Writing Skills.

Guidelines for Enrolling in SWS Courses

Foundations

ARTS |TOP|
Each course in this category is an introduction to an area of study in the visual and performing arts and includes direct exposure to works of art or live performances and preparation of written responses to the experiences. You will realize that art functions as a major cultural force in the experiences of individuals and communities. An understanding of the arts helps people define what is meaningful and significant in life.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Explain principles and questions that define the arts and analysis of formal elements of works of art.
  2. Explain how meaning in the arts is created and interpreted.
  3. Explain the historical and cultural contexts for artists and their works.
  4. Skill Outcome #1:
  5. Skill Outcome #2:

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS |TOP|

Analysis of the past enables societies to collect, interpret, and share knowledge of where they have been, explore the origins of their core values, and assess how past decisions account for present circumstances In addition, analysis of the past nurtures you by providing a broader perspective of your place within time. The construction of interpretations around causation, change, continuity, and chronological thinking provide important sites of contestation. Historical analysis of the past based on primary sources creates an informed, discriminating citizenry capable of careful analysis to better inform decisions in the present.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Explain how causation, change, continuity, chronological thinking, based on comprehension of primary sources (textual, material, or both), shape historical analysis and interpretation.
  2. Evaluate a range of primary sources (textual, material, or both) as evidence of historical analysis and interpretation.
  3. Recognize and evaluate historical analysis and interpretation in a variety of secondary sources.
  4. Skill Outcome #1:
  5. Skill Outcome #2:

LIFE SCIENCES |TOP|
The life sciences are the study of the structure and function of living things. Such study ranges from the level of molecules within cells to ecosystems of organisms interacting with each other and their environment. Study of the concepts, history, contexts, and methodologies of the life sciences assists you in becoming scientifically literate. Courses in this category prepare you to understand and appreciate not only yourself as an organism, but also other organisms in the world around you. Courses contribute to the development of critical-thinking and problem-solving skills and help you apply an understanding of scientific ways of thinking to make more informed personal and social choices.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Explain how life scientists investigate and understand the physical universe.
  2. Explain unifying concepts of the life sciences such as evolution and cellular organization and organisms.
  3. Skill Outcome #1:
  4. Skill Outcome #2:

MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES |TOP|
The development of formal reasoning and abstract thought has been a defining characteristic of civilization. Through the study of the mathematical sciences, you develop your ability to reason and solve problems with abstract ideas or quantitative information. Full participation in many professional and public policy discussions requires the ability to express scientific, economic, or social issues in quantitative terms. Study of the concepts, history, contexts, and methodologies of the mathematical sciences assists you in becoming a quantitatively literate citizen.

Courses introduce you to the foundations of mathematical, logical, and quantitative reasoning. They develop your mathematical, statistical, quantitative, or logical reasoning skills in ways that allow these skills to be transferred or used in other content areas.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Explain principles and questions that define computer science, logic, mathematics, or statistics.
  2. Apply techniques for problem solving including recognition of key elements, the choice of suitable methods for solving a problem, and the appropriate application of these methods.
  3. Skill Outcome #1:
  4. Skill Outcome #2:


PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE |TOP|
Literary and philosophical works represent an ongoing conversation about the fundamental ideas and values that shape cultures and civilization. To participate fully in this conversation requires knowledge, both of those works that are recognized as defining the history of the conversation and of works that offer original or critical additions to it in the present. Through the study of great works of philosophy and literature, you will come to understand more clearly your own response to the world and to the ideas that give it form and comprehensibility.

Courses in this category introduce you to the interpretation of a significant body of literary or philosophical work and assist you in the careful reading, discussion, and analysis of primary texts.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Explain principles and questions that define philosophy or literature and its contributions to human knowledge and civilization.
  2. Explain the relationship between the works discussed, the cultures in which they were created, and the human concerns they illuminate.
  3. Analyze and interpret one or more primary texts as a major portion of course content.
  4. Skill Outcome #1:
  5. Skill Outcome #2:

PHYSICAL SCIENCES |TOP|
The physical sciences seek to explore and explain the structure and processes of the physical universe. They seek to understand the fundamental workings of nature, from the behavior of atoms to the functioning of the galaxies. Study of the history, methodologies, concepts, and applications of the physical sciences assists you in becoming scientifically literate. Each course in this category is a broad introduction to one or more of the physical sciences. Courses contribute to the development of critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, and help you apply an understanding of scientific thinking to your own life and career.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Explain methodologies physical scientists use to explore and understand the physical universe.
  2. Explain ways in which physical scientists use observations and theory to explain and predict the structure and processes of the physical universe.
  3. Explain fundamental concepts, principles, and issues of the physical sciences.
  4. Skill Outcome #1:
  5. Skill Outcome #2

SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES |TOP|
The social and behavioral sciences examine the human condition from various perspectives including the study of individuals, communities, institutions, social structure, culture, and international relations. The methods, theories, and empirical findings of the social and behavioral sciences are essential to public discourse and constitute a basis for self-reflection, critical evaluation, public and social policy decisions, and social and cultural changes.

You select two courses from two different disciplines/course prefixes. Each course introduces the content and methods of a social or behavioral science field. Courses are concerned with the development of principles that explain: A) individual thought, action, and experience, B) collective thought and action, C) group experience, D) the interactions between people in the context of small groups, communities, institutions, states, and societies, or E) the functioning of social systems.

Student Learning Outcomes |TOP|

  1. Explain how knowledge in the social and behavioral sciences is created and applied.
  2. Explain major approaches, methods, theories, and substantive findings of the field.
  3. Evaluate and apply concepts and theories from the social and behavioral sciences to real-life examples.
  4. Skill Outcome #1:
  5. Skill Outcome #2:

WRITING |TOP|

The study and practice of academic writing integrates a wide network of knowledge and skills, including critical-thinking, rhetoric, research, scholarly argument, logic, creativity, and language. The introductory study of college-level academic writing requires you to develop challenging ideas in clear, focused, well-organized writing, using methods and concepts appropriate for further development in a broad range of other college courses.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Apply general academic writing conventions for language, development, organization, and format.
  2. Engage in the writing process, including invention, planning, organizing, revising, and editing.
  3. Apply at least one academic citation and documentation system (such as MLA or APA style).
  4. Skill Outcome #1
  5. Skill Outcome #2