General Education Requirements

More information about general education requirements can be found on the Morris Web site.

General Education Requirements (60 credits)

Goals of the General Education Requirements
I. First-Year Seminar: To teach students to think critically, to assess sources of information, to help students to become aware of the lenses through which they perceive, and to recognize that their perceptions are not universal.

II. A. College Writing: To understand the writing process through invention, organization, drafting, revising, and editing; and develop writers who can write about a range of ideas for a variety of readers.

B. Foreign Language: To develop some fluency in the skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in a second language; and critical insight into another culture.

C. Mathematical/Symbolic Reasoning: To strengthen students’ ability to formulate abstractions, construct proofs, and utilize symbols in formal systems.

D. Artistic Performance: To introduce an understanding of the creative process through individual performance, and demonstrate skill in such activities as composition, theater, dance, studio art, and music.

III. A. Historical Perspectives: To increase students’ understanding of the past, the complexity of human affairs, the ways in which various forces—economic, cultural, religious, political, scientific—influence efforts to control events, and the ways historians verify and interpret their findings.

B. Human Behavior, Social Processes, and Institutions: To increase students’ systematic understanding of themselves as functioning humans, their individual similarities to and differences from others, their awareness of the nature and significance of their conscious experience, and the forces that shape their interpersonal attachments and interactions; or to increase students’ understanding of methods of analyzing modern society or some significant legal, political, economic, religious, social, or scientific component of it.

C. Communication, Language, Literature, and Philosophy: To expand students’ capacity to understand, analyze, discuss, and evaluate discourse concerning the complexity of the human condition through the study of languages and works of thought and imagination.

D. Fine Arts: To develop students’ understanding, analysis, and appreciation of the arts.

E. Physical and Biological Sciences: To increase students’ understanding of the structure and dynamics of the physical and biological worlds, and of the scientific method.

F. The Global Village: To increase students’ understanding of the growing interdependence among nations, peoples, and the natural world.

1. Human Diversity: To increase students’ understanding of individual and group differences (e.g., race, gender, class) and their knowledge of the traditions and values of various groups in the United States.
2. People and the Environment: To increase students’ understanding of the interrelatedness of human society and the natural world.
3. International Perspective: To increase students’ systematic understanding of national cultures substantially different from those in which they received their prior schooling.
4. Ethical and Civic Responsibility: To broaden and develop students’ capacity to question and reflect upon their own and society’s values and critical responsibilities, and to understand forces, such as technology, that cause them to modify these views and often mandate creation of new ways to resolve legal, social, and scientific issues.

Provision i
UMM courses designated as appropriate for meeting general education requirements are those which, if passed successfully, demonstrate the student’s competency in a given skill or area.

Students are required to complete a minimum of 60 credits of general education coursework outside the discipline of the major and must meet the requirements listed below. The requirements may be met not only through UMM courses, but also by transfer of credit, examinations for proficiency or credit, assessment of prior learning, individual projects, and other means. For details, students should consult with their advisers.

In some instances the specific general education requirements may be met using fewer than 60 UMM credits. If this occurs, then introductory or advanced elective courses from any discipline outside the major—with the exception of courses in elementary or secondary education, wellness and sport science, or accounting courses in management—may be used to fulfill the remaining credits of the 60-credit general education requirement.

Note: The designation following each category below, e.g., FYS for First-Year Seminar, appears at the beginning of the parenthetical information for each course that is appropriate for that category.

I. The First-Year Seminar (FYS)**—One two-credit course.

II. Skills for the Liberal Arts—One to five courses.*
These requirements emphasize the development of the intellectual skills, the communication skills, and the framework for learning needed for successful advanced work. Because new students need this foundation early, they are expected to complete many of these requirements during their first and second years.

A. College Writing (CW)—One course.*

B. Foreign Language (FL)—Proficiency in a single language other than English at the level equivalent to the first full year of college language study. This requirement can be met in any one of the following ways:
• Successfully completing a beginning language II course
• Achieving an appropriate score on a placement exam
• Passing a special examination, such as AP or CLEP, or
• For non-native speakers of English, successfully petitioning the Scholastic Committee for an exemption.

Placement tests are given by language disciplines to determine the level of proficiency of a student with prior coursework. Students who plan to complete courses in the same language that they studied in high school must take the placement examination and abide by the placement recommendation. If, after an initial exposure to the recommended course, the placement seems inappropriate, they may follow the recommendation of their language instructor as to the proper entry course.

C. Mathematical/Symbolic Reasoning (M/SR)—One course.*

D. Artistic Performance (ArtP)—One course.

III. Expanding Perspectives—Eight courses of at least two credits each.

1. Human Diversity (HDiv)
2. People and the Environment (Envt)
3. International Perspective (IP)***
4. Ethical and Civic Responsibility (E/CR)