Students begin with a yearlong seminar-colloquia. In the fall semester, the colloquium and seminar each earn four units of credit and typically constitute one-half of the student's course load. The colloquium-seminar is supplemented by a requirement that students participate in the study of culture as embodied in the arts and sciences as well as the humanities and social sciences. The Cultural Foundations courses at St. Edward's encompass eighteen of fifty-seven required general education credit hours spanning all four years. Their aim is to help students develop a balanced understanding and appreciation for their own and other cultures.
Courses are all multidisciplinary.
It continues the theme of social pluralism and consideration of social and political ideals as it explores the problems and issues our society faces in the present. These courses place the interaction between American social groups within the context of American government and society, examining the dynamics of social and political change in the democratic system. Democracy is interpreted in its broadest sense, implying not just a set of governmental institutions and assumptions but a value system of respect for individual choice and action. Pluralism is viewed both as a crucial element in the formulation and fulfillment of the democratic ideal and as a potential factor inhibiting its smooth functioning. In the second semester, students examine the evolution of the democratic experiment in light of the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment.