The course could be integrative, except that this is moving back toward the common experience type of course, which should be in the core rather than the perspectives. If it is not in the perspectives, an integrative course becomes a resource issue because it is a new course element rather than a disciplinary general education course with a specific purpose. Lois stated that considering international issues relies on history, politics, biology, ecology, art, and so on, so that an internationally-oriented course is integrative by necessity. Such a course could be both disciplinary yet integrative. However, an upper level course could consider many contemporary issues that are important.
Any discipline has one.
Although, some of the responsibility for currency in the disciplines should fall with the major. The business of general education should be to establish standards and habits in students' university education that the major can then build on. We should focus on the intellectual habits of keeping up and seeing connections to between the world and what students are studying. Teaching these habits and skills in a context that includes international issues is not contradictory. Daryl suggested we consider the issue of cognitive wholeness.