Selected courses in most majors have been designated as Writing Intensive to indicate that writing is a primary method of instruction and evaluation. These courses utilize various modes including multiple drafts, peer editing, free-writing, and journal assignments. The Distributive Component ensures a breadth in knowledge of the contents of representative arts and sciences disciplines. Students are required to elect three additional credits from Arts and Literature and from Economics and Psychology. Completion of two years of a foreign or heritage language is an option for some teacher candidates, satisfies the Arts and Language requirements, and is required for the Bachelor's of Arts degree.
Enrollment is restricted to juniors and seniors.
Students are required to earn three credits in an Ethics Seminar and three credits in a Values Seminar. These upper division seminars are offered by the divisions of Fine and Performing Arts, Literature and Language, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences and deal with value and ethical questions about a single, broad, contemporary issue, i.e. Ethics and Technology, Art and Censorship, Human Rights and Applied Ethics, International Terrorism and Political Violence. While the topics of study differ by seminar, the attempt to integrate and apply the knowledge gained in the General Education Core in the context of ethical and axiological considerations is common to all seminars. For elementary teacher candidates, one of the two seminar courses must be from the Social Sciences. The General Education Core curriculum provides teacher candidates with opportunities to gain the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for admission to the Teacher Education Program through study of the arts, communication, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, sciences, and the social sciences.