The study and practice of creative endeavors in the visual arts, dance, music, poetry, fiction, and theatre promote the exercise and cultivation of that appreciation. The arts present to the competent eye and ear those forms of feeling and insight that only artistic creation can reveal. A curriculum which does not provide for at least a basic introduction to the arts denies students access to an integral part of their own and other cultures. A university education in our own nation today should foster an appreciation of racial and ethnic diversity in our society and the importance of the values of tolerance and equality. To this end, students will elect a course that illuminates the pluralistic nature of the United States and challenges racism and ethnocentrism through the study of the historical, cultural, and social experience of its racial and ethnic minorities.
Gender organizes societies in unique and fundamental ways.
Through one course chosen from a variety of disciplines, students will not only confront sexism but gain an appreciation for gender as a category of analysis and way of re-evaluating knowledge. A perspective on the basic capacities and processes that underlie human behavior fosters an understanding of the self, including the development of individual and social identity in a variety of social contexts. In gaining this understanding, students will become familiar with the modes of inquiry and methods of analysis used primarily by social and behavioral scientists. An understanding of how human endeavor is structured within organizations and institutions is also central to a student's acquiring an awareness of the social processes by which political and economic activities transpire and change occurs. Literacy about public issues, the ability to assess them critically, respect for a plurality of viewpoints, and an awareness of the process by which informed consensus is reached all contribute to one's commitment to civic involvement.