The integrated experience of pursuing a subject in depth can itself be adapted to unfamiliar situations. The skills, contexts, perspectives , and connections common to all Northeastern undergraduate programs will translate into desired educational outcomes. The outcomes can and should be integrated with the study of specific subjects and explicitly identified by instructors as course objectives. General education and study in the major will become inexorably intertwined. The connection between in-class academic study and practical application outside the classroom will continue to occupy a position of particular importance.
Many paths lead to the attainment of the shared goals.
The faculty in each department or college will map the best path or paths for their student majors, just as they presently do for study in the discipline. With this flexibility , not every course need stress each skill, context, or perspective. There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. The increasing ambiguity of controversial issues, as well as the complexity of information and of technology, will require our students to develop strategies for effective thinking that are both flexible and adaptable to unfamiliar situations. Thinking effectively involves interrelated critical and creative aspects.