Belmont University - Undergraduate Bulletin 2004-2005

General Education Program
Annette M. Sisson, Director
Kimberlee Faison, Assistant Director

General Education Council

Sarah Adams, Madeline Bridges, Jimmy Davis, Larry German, Ken Landers, Mark McEntire, Jane Shelby, Andrea Stover, Barbara Ward, Tommy Wooten.

Vision:

The diverse educational communities of a comprehensive university have a common interest in liberal learning. Liberal learning nurtures each student’s capability for transforming human culture and complements professional and vocational pathways. Liberal education involves acquiring fundamental intellectual skills; becoming conversant with a variety of human ideas, cultural perspectives, and conceptual frameworks; and developing habits of ethical reflecting and acting in an interdependent world. This vision of General Education enables Belmont University to achieve its vision to be a premier teaching university, bringing together the best of liberal arts and professional education in a Christian community of learning and service.

Purpose:

General Education at Belmont University fosters the skills, knowledge, perspectives, values, and dispositions that will enable students to apply their understandings and abilities beyond the classroom, encouraging them to become responsibly engaged in their community and in the world.

Values:

These values will be infused throughout the courses in the General Education curriculum and pursued through a wide variety of active learning experiences, all of which seek to meet the learning goals delineated below:

The importance of life-long intellectual growth and development;
The importance of moral values and personal commitments;
The importance of the application of classroom learning to the "real world";
The importance of extending the boundaries of learning beyond the classroom.

Learning Goals:

General Education seeks to help students develop sophisticated rhetorical skills, with particular emphasis on written and oral language, including:

Effective writing
Effective speaking
Recognizing, evaluating and constructing written arguments
Recognizing, evaluating and constructing oral arguments
Recognizing and evaluating visual images and other forms of non-language-based communication
Effective use of technology.

General Education seeks to help students develop sophisticated critical thinking (inquiry, reflection, and analysis) skills, including:

Quantitative reasoning
Critical reading and reflection
Engaging and solving complex problems
Understanding systems and relationships, including interdependencies and interconnections.

General Education seeks to help students develop an understanding and enriched appreciation of the arts, humanities, religion, social sciences, and natural sciences, including:

The conceptual frameworks of the arts, humanities, religion, social sciences, and natural sciences
The achievements in the arts, humanities, religion, social sciences, and natural sciences

General Education seeks to help students develop an understanding of the complex nature of the world and become responsibly engaged with that larger whole, including:

Local, national, international, and global perspectives
Multiculturalism
The consequences of individual decisions in an interdependent world

Curricular Framework:

The BELL Core Curriculum
(38-41 credit hours)

Sequenced Courses
First-Year Seminar 3 hours
First-Year Writing 3 hours
Computer Proficiency (taken in 1st semester) 0 hours
Junior Cornerstone Seminar 0* hours
Third-Year Writing 3 hours
Senior Capstone Seminar 1-3 hours

Human Experience, Category A (taken within first 60 credit hours)
Oral Communication 3 hours
Quantitative Reasoning 3 hours
Religion (1000-level) 3 hours

Human Experience, Category B
Fine Arts 3 hours
Humanities 3-4 hours
Social Sciences 3 hours
Sciences 4 hours
Religion (3000-level; to be taken after 60 credit hours) 3 hours
Wellness 3 hours

*The 3-hour Junior Cornerstone Seminar actually counts as one of the courses
in the "Human Experience" domain.

The following pages provide specific listings of the general education requirements at Belmont
University as they have been constituted for each particular degree program. Within those listings, note the footnotes, which further explain the requirements and clarify some of the variations for particular programs and majors within the given degree. For information regarding prerequisite requirements for various majors, see the sections of the Bulletin that delineate the majors, noting the "Technical Requirements" or "Tool Requirements."

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

General Education Core Requirements for B.A.	59-63 Hours
I. Seminar Sequence		4-6
GND 1015, First-Year Seminar	3
XXX 3015, Junior Cornerstone Seminar The hours for the Junior Cornerstone Seminar count as a Human Experience course.	0
XXX 4015 or GND 4015, Senior Capstone Seminar	1 or 3
II. Computer Proficiency		0
GND 1050, Computer Proficiency, Level 1 (1)	0
III. Oral Communication		3
COM 1100, Fundamentals of Speech Communication	3
IV. Written Communication		6
ENG 1010, First-Year Writing	3
ENG 3010, Third-Year Writing	3
V. Fine Arts Select one of the following courses: (2)		3 to 4
ART 2000, The Art Experience (3) ART 2800, Art History I (3) MUH 2000, The Musical Experience (3) MUH 2110, Survey of Music I (3) MUH 2140, The Arts for Education (4) TDR 2000, The Theatre and Film Experience (3) DAN 2000, The Dance Experience (3)
VI. Foreign Language Select two courses from the same language, 2000 level or above:		6
CHN, CLA, FRE, GER, GRK, ITL, JPN, LAT, RUS and SPA (3)
VII. Humanities Select three courses from at least two of the following prefixes:		9
HUM, PHI, ENL, and ENW (4,5,6,)
VIII. Mathematics Select one of the following courses: (7) [Transfer students may count any MTH course100/1000-level or above in place of the courses from the list]		3
MTH 1080, Mathematical Inquiry (3) MTH 1020, Basic Concepts (3) MTH 1050, Mathematics for Elementary Teachers I (3) CSC 1020, Introduction to Computer Science (3)
IX. Religion Six hours must be done in the same path. Choose six hours from path "a" or six hours from path "b":		6
a. REL 1110, Old Testament History (3) REL 3120, New Testament History(3)
b. REL 1100, Understanding the Bible (3) Plus one of the following courses: REL 3140, Jesus in the Gospels and in Film (3) REL 3160, Ancient Wisdom for Contemporary Issues (3) REL 3170, Comparative Spirituality in World Religions(3)
X. Sciences Select two of the following courses: (8,9,10)		7 or 8
BIO 1010, Biological Sciences (3) BIO 1020, Introduction to Molecular and Cellular Biology (4) BIO 1110, Principles of Biology (4) CEM 1010, Chemistry, Your Environment and You (3) CEM 1610, General Chemistry I (4) CEM 1620, General Chemistry II (4) PHY 1010, Science: A Process of Inquiry (3) PHY 1100, Physics of Sound (3) PHY 1110, Basic College Physics I (4) PHY 1120, Basic College Physics II (4) PHY 2110, General College Physics I (4) PHY 2120, General College Physics II (4) PSY 1100, General Psychology (3)
XI. Social Sciences Choose three courses from at least 2 prefixes, including at least one in HIS:		9
a. ECO 1110, Economic Inquiry (3)
b. HIS 1010, World History to 1500 (3) HIS 1020, World History since 1500 (3) HIS 2010, American Experience From Colonial to Civil War (3) HIS 2020, American Experience From Reconstruction to Cold War (3) HIS 1990, Special Studies (3) HIS 2990, Special Studies (3) Any course with a HIS prefix may serve as a second HIS course if a student elects to take one. c. MDS 1500, Mass Media and Society (3) d. PSC 1100, Special Topics in Gen. Ed.: Political Science (3) PSC 1210, American Government (3) PSC 1300, The United States and World Affairs (3) e. SOC 1010, Introduction to Sociology (3) SOC 1100, Special Topics in Gen. Ed.: Sociology (3)
XII. Wellness Choose one path:		3
a. PED 1600, Health and Fitness Concepts (2) plus: PED 2000 - 204_ (1) or DAN 1101, or 1201 or 1301 or 1401 (1) (11) b. PED 1500, Lifetime Fitness (1) plus: PED 2000 - 204_ (1) or DAN 1101, or 1201 or 1301 or 1401 (1) (11) plus one of the following courses: NUR 1100, Wellness Nutrition (1) NUR 1310, Healthy Beginnings (1) NUR 1320, Women's Health (1) NUR 1330, Health Promotions of the Family(1)
Core Total		59-63

1 Note that some colleges, schools, programs, or majors may require accelerated Computer Proficiency certification.

2 Education majors completing a Pre-K-4 or a 5-8 license, and students completing any other appropriate teaching licensure program, must take MUH 2140 (4 hrs)--or, alternatively, MUH 2160 (2 hrs) + EDU 2540 (2 hrs)--for the Fine Arts requirement. Also, BA students with a major in Music should take MUH 2110 to fulfill the Fine Arts requirement.

3 Correspondence work in Foreign Language is not accepted as credit for Belmont students. Also, students who have had three years or more of a Foreign Language in high school may be ready to begin language study at Belmont with the 2000-level courses. Incoming students with previous language study are encouraged to consult instructors in each language to determine specific placement.

4 Exceptions: As specified in the individual course descriptions, courses that will not fulfil the Humanities requirements in General Education are ENG 1000, 1010, 1100, 2100, 3010; ENL 1990, 2000, 3440, 4900; ENW 2000, 3050, 3960, 3970; PHI 1990, 2250, 2990, 3150, 3160, 3220, 3330, 3990, 4050, 4100, 4200, 4250, 4400, 4900, 4990.

5 Philosophy majors and minors must take PHI 1500 as part of the Humanities requirement.

6 Language majors must take at least one ENG course in literature, at the 2000 level or above.

7 Education students seeking K-12 or 7-12 licensure must take MTH 1080 if they have a score of 25 or above on the Math ACT test; otherwise, they must take MTH 1110 (College Algebra) to fulfill state licensure requirements.

8 Students must take one 4-hour, lab-based Science course. Note that many of the 3-hour Science courses in this list will be converted to 4-hour, lab-based courses by fall 2005.

9 Education students seeking secondary or K-12 licensure must take PSY 1100 plus a lab Science course (either a CEM, PHY, or BIO course). Alternatively, they may take a four-hour lab-based integrated Science course that includes PSY. Students should consult their advisors before taking courses to meet their Science requirements.

10 BIO 1010 is intended for most non-science majors. BIO 1110 is an introductory course for BIO majors, BIO minors, and pre-health students. CEM 1010 and PHY 1010 are intended for most non-science majors. CEM 1610 is the introductory course for chemistry majors, minors, and pre-health sciences. PHY 1100 is intended for those with interests in sound. PHY 1110 (trigonometry-based) and PHY 2110 (calculus-based) are introductory courses for science majors and pre-health students. CEM 1610, PHY 1110, and PHY 1120 have mathematics prerequisites.

11 Military Science and/or Marching Band do not substitute.