General Education at Fredonia 

Guidelines for Presentation of Courses to the GCP/CCC Program Committee

Part III A & B (and CCC Upper-Level)

• Link to Upper Level CCC Requirement

Rationale (approved for CCC by College Senate, December 10, 2001)

Generally speaking, Part Three of the General College Program is the liberal education component of the Program. It provides for the enhancement of intellectual, analytical and communicative powers with the ultimate goal of topping off the final set of necessary tools to evaluate the human experience, to share those evaluations with others, and to prepare for continuous lifelong learning. It brings a variety of intellectual, aesthetic, and emotive perspectives to bear upon issues of enduring concern to educated people.

Although the "Guidelines" for Part Three do not specify any distributive requirements or specific contents, courses in Part Three should offer opportunities for developing powers and capacities in the areas enumerated below, for these are considered significant qualities of the liberally educated person.

The Quality of Literacy: the ability to understand and to respond to the various forms of human utterance and expression, and the ability to comprehend and employ the written and spoken language of one's own culture.

An Historical Perspective: the ability to interpret concepts, structures, and events within their temporal structures in order to develop an historical awareness that affords an understanding of those influences which provide a common bond for one's own society.

An Understanding of Contemporary Civilization: the ability to understand the present, the imminence of change, and the accelerated rate of change, including an appreciation of cultural pluralism in national and international contexts, technology, and scientific advancement, and the basic methods of science and the major technological tools.

Acquisition of a Critical and Analytical Method of Inquiry: the ability to conceptualize on the basis of limited experience and to subject one's own bias to critical analysis. 

Confrontation with the Variety of Human Values: the ability to comprehend the religious, artistic, moral and intercultural dimensions of human experience and thus to evaluate critically one's own values, their nature, genesis, rationale and conditions necessary to their articulation and maturation. 

If the central function and major purpose of the General College Program is to provide the integrative structures and programs and courses that counterbalance the tendencies toward specialization in student development, Part Three should demonstrate how successfully the General College Program is fulfilling that central function and major purpose. 

The Rationale and general Guidelines for Part III courses require that these courses (l) build upon and be related to previously acquired knowledge or abilities, and (2) foster the qualities and abilities of a liberally educated person.

Accordingly, descriptions or syllabi of courses presented for approval under Part III should include (l) a brief description of the kinds of information or abilities the instructor assumes in students entering the course (and the nature of any prerequisite courses), and (2) evidence that the course will give students the opportunity or acquire or improve upon all or most of the following:

A. the ability to read and respond to primary sources with understanding ("primary sources" as opposed to textbook summaries or redactions);

B. an awareness of the historical context of the given subject matter (e.g., the historical context of cubist painting, or of Mill's "On Liberty," or Freud's psychological theories);

C. an understanding of contemporary civilization, refined through attention to the contemporary implications of the given subject matter (e.g., of British rule in the Far East, or of the Elizabethan controversy over the religious value of literature) or to its contemporary ramifications (e.g., the political and economic ramifications of computer technology, or ramifications of African independence in the arts); 

D. a critical or analytical approach to the subject matter, such as might be developed through assigned paper or discussion topics requiring independent thinking, recognition of bias, or the like;

E. an understanding of values and/or assumptions such as might be developed through discussion of their influence on ways of approaching the given subject matter (e.g., contemporary vs. nineteenth-century American views on the powers of government, or geological vs. sociological approaches to natural resource questions);

F. an ability to integrate knowledge from different sources, such as might be developed through paper or discussion assignments that require resolution of different approaches, differing bodies of evidence, different conclusions, or an integrated approach to different literary or artistic works or genres, or through an interdisciplinary approach to the subject matter of the course;

G. the curiosity to explore further, such as might be stimulated by paper, report or discussion assignments on a topic of the student's devising.

Courses presented for approval as fulfilling the international/ cross-cultural requirement (IIIB) should be supported by a description or syllabus conforming to the above guidelines, and should also include (3.) evidence that the course will give students the opportunity to acquire or improve upon an understanding of other lands or peoples or of transnational or intercultural problems. Include this as well only if your course is like an old GCP IIIB (international cross-cultural). Descriptions should explain the nature of this opportunity: for example, a course on Michelangelo could not be assumed to provide such an opportunity without some evidence that the course would address the Italianate nature of Michelangelo's art, the historical conditions of its production in Florence and Rome, or its place in the Italian Renaissance, and that a substantial portion of the course would be devoted to these concerns.

"Where Success is a Tradition"