2006-2007 Undergraduate Catalog [Archived Catalog]
General Education
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The purpose of general education is to provide students with an intellectual and cultural basis for their development as informed individuals in our society. This requires that they understand the ideas that have formed our own civilization, that they appreciate other cultures and that they have knowledge of the fundamental principles that govern the physical universe. All students must complete Cortland General Education and SUNY General Education program requirements, including general education knowledge base, quantitative skills, composition, foreign language, writing-intensive and presentation skills course requirements.
SUNY Cortland General Education
To meet the Cortland requirements, students will take one course in each of the categories listed below with the exception of the natural sciences category in which they must take two courses. These nine courses will total a minimum of 28 to 29 credit hours toward graduation.
Identifying courses that meet requirements
For a current and full listing of SUNY Cortland’s courses that fulfill general education categories, refer to the General Education section of the registrar’s Web site. For a listing of General Education courses offered within a particular semester, refer to the search-by-attribute feature of the online Course Schedule.
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General Education Requirements
The Skills Base
The 15 credit hour skills base portion of the General Education Program consists of: 1. Academic Writing (6-8 cr. hr.)
Students must successfully complete CPN 100 or CPN 102 and CPN 101 or CPN 103 with a minimum grade of C- or better. 2. Writing-Intensive Courses (6 cr. hr.)
Writing intensive courses must be taken at SUNY Cortland and must include at least one course in the major; the other course can be in or out of the major. Students must successfully complete CPN 100 or CPN 102 and CPN 101 or CPN 103 with a minimum grade of C- or better before enrolling in a Writing Intensive course. 3. Quantitative Skills Requirement (3-4 cr. hr.)
Students at SUNY Cortland must demonstrate their ability to use quantitative skills by passing courses designated as quantitative skills (QUAN). The list below or the registrar’s Web page indicates specific courses that meet this requirement.
MAT 101, 102, 105, 111, 115, 121, 125 or 135, 201, 224
The above courses need to be added to this core.
4. Presentation Skills Requirement
Students must demonstrate skills and experience in making oral presentations, including self-critique and peer-critique of oral presentations. If a course is taught both in the traditional classroom and online, the traditional classroom delivery may be submitted for Presentation Skills (PS) designation. Students cannot take an online course to satisfy the presentation skills requirement. The registrar’s Web page has specific courses that meet this requirement. 5. Foreign Language Proficiency
All students must demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language by fulfilling one of the following requirements:
- successful completion of a one-semester, college-level foreign language course (101) or the equivalent (e.g., earning CLEP or AP credits) or
- having earned a score of 85 or higher on the New York State Regents examination in a foreign language.
Bachelor of Science Candidates
Students enrolled in a B.S. or B.S.Ed. program in the School of Arts and Sciences or the School of Professional Studies need only one semester of a foreign language with the exception of speech pathology and audiology majors, who must successfully complete the fourth semester (202) of a college-level foreign language sequence.
Students enrolled in the B.S. program in early childhood, childhood, early childhood and childhood, adolescence education, or special education must
- successfully complete the second semester (102) of a collegelevel foreign language sequence or
- confirm proficiency equivalent to successful completion of the second semester (102) of a college-level foreign language sequence through a testing program approved by the International Communications and Culture Department.
Note: Some departments require specified courses in foreign language in support of their major program requirements in addition to those described above. Bachelor of Arts Candidates
Students enrolled in a B.A. program must
- successfully complete the fourth semester (202) of a collegelevel foreign language sequence or
- confirm proficiency equivalent to successful completion of the fourth semester (202) of a college-level foreign language sequence through a testing program approved by the International Communications and Culture Department.
GE 1: American State and Society (3 cr. hr.)
The goal of this category is to familiarize students with the nature of the American state and society by examining relationships within and among the elements of that state and society, including governing structures or policies, formal and informal institutions and the public.
Assumption
Citizens must understand the nature and consequences of the American system in order to act as informed and responsible citizens within that system.
Objectives
All GE 1 courses will help students
- develop an improved understanding of the American republic by examining relationships within and among three elements:
- the state/policy, including governing structures (executive, legislative, judicial, bureaucratic, economic, legal) or policies (economic/market, social, distributive, regulatory);
- intermediary/mediating institutions, including formal institutions, (e.g., churches, interest groups, political parties, media, education, corporations, other social institutions); and
- civil society, including informal institutions (e.g., family, social clubs, fraternities/sororities, gangs) and the mass public (e.g., religious/beliefs, race, gender, public opinion, elections, protest/mass movements, consumer behavior, other individual behavior, values or culture).
- apply at least three concepts to these three elements, such as power, class, public policy, freedom versus order, culture, multiculturalism, status, ideology, authority/legitimacy, or allocation of values.
- improve their understanding of ethnic minorities and women in the American system.
GE 2: Prejudice and Discrimination (3 cr. hr.)
The goal of this category is to educate students about the nature of prejudice and discrimination and their impact on the people of this country and throughout the world.
Assumptions
- A liberal education should enable students to examine critically the ways they think about themselves as well as other people.
- A knowledge of prejudice and discrimination is necessary as a first step in eliminating them.
Objectives
- Students will examine issues such as power and bias as they relate to prejudice and discrimination and how these issues have determined attitudes, institutions, dominance and subdominance.
- Students will analyze how various beliefs can lead to conflicting conclusions about a society and its norms, values and institutions.
Courses in this category will:
- Study the individual and institutional nature, as well as the extent of prejudice and discrimination, either in the American context with attention given to the global dimension or in the global context with attention given to the American dimension.
- Examine prejudice and discrimination in relation to unequal distribution of power.
- Examine various aspects of prejudice and discrimination such as the moral, historical, educational, health, economic, linguistic, political, psychological and social dimensions. Other intellectual perspectives may be included. No course need embrace all disciplinary perspectives.
- Examine the factors upon which prejudice and discrimination may be based, e.g., race and/or gender as well as class, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation or disability.
GE 3: Contrasting Cultures (3 cr. hr.)
The goal of this category is to expose students to cultural assumptions and practices which differ from mainstream or dominant American culture. These would be non-North American and/or non-Englishspeaking cultures.
Assumption
The development of an awareness and understanding of cultures other than one’s own is a fundamental component of a liberal education.
Objectives
- To compare another culture or other cultures with the dominant themes of American culture.
- To focus on contemporary cultures, although historical materials may be used.
- To emphasize different world views, traditions, cultural institutions, values, social systems, languages and means of communication of cultures.
- To provide a structure in the study which allows comparisons to be made with American society.
This category may be fulfilled by:
- Completing a course designated on the Web as a contrasting cultures course or
- Successful completion of a semester (or its equivalent) in a study abroad program recommended by the International Studies Committee and approved by the General Education Committee.
GE 4: Fine Arts (3 cr. hr.)
The goal of this category is to help students develop an awareness of the arts as a system of inquiry in which aesthetic elements are involved.
Assumptions
- An educated person should be aware of how creative expression in the arts has formed an integral part of world civilization.
- An understanding of the arts can be obtained by an historical approach as well as participation in the creative process itself.
Objectives
- Students will explore the idea that important learning experiences can take place through the use of senses and imagination and/or
- Students will study artistic expression and the significance of these creative elements in past and present civilizations.
Courses in this category will:
Be broadly based within or among the areas of the arts and provide this breadth through an historical approach or participation in the creative process. GE 5: History and the History of Ideas (3 cr. hr.)
The goal of this category is to provide students with an historical perspective on aspects of the contemporary world.
Assumption
Students will study major themes over broad periods of time. They may concentrate on political, geopolitical, economic and social change. They may also focus on broad cultural developments, and/or on changes in philosophy and social and political thought.
Objectives
- Students will study major political, geopolitical, economic, social and intellectual developments within an historical context.
- Students will study the relationship between the development of ideas and historical change.
Courses in this category will:
- Address the ways in which social, political, economic, geopolitical and/or intellectual movements have affected how those of us in the contemporary world think, act and organize our lives.
- Survey historical and intellectual developments over a broad period of time.
- Whenever appropriate, consider the impact on history of race, class, ethnicity and gender.
GE 6: Literature (3 cr. hr.)
The goal of this category is to help students appreciate and understand the craft and meaning that exists in literary works.
Assumptions
- Literature can provide both enlightenment and pleasure.
- All readers are capable of responding to literature; instruction facilitates an appreciation of its complexities.
Objectives
- Students will be able to express responses to literature analytically.
- Students will confront major human concerns as they are treated in literature.
Courses in this category will:
Treat literature from a broad range of sources through a variety of critical approaches, covering, as appropriate, the following elements for each genre being taught: plot, character, theme, style, imagery, structure, point of view, symbolism, tone, setting and figures of speech.
GE 7: Science, Technology and Human Affairs (3 cr. hr.)
The goal of this category is to enable students to consider decisions in the context of the complex relations that exist within the natural sciences, mathematics, technology and human affairs.
Assumptions
- It is important to know how science and technology influence human affairs and give rise to questions of choice.
- It is important to know how the social milieu influences human decisions.
- It is important to reflect critically on questions of value as they influence social decisions in order to encourage independent judgment and rational processes of thought.
Objectives
- Students will explore ways in which value judgments are justified and the way interpretation of technical information can lead to different judgments and/or
- Students will explore the major scientific or mathematical theories which have had an impact on the modern world and the significance of the social context in which they were developed.
Courses in this category will:
Treat the increasingly complex judgments that are required within the natural sciences, technology and human affairs. GE 8: Natural Sciences (7-8 cr. hr.)
The goal of this category is to provide students with an understanding of some of the major scientific theories and an understanding of the process of scientific inquiry.
Assumptions
- The formulation of predictive theory in the natural sciences has fostered the development of a large and ever growing quantity of organized information.
- Different courses may be designed for science and non-science majors.
- It is important to know that the scientific method is a mechanism for general problem solving.
- Science is a body of information unified by theories wherein a laboratory provides a setting which allows the firsthand experience of doing science.
Objectives
After completion of both courses in the category:
- Students will demonstrate a knowledge of the principles of a broadly based natural science.
- Students will have at least one semester of laboratory experience in which they will demonstrate an ability to a) construct hypotheses and test the hypotheses through lab experiments and/or b) gather data by observation and measurement and c) interpret the data.
- Students will demonstrate a knowledge of technology and an ability to relate the relevant principles they have studied to modern life.
Two courses are required to fulfill this category. One must be a four-credit course and will:
- Provide for a major emphasis on the application of scientific problem solving to the study of natural systems.
- Present some information on modern technologies necessary for understanding such issues as recombinant DNA, energy production, or natural resource utilization.
- Include a laboratory experience that will have substantial investigative content and significant treatment of the methodology of problem solving in science.
The second course will provide either greater breadth or depth while giving emphasis to the methods of scientific inquiry. This course may be three or four credits and will be:
- A continuation of the sequence begun or
- A course in a second natural science department or
- A course in environmental studies with its basis in natural science and offered by a department different from the laboratory course described.
Course Sequencing
If a student does not want to continue in one discipline, the second science course must be in another science department. Examples of acceptable GE-8 sequences are:
Examples of unacceptable GE-8 sequences are:
SUNY General Education
The State University of New York’s General Education Requirement applies to all state-operated institutions offering undergraduate degrees. It requires bachelor’s degree candidates, as a condition of graduation, to complete a General Education program designed to achieve the student learning outcomes in ten knowledge and skill areas and two competencies, as specified below. By following the SUNY Cortland General Education basic skills and knowledge program, students should fulfill the SUNY General Education requirements. For a current and full listing of SUNY Cortland’s courses that fulfill SUNY General Education areas, refer to the General Education section of the SUNY Cortland registrar’s Web site at www.cortland.edu/registrar or refer to the SUNY provost’s Web site at www.sysadm.suny.edu/provost/generaleducation.
Course Approval Process
The General Education Committee oversees the course approval process for General Education. A faculty member may submit a course for inclusion in a category by reviewing the General Education Course Submittal Guidelines and completing the General Education Course Submission Form. These forms are available at the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Office. SUNY General Education By Learning Outcomes
Category 1: Mathematics
MAT 101 and 102, 105, 111, 115, 121, 125 or 135, 201, 224;
The courses need to be added to the core. 111 is inactive. Category 2: Natural Sciences
Category 3: Social Sciences
Category 4: American History
Students scoring an 85 or higher on the Am. Hist. Regents Exam may take any Cortland GE 1 course:
Students scoring an 84 or below on the American History Regents Exam must take:
Category 5: Western Civilization
Category 6: Other World Cultures
Category 7: The Humanities
Category 9: Foreign Language Requirement
Students scoring an 85 or higher on the Foreign Language Regents Exam fulfill the SUNY language requirement. Category 10: Basic Communication
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