| 2022-2023 Course Catalog
General Education Curriculum
Chatham University's General Education curriculum provides courses that cumulatively impart the broad skills needed for students to build lives of purpose, value and fulfilling work and immerse students in Chatham's mission initiatives: Engagement and Responsibility, Global and International Understanding, and Sustainability and the Environment.
To be able to adapt to changing circumstances, students must be able to learn, investigate, analyze, and make reasonable and ethical choices. This is learned by building knowledge and skills in broad areas that will give students a basis of understanding that they will use to deal with problems and situations they encounter throughout their lives. Chatham's General Education curriculum, in accordance with the guidance of Middle States, is designed so that students acquire and demonstrate essential skills including at least oral and written communication, scientific and quantitative reasoning, critical analysis and reasoning, technological competency, and information literacy. Consistent with mission, the general education program also includes the study of values, ethics, and diverse perspectives (https://www.msche.org/standards/).
The following perspectives are reinforced throughout the General Education curriculum:
- The intellectual habits of writing, oral communication, and information literacy;
- Cross-disciplinary understanding as a foundation for collaborative work and community engagement;
- Knowledge of diversity, equity, and inclusion as it relates to the unique lived experience of individuals and their social identities;
- Knowledge of the natural environment, the principles of sustainability, and our place in global ecosystems;
- A general understanding of and appreciation for international places, cultures, arts, and people that enrich our lives;
- Acquisition of the characteristics to be an informed and engaged citizen, including preparation for the workplace and the skills necessary to be a life-long learner.
- A breadth of understanding of disciplines outside one’s major, and depth in at least one area outside of the major.
Additional information about specific ways to fulfill these requirements are listed elsewhere in this Catalog.
