R-MC's New Curriculum

Effective for all students matriculating beginning in Fall 2005

First-Year Experience
The three-course First-Year Experience (FYE) is required of all first-year students for full implementation beginning with the 2005-2006 academic year. The FYE will consist of:

1) A First-Year Colloquium (FYC) that will

• be taught by at least two full-time faculty members from different disciplines (departments),
• take place over two terms beginning with the Fall term,
• carry 3 or 4 credits each term (based on the instructor's recommendation),
• focus on engaging issues that in some meaningful way cross disciplinary boundaries,
• meet Areas of Knowledge requirements in appropriate disciplines,
• include activities and tasks that strengthen student skills in writing, reading, speaking, listening, and the use of information resources,
• incorporate a substantive project that engages the students in actively exploring the cross-disciplinary aspects of the colloquium,
• infuse active learning into its pedagogy, and
• include co-curricular activities as appropriate to the instructor's topics/issues and discipline.

2) A 4-credit course devoted to the development and reinforcement of writing skills. Ordinarily this course is taken in conjunction with the FYC sometime during the first year.

3) Speech instruction by speech communication professionals and tutoring by peer tutors. Speech instruction and tutoring will occur outside of FYC class time and will be coordinated with the FYC instructor. Graded activities and evaluation will occur within the FYC.

4) Community-wide co-curricular activities required of all FYC students. These activities will be primarily thematically based and intended to stimulate on-campus engagement and to provide a potential resource for FYC colloquia.

In addition:

• The students in the Fall term FYC class will become the instructor's advisees.
• Faculty participation in the FYC is voluntary.
• The FYC will have a maximum class size of 15 students.
• The projects produced during the FYC will be showcased by students at a spring college-wide event. The form of the student presentations will be determined by the FYC Faculty Pairs so that each is appropriate to its discipline.

Across-the-Curriculum Program
The Randolph-Macon faculty is dedicated to the full development of students' skills in written and oral communication. In particular, any course that meets an Areas of Knowledge Requirement in Civilizations, Arts and Literature, Social Sciences, and Natural and Mathematical Sciences will be attentive to students' competence in writing and/or speaking as appropriate to the context of the course.

Cross-area requirements
Randolph-Macon's curriculum goals make clear the College's intent to provide students with an education

• that encourages their seeing connections in knowledge and relationships among various disciplines (see R-MC Curriculum Goal 10),
• that makes them more aware of technology, its uses and its influences (see Goal 6),
• that helps them in understanding foreign cultures and in developing an appreciation of differences among people, whether racial, religious, economic, or ethnic (see Goal 3), and
• that engages them in active learning (see Goal 8).

Since none of these goals is particular to a single discipline or even to a single area of knowledge, Randolph-Macon offers courses in various areas that are designated as addressing these goals and requires each student to include certain numbers of these designated courses in his/her program of study. Courses throughout the curriculum may be designated as being especially attentive to up to three cross-area designations. However, a student (with their advisor) is limited to selecting any two of these designations to apply toward their general education requirement.

• At least one course in a student's program must include a capstone experience in that it widely integrates knowledge and skills from either the student's overall program or the student's major program.
• At least one course beyond FYC in a student's program must be designated as a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary course in that it is especially attentive to the exploration of connections in knowledge across disciplines.
• A student's program should include at least one course that is designated as emphasizing problem solving for computer solution and/or the creation of models to implement solutions in computer software or hardware.
• At least one course in a student's program must be designated as being especially attentive to non-Western culture(s) or other cultural differences among people.
• At least one course in a student's program must be designated as being especially attentive to Western culture.
• At least one course in a student's program must be experiential in that it is
  

  a travel or study-abroad course,
  an internship,
  a research experience,
  a field study, or
  a student-teaching assignment

Areas of Knowledge Requirements
The Areas of Knowledge Requirements outline a set of courses that all students must complete successfully in order to receive a degree from Randolph-Macon College. A course may be designated to satisfy an Area of Knowledge requirement in up to two areas, but a student is limited to selecting one of these areas to apply toward their general education requirement.

• Civilizations (4 courses)
  All four courses must emphasize either history or philosophy or religious studies.
  Two courses must be in history.
  Two courses must be in religious studies or philosophy.
• Arts and Literature (3 courses)
  All three courses must emphasize arts or literature.
  At least one of the three courses must be in literature.
  At least one of the three courses must be in the arts.
• Social Sciences (2 courses)
  Both courses must emphasize the social sciences.
  These courses must not be in the same discipline.
• Natural and Mathematical Sciences* (4 courses)
  All four courses must emphasize either the natural or the mathematical sciences.
  At least one of the four courses must be in mathematics.
  At least two of the four courses must have laboratory components and at least one of these courses must be in the natural sciences.
• Foreign Language
  A student must demonstrate proficiency through the intermediate (second-year) level in at least one foreign language.
• Wellness (2 activity courses)

* The term "Mathematical Sciences" here is meant to include mathematics, statistics, and computer science.