Cross Area Requirements

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.

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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.