FALL 2012 | St. Lawrence University Magazine 7
On Campus
Anne Lauriat '68
New Curriculum
Advances Breadth,
Environmental
Literacy
A new general education curriculum
approved by the St. Lawrence faculty
and trustees in the spring incorporates
breadth, deep learning and flexibility,
along with a new environmental
literacy component that will make the
University among the first in the nation
to have such a requirement when the
curriculum takes effect in fall 2013.
It will affect only those students who
matriculate then and after.
“
We have been reviewing the curricu-
lum for five years in order to be sure
that our curricular goals fit well with
our mission and that our graduation
requirements address those goals,” says
Vice President and Dean of Academic
Affairs Valerie Lehr. “Much of what we
have been doing is reaffirmed in this
curriculum,” including distribution
requirements and “courses that encour-
age reflection on how human diversity
affects individuals and social organiza-
tion and knowledge.”
Three features distinguish the new
curriculum. First, all students must
take a course in quantitative or logical
reasoning, “skills that we believe are es-
sential to critical thinking and analysis,”
Lehr says.
The second is the integrated learning
requirement. “Most curricular innova-
tions that we have made over the past
20
years have encouraged greater inter-
disciplinary study, which we believe is
important because understanding most
things well can be done best from more
than one perspective," Lehr explains.
“
This requirement will mean that all
students will need to conduct such
exploration in order to graduate.”
The third and perhaps most innovative
is environmental literacy. “This renews
and enhances St. Lawrence's commit-
ment to educate students who will
care about the environment and act to
protect it,” Lehr says.
In addition to successfully completing
a major, the new curriculum requires
that students complete the following:
•
The First-Year Program (FYP).
•
A First-Year Seminar (FYS).
•
The Human Experience and the
Natural World: at least one unit
from each of the arts, social sciences,
humanities and natural sciences.
•
Human Diversity: Culture and Com-
munication, through any combina-
tion of courses approved for diversity
credit, a course or credit in a foreign
language, or an off-campus program
approved for diversity credit.
•
Quantitative/Logical Reasoning.
•
Integrated Learning, which, ac-
cording to the curriculum, “helps
students combine the benefits of the
breadth and depth in their education
by fostering a synthetic understand-
ing directed toward a particular ques-
tion, topic or theme.”
•
Environmental Literacy, incorporat-
ing “recognition of the consequences
of human activities on natural
systems, and/or awareness of the cul-
tural, economic and political forces
that affect environmental policies,
and/or an understanding of natural
systems and/or the impacts they can
have on the environment, human
life, health and welfare.”
—
TE and NSB
That Ubiquitous St. Lawrence Name
Anne Lauriat '68 is the latest Laurentian to discover in varied corners of the
world houses of worship dedicated to Saint Lawrence – and inform us about
them, for which we are grateful. In recent travels she came upon the ruins
of St. Lawrence Kirk, reportedly built in 1621 on Burray, one of the Orkney
Islands of Scotland; and (inset), in the Croatian city of Varazdin, the city castle's
Chapel of St. Lawrence, built at the time of the Baroque revival.
Alumni finding St. Lawrence’s name wherever they may be are encouraged to
send photo evidence to this magazine’s editor,
nburdick@stlawu.edu
, for pos-
sible publication.