DRAFT Proposal for Revision of General Education
Mission
Drew University offers a rigorous liberal arts education characterized by close mentoring
relationships with faculty and intellectual engagement with peers. A Drew education challenges
students, and it urges them to take intellectual risks, to develop curiosity and creativity, and to ask
and explore difficult and complex questions. At Drew, a liberal arts education means depth of
knowledge acquired in your major field of study, breadth of knowledge gained by exploring
widely across a rich and varied curriculum, and the acquisition of competencies that are broadly
applicable in a range of academic and professional settings. The liberal arts, as they are practiced
at Drew, also ask students to engage the world beyond the gates of the university, to take what
they have learned in the classroom and apply it in a different context, local or global. A Drew
education gives students flexibility and choice and asks students to shape an education that deeply
engages them and readies them for a life after Drew of continued learning, community
involvement, and professional leadership.
Requirements
I. “The College Seminar”
A rigorous academic experience in a small seminar setting, the College Seminar introduces all
entering students to the challenges of academic work at the college level and of intellectual life at
Drew. Seminars share some basic goals though their specific topics may vary. The seminar
emphasizes analytical and critical thinking, encounters with challenging material, intellectual
engagement with faculty and peers, argumentation, and writing to learn. The first-semester
College Seminar instructor, who gets to know the student as a student in the seminar setting,
serves as the academic adviser until the student declares a major. Seminars will be offered for
two-credits in each semester; students will choose a different seminar topic and instructor for
each semester.
II. Depth of Study in a Field
Each Drew student’s education is grounded in a major through which the student develops depth
of knowledge and a solid grounding in the methods and scholarly approaches of a particular
discipline or interdisciplinary area. As each student begins the major, he/she submits a rationale
for the major choice to the department or program and includes it in the portfolio. A capstone
experience in each major encourages students to draw together, reflect on, and connect the major
course work. Capstones are defined by each department or program and may include a thesis, a
research paper, an independent project, a senior or research seminar or tutorial. Within the major,
students will also develop writing and information literacy skills particular to that field of study.
Students have the option of proposing a self-designed major. Students also have the option of
studying a second field in some depth by choosing also to complete a minor chosen from the
extensive list of disciplinary and interdisciplinary minors offered by the College.
III. Breadth of Knowledge
A broad grounding in the disciplines that constitute the arts and sciences is a hallmark of a liberal
arts education. Each student should develop a course of study, selecting breadth courses in
consultation with the adviser, considering how those courses can complement the work of the
major or open to him/her new fields of interest or knowledge. Breadth courses should be
opportunities to explore the riches of the curriculum and to make interdisciplinary connections. A
rationale for the choice of breadth courses should be provided in the portfolio. Students may meet
their breadth requirements in one of two ways:
1. Take one course from each of the following areas chosen from a short list of
courses designated by the faculty which might include multi-disciplinary team-taught courses.
These courses will be intentionally designed to introduce students to the approaches, methods and
modes of thinking of the discipline or field:
Natural science
Social sciences
Arts
Humanities
Interdisciplinarity
2. Define your own requirements for breadth. In consultation with the adviser
and in accordance with guidelines established by the faculty, students select 5 courses
from across the curriculum to fulfill their breadth requirements. The course must be
linked in some way (thematically, chronologically, methodologically) and the student
must provide a rationale for each course as well as a rationale for the overall plan.
Courses selected must clearly demonstrate the objective of breadth as well as fulfilling
the student’s specific goals.
IV. Competencies
Liberal arts educations are known for producing graduates with strong flexible skills which can
be applied in many settings. The competencies each student develops through a Drew education
are the essential foundations for future study, employment, and participation as citizens in a
community or a democratic society. Each competency is introduced early in the student’s college
career and then developed and reinforced in later courses.




Writing: 2-credit writing course in each of the first two semesters (placement
based on ability); 2 writing intensive course
Quantitative Reasoning: 1 basic course (statistics, comp. sci, mathematics); 1
course which applies the quantitative reasoning skills from the first course
(appropriate courses designated by faculty)
Information Literacy (integrated through the curriculum)
Foreign Language (level of proficiency defined by ACFTL standards; maximum three
semesters)
V. Connecting the Classroom and the World – an Off-Campus Experience
Each student will plan an off-campus experience as part of his/her undergraduate education.
These experiences may include an internship, a research experience, a Drew International
Seminar, a service learning seminar, a language practicum or summer language program, a fullsemester international or domestic off-campus program, or a civic engagement experience. The
experience should be chosen in consultation with the adviser and should grow out of academic
work the student will have completed by the time he/she does the off-campus experience.
Common to all of these experiences is that the student will be expected to reflect after the
experience and connect it to his/her academic program. This reflection becomes a part of the
portfolio.
VI. Academic Planning and Assessment Portfolio
A Drew education offers students flexibility and choice and asks student to be thoughtful
about the education they construct for themselves while at the College. Conversations
with a faculty adviser help students think through their choices and consider the many
possibilities the curriculum offers. In the Portfolio each student writes about the
curricular choices he/she has made and explains how each choice advances academic and
personal goals. Students also save examples of their best work throughout the four years,
work that evidences the principles that each student sees giving coherence to the
education he/she has crafted. By completing the portfolio, the student documents
completion of his/her undergraduate liberal arts education. The learning portfolios will
also form the basis of assessment of the general education curriculum and may also assist
departments in assessment.