THE CORE CURRICULUM

(This statement appears on pages 92-98 of the undergraduate Catalog.)

            The core curriculum is the body of courses which constitutes the center or nucleus of a Citadel education. The disciplines represented in the core are selected according to two standards: the rational, inasmuch as the courses encompass each of the basic methodologies employed in academic pursuits, and the historical, inasmuch as the centuries have confirmed the durability and the serviceability of the disciplines involved.
            While the courses of the core are diverse, they nevertheless constitute a unit of the college curriculum, one that coalesces at a higher level of abstraction than other portions of the curriculum, because the core courses examine the foundations of particular, central disciplines in the perspective of the whole academic enterprise, the search for truth. These courses, therefore, have a decidedly philosophical cast, and for this reason they rightly emphasize the ultimate bases of the discipline, the validity of its method, its essential elements, and its distinctive character.
            In the core curriculum, earlier education reaches a completeness and a fullness of perspective for which the student was not previously ready. Later studies, while they will go deeper and further into a particular field, will necessarily require the student’s attention to be more narrowly focused. The core curriculum also captures the academic quality of higher education better than most arrays of courses since through core courses the student examines the forms which knowledge takes, whereas later studies will concentrate on the content of knowledge in a presupposed form. Furthermore, the level of intellectual achievement in the core courses is for most students higher than they will ever reach again, except in the confines of the single discipline in which they major.
            Since the core curriculum is fundamental to all further studies, the entire faculty shares authority over it, although some departments have special responsibility for the parts which they teach. The core is placed early in a student's career because it inculcates those skills essential for further study and for the life of an educated person, such permanent and profound dispositions of the spirit as the habits of objectivity, consistency, preciseness, orderly deliberation, prudent judgment, and respect for the life of the mind. These intellectual powers are developed by students seriously abandoning themselves to mature study in the academic disciplines which constitute our core.
            The Standing Curriculum Committee of the college is charged to monitor the overall appropriateness and effectiveness of the core curriculum courses, to study and determine the benefit accruing to students from these courses, to examine whether the purposes for which the core was designed are being realized, and to recommend changes and modifications within particular courses or with the overall Core Curriculum.

Areas of Study

            Within The Citadel's core curriculum, study in five areas—English, history, mathematics, science, and social science—is required of all students regardless of their academic majors. For all students other than those pursuing professional preparations in the areas of civil and electrical engineering, education, and the teaching track of physical education, study of a foreign language is also required. Each course, or sequence of courses, which addresses a core curriculum requirement incorporates, where appropriate, all the following skills: written communications, critical thinking, logical reasoning, and resource and reference usage. Students are expected to use proper grammar in all their course work, whether written or oral. Proper usage is expected at the college level and is required by all professors.

            English The use of language is at once the most essential, the most sophisticated, and the most practical of all human arts and is a skill indispensable to further endeavors in any field. In the use of language and ideas, English studies require the student to assess great works of literature. This obliges students to become adept in handling the important values of civilization and also to become sensitive to the subtle nuances that great writers have found in them. Such studies also refine aesthetic sense and thereby teach, among other things, to use language with appropriate grace and force. Literary studies contribute to the development of a student's character by requiring the student to evaluate human conduct and judge what people have made of their lives. English studies are central to a college education because they are a forum where the rival and complementary claims of philosophy, practicality, science, ethics, politics, and religion come alive in concrete situations.
            The primary benefits in studying English come when a student engages in dialogues with the works of great authors, listening to their words receptively and responding to them critically. Prerequisite to this encounter are skills in writing and literary analysis.
            Each student at The Citadel is required to complete four semesters of English. The first semester, ENGL 101, is basic composition, and the Department of English is responsible for determining which entering students are sufficiently prepared to bypass this course. The transcripts of those students who are permitted to bypass this course will reflect ENGL 101 as if it had been completed successfully on a Pass/Fail basis at The Citadel.
             For students who participate in ENGL 101, successful completion will be based on acquired writing skills, and the course (graded on a scale of A, B, C, U) must be completed with the grade of “C” or higher.
            It is expected that the second course in English, ENGL 102, will be bypassed only by exceptionally well prepared students. Should this circumstance occur,.93 the transcript will reflect ENGL 102 as was described for ENGL 101 above. This course continues to develop the writing skills of the student, introduces the student to various literary forms, and prepares the student to undertake a two-semester literature sequence.
            Two semesters of literature complete the core curriculum requirement in English. All students must take ENGL 201 (Major British Writers I) and then may choose one additional course from among ENGL 202 (Major British Writers II), ENGL 215 (Masterpieces of American Literature), ENGL 218 (Masterpieces of World Literature I), or ENGL 219 (Masterpieces of World Literature II).

            Mathematics Much of mathematics deals with the study of number, form, arrangement, and associated relationships, using rigorously defined literal, numerical, and operational symbols. The mathematical world, then, is one of extraordinary purity and completeness, and the study of it provides a precision of thinking and a clarity of knowledge that could hardly be imagined without this unique discipline.
            Mathematics is a product of human thought which does not depend on empirical observations, yet it is admirably adapted to concrete interpretations in the physical and social sciences. Its purely theoretical foundation confirms the objectivity of scientific findings, and its transferability to discrete sciences provides a bond of unity among them. Mathematics, then, comprises both abstraction and the application of the results obtained by abstraction to specific problems. Of these aspects, the basic one is abstraction. Because mathematics is abstract and general, it is applicable to problems which arise in widely different areas.
            Core studies in mathematics are designed to enhance students' facility in mathematical operations, advance them as far into mathematics as their talent and preparation will permit, increase their understanding of mathematical applications in other fields, and reveal the nature of mathematics as a discipline in its own right.
            Each student is required to complete a two semester sequence in mathematics. All students pursuing the B.S. degree in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, or physics must complete a two-semester calculus sequence, either MATH 106/107 or MATH 131/132. All other students must complete the MATH 105/106 sequence which includes an introduction to calculus. The honors sequence, HONR 107/108, may be taken in lieu of one of the sequences above.

            History History teaches students information about the past which helps to explain the human condition, and, more important, teaches students to think about human affairs as historians do.
            The information in the core history courses concerns matters of major significance in the human story. It is sufficiently remote to be viewed dispassionately and comprehensively, and it is of a sufficient quantity to display major forces at work over a long period.
            To begin thinking as a historian does, the student is required to encounter a variety of evidence about past events, to weigh it by several standards, and to discern in it causes, effects, theories, facts, inconsistencies, and the like; in addition, the student is required to attempt, according to the standards of the discipline, a narrative assessment of what the evidence reveals about the past.
            What a student gains from such a study of history, besides the accumulation of information and the rigorous exercise of mental faculties, is the ability to view human activity in its temporal and other dimensions and also from a large and objectively framed perspective, develop a balanced regard for both concrete deeds of people and for the larger patterns which these deeds constitute.
            Each student is required to complete two semesters of History of Western Civilization, HIST 103/104, or two semesters of History of World Civilization, HIST 105/106.

            Science Studies in a science require a student to make observations about the physical world, to reason about observations according to scientific standards, and to begin to understand the system of principles that control nature.
            The method of science is to make and record observations about material phenomena, to arrange the accumulated data in a systematic way, to develop inductively hypotheses which explain the data, and finally to design and perform experiments which test these hypotheses and their domain. Only when these hypotheses are independently corroborated and exhibit predictive capability can they be allowed to stand as scientific theory. When a student practices the scientific methods and learns to account for every aspect of the phenomena; to construct a hypothesis which is based upon scientific observations which also has general application; to follow hunches and intuitions but to hold them in suspense so as to contrive a rational explanation; and then to test the explanation by an experiment which publicly applies it to a demanding case, the student develops a healthy understanding of nature and a firmly established appreciation for the marvels of the physical world.
            Each student must complete (4) semesters of science. This requirement must be met by two sequences of two semesters each in Biology, Chemistry, or Physics. No more than one sequence is to be completed in any single science. Students pursuing a degree in the Department of Health and Physical Education meet the requirements for the study of biology through the three semester sequence, BIOL 101/111, BIOL 303/305, and BIOL 304/306.

            Social Sciences The ultimate goal of the social sciences is the understanding of those aspects of human experience that are social, political, economic, and psychological. By applying a variety of methods including hypothesis testing, quantification, and statistical analysis, the social sciences seek to construct empirically based theories of human behavior. Because the social sciences differ from the natural sciences in subject matter and from the humanities in method, they occupy a distinctive position among the academic disciplines.
            The social sciences are to human phenomena what the natural sciences are to natural phenomena. The social sciences are important because of the significance of social theories in understanding human conduct and because of the increasing reliance on the methods, techniques, concepts, and vocabularies of the social sciences.
            Each student is required to complete a one-semester course in the social sciences, and this course must be selected from among the following: ANTH 202 (Cultural Anthropology), BADM 201 (Principles of Macroeconomics), BADM 202 (Principles of Microeconomics), HONR 203 (Honors Social Science Project), PSCI 102 (American National Government), PSYC 201 (General Psychology), and SOCI 201 (Introduction to Sociology).

            Foreign Languages In the “global village,” we can no longer afford to live in linguistic isolation, expecting to influence those who do not know our language while remaining ignorant of theirs. It is more vital now than ever that we become proficient in foreign languages and knowledgeable about the cultures of their speakers.
            Not only diplomats and military personnel, but also business people, engineers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, and teachers can expect to spend more time abroad themselves, working and traveling in other countries. Command of a foreign language enables them to be far more successful in their work and more comfortable in their surroundings.
            The benefits of language study are many and varied: practical ability to communicate with non-English speakers; greater understanding of our own culture through investigation of another; increased exposure to the thought of significant world authors; and enhanced appreciation of the richness of English.
            Through marshaling their faculties to synthesize instantly vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and idiom in coherent response to a simple verbal question, students train their minds to deal with the abstract and learn mastery of any problem with which life may confront them.
            Other than majors in education, physical education (teaching track), and civil or electrical engineering, each student is required to study the same foreign language — French, German, or Spanish — through the 202 level. The Department of Modern Languages offers optional placement testing each fall for entering students who desire bypass credit for elementary and intermediate core courses.

            Physical Education The required physical education program is designed to provide an exemplary environment and experiences which contribute to an improved quality of life for the student. The program offers basic instruction in adult and lifetime physical fitness, healthful living, physical activities and recreational sports which are of immediate and lasting value. Each student is required to complete RPED 250, Contemporary Health Foundations, and RPED 251, Foundations of Fitness and Exercise, as well as two different activity courses.