The collegiate requirements are those courses all students must successfully complete in order to receive a degree from Randolph-Macon College1. The requirements comprise four groups: Effective Communication, Pillars of the Liberal Arts, Cross-Area Requirements, and Wellness.
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Effective communication courses provide a foundation in writing and speaking necessary for success in college and beyond. The requirement consists of five courses from four areas.
Written Communication
Critical Reading and Writing (ENGL 185) is a four credit-hour course providing an intensive introduction to skills essential to good writing: critical reading, framing arguments for different audiences, mechanics, style, and research. All students must successfully complete ENGL 185. The course is taken in the student’s first year. A student who does not complete successfully ENGL 185 must repeat ENGL 185 during its next offering.
ORAL COMMUNICATION (OC)
All students must successfully complete one approved course that strengthens the connection between knowledge of a subject and effective oral communication by assigning diverse oral communication tasks and providing opportunities for practice and improvement.
Communication in Context (CC)
All students must successfully complete one approved course that explores topics and practices that introduce students to the varieties of inquiry, research, and forms of communication characteristic of a field or discipline.
Foreign Language Communication (FL)
All students must successfully complete two approved consecutive courses in a foreign language, or complete a foreign language through the intermediate level. The intermediate level is normally defined as completion of the 211 – 212 sequence or through a single accelerated course, 215. A student whose native language is not English may satisfy the collegiate requirement by receiving proficiency in a foreign language in consultation with the Registrar’s Office.
PILLARS OF THE LIBERAL ARTS
The Pillars provide exposure to broad areas of knowledge that students will encounter throughout their lives. All students must successfully complete one approved course from each of six areas.
Aesthetic Expression (AE)
These courses explore art forms or texts produced by individuals, groups of people, or cultures; these courses may involve performance and production. Students will learn how formal and thematic qualities create meaning, recognize the interplay of the creative impulse and trained discipline, and attend to the ways aesthetic expression communicates complex human experiences.
Civic Life (CL)
These courses address the social, economic, and political structures that pattern how individuals engage collectively in public life at the community, national, and international levels. Students will learn to identify and analyze structures appropriate to a course’s focus and assess patterns of change and development of those structures. Civic Life courses will require students to reflect on their personal engagement in civic life through classroom and/or experiential learning activities.
Global Experiences (GE)
These courses examine the interconnectedness of human communities and diversity of cultural traditions that have shaped the world in the past and present. Students will learn to observe, describe, and analyze human cultures and societies in their variety.
The Human Condition (HC)
These courses explore what it means to be human, delving into topics such as growth, development, human nature, consciousness, mortality, our lives as individuals and in relationships, belief systems, and ways of knowing. Students will reflect on aspects of the human condition through classroom and/ or experiential learning activities.
Quantitative and Symbolic Reasoning (QS)
These courses focus on solving problems within quantitative or symbolic abstract structures. Students will learn to translate real world problems into the language of these structures, perform and interpret quantitative or symbolic manipulations, employ abstract methods of analysis to develop conclusions, and create and communicate logical arguments based on this analysis.
The Scientific Process (SP)
These courses will examine the role of scientific inquiry, including how the relationships among hypotheses, theories, and predictions provide the context for making observations and drawing conclusions. Students will execute and analyze experiments, including the development of hypotheses, collection and analysis of data, and drawing of conclusions as appropriate to the discipline.
Randolph-Macon is dedicated to the full development of a student’s skills in written communication. Therefore, all students must successfully complete at least one course that is designated as writing attentive (WA).
To ensure a breadth of knowledge, a single course cannot be used to satisfy more than one Pillar requirement, nor may a student use more than one course on a major to satisfy the Pillar requirements.
From among the courses used to satisfy the Pillar requirements, all students must successfully complete at least one course designated as arts/humanities (HU), at least one designated as social/behavioral science (SS), and at least one designated as natural science/mathematics (NS).
CROSS-AREA REQUIREMENTS
Randolph-Macon’s curricular goals emphasize the college’s intention to provide students with an education that encourages them to see connections and relationships among various academic disciplines. The Cross-Area requirements reinforce cross-disciplinary connections and the recognition that curricular goals are not unique to a particular discipline or a single pillar. All students must successfully complete at least one course that satisfies each of the following requirements.
Experiential Learning (EL)
These courses may be a part of a student’s major or may be an approved curricular project. Courses that satisfy this requirement include: a semester- or year-long study abroad program, a travel-centered course, a Bassett Internship, an approved field study, an approved directed research project, a student teaching assignment, or an approved service-learning course.
Non-Western Culture (NW)
These courses will enable students to begin developing a critical understanding of the non-western world. The scope of human endeavor encompasses a wide range of responses to a shared set of universal challenges, and the responses of western civilization exist alongside and in interaction with the traditions and institutions of other cultures.
Diversity and Inclusion (DI)
These courses address the characteristics of diverse cultures in the United States. Courses focus on the struggles for full inclusion of underrepresented populations and non-dominant cultures and/or the challenges and benefits of diversity in American institutions.
Capstone Experience (CS)
These courses must widely integrate knowledge and skills from either the student’s overall program or the student’s major program.
A single course cannot be used to satisfy more than two cross-area requirements.
WELLNESS
Each student must satisfactorily complete two courses in physical education at the 100 level. These courses do not affect a student’s cumulative grade point average (GPA); the courses are taken for 0 hours of credit. A student physically or medically unable to participate in activity courses is encouraged to meet the physical education requirement by enrolling in PHED 104.
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Courses which satisfy the current collegiate requirements may be identified via the "C21" codes in the course descriptions.
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General education requirements for students who enrolled at Randolph-Macon College prior to Fall 2021 are available in the Academic Catalog of the student's year of enrollment. Prior catalogs are archived online.