At Wagner College, students are required to participate in a series of three curriculum-based learning communities (C-BLCs) as the core of the undergraduate curriculum known as the Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts. This article describes the senior learning community (LC) in psychology at Wagner College, which is an example of a…

By tracing the historical roots of general education, we can make many of our current issues and problems in general education more understandable. This chapter is an overview of historical trends that have taken general education from the concept of a unified curriculum with no distinction between "specialized" and "general" education to the…

When the University of North Dakota began working to improve general education, two concerns were recognized. The first issue, which faculty and administrators across campus found immediately engaging, was how to change general education so that it would be a better program, more likely to yield clear student learning benefits. A second concern,…

Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, which is offered at the University of Guelph, is an interdisciplinary department that previously offered three undergraduate majors: child, youth, and family; applied human nutrition; and gerontology; as well as graduate programs at the master's and doctoral levels. Several factors have precipitated a review…

Discusses the special needs and opportunities for effective faculty and graduate-student mentoring of undergraduates within an interdisciplinary model. The model was used in a series of large, science-based, interdisciplinary, introductory courses at the University of Michigan, but any interdisciplinary faculty team can apply the lessons learned…

How does one develop and deliver the integrated core of a cross-disciplinary arts and sciences undergraduate degree when the degree program has no departmental or college home and no full-time faculty, but plenty of enthusiastic students who are looking for a unique educational experience? This article outlines how a formalized curriculum…

Describes a partnership between a family foundation and the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research to encourage and support interdisciplinary research. Describes some funded projects. (EV)

A course at Hampshire College that joins the literature and analytical approaches of anthropology with certain texts in English, American, and European literature and modern criticism is described. The problems of the relationship of observer to observed, of author to text, and of audience to text are covered. (MLW)

The agendas of the social work profession's accrediting group and the society served by the profession call for revitalizing the linkage between social work and the liberal arts. Accreditation requirements and their implementation, social work's mission as control of dependency, and outcomes as an organizing principle are discussed. (Author/MLW)

The study of management in historical and comparative perspective can help resolve tensions between business and the liberal arts in undergraduate education. With the stimulus provided by the Professional Preparation Network, the Business Department at Skidmore College has developed a set of courses for the college's liberal studies core…

A course for life science and social science students at Hampshire College is a combination of mathematics and computer science. Through actively involving students in manipulations and simulations, their appreciation for the logical and aesthetic properties of mathematical tools and their capacity for the independent work is enhanced. (MLW)

A course at Hampshire College was designed to simulate the decision-making environment in which constituencies in a medium-sized city would respond to the closing and relocation of a major corporate plant. The project, constructed as a role simulation with a computer component, is described. (MLW)