School of Liberal Arts: General Information
2008-2009 Academic Year
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the requirements of the general core curriculum. Therefore, students in the School
of Liberal Arts must enhance the general core with courses in the following areas:
FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT
The Liberal Arts Faculty believes that in an era of globalization when people of
all nations are increasingly mixing, doing business with each other, and needing
to understand foreign cultures, students should strive to achieve real proficiency
in a foreign language. As a step toward that goal, all students receive language
instruction at the college level. Minimally, students demonstrate basic proficiency
by passing a foreign language course at Tulane at the 203 level or above. Students
who demonstrate proficiency at the 203 level upon arrival at Tulane must satisfy
the foreign language requirement by taking a higher level course in that same
language. Students may not satisfy this requirement on a
satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
WRITING INTENSIVE REQUIREMENT
Writing is the most important skill that students master in a liberal arts education.
In order to ensure a high level of writing proficiency by graduation, all students in
the School of Liberal Arts take one approved writing-intensive course beyond the
writing proficiency requirement of the general core. Students in writing-intensive
courses submit at least 20 pages of writing for a grade and rewrite one or more
whole assignments totaling at least 10 pages in response to criticisms and
comments by the instructor. Students may satisfy this requirement by taking one
course designated as "writing-intensive" in the course schedule or, with the
approval of the instructor and the Committee on Undergraduate Academic
Requirements of the School of Liberal Arts, by taking a course that does not carry
the "writing-intensive" designation but that fits the criteria of the requirement.
Students are encouraged to satisfy the writing-intensive requirement with a course
in their major, such as an upper-level seminar, a qualifying capstone course, or a
senior honors thesis. Students may not satisfy this requirement on a
satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS
In order to achieve the minimal breadth that the faculty deems appropriate to a
liberal arts education, all students in the School of Liberal Arts must take the
following courses in addition to those required by the general core:
Humanities and Fine Arts: One additional course in either the Humanities or the
Fine Arts, beyond the two required by the general core. Students must assure that
at least one of the three courses is a Humanities course and at least one is a Fine
Arts course.
Social Sciences: One additional course in the Social Sciences, beyond the two
required by the general core. Students must assure that the three courses are not
all from the same Social Science department or program.