Curricula

GEP Signature Courses

One Faith and Reason Course

This requirement can be satisfied by any course certified as a "Faith and Reason" course, provided that the course is not at the same time being used to satisfy a GEP Variable or Integrative Learning requirement.  Faith and Reason courses provide students with appropriate intellectual and epistemological frameworks for exploring both the tension and cohesion of faith and reason in the contemporary world.  Moral Foundation (PHL 154) and one Signature Core Theology course are prerequisites (THE 154 or THE 153 or THE 155).

One First-Year Seminar Course (This course must be taken in the first year, either fall or spring semester).

The First-Year Seminar is designed to introduce students to the adventures of learning in a college context. The challenge and excitement of intellectual exploration of a topic of shared interest is its prime purpose. Its only prerequisites are a genuine interest in the topic and a willingness to contribute to the success of the course through diligent individual effort and enthusiasm. First-Year Seminars, which are limited in enrollment size, focus in depth on a question or topic of disciplinary or interdisciplinary interest. By means of its specific focus, the seminar will explore the thinking, research, and writing practices in a particular field(s). Discussion based on careful reading of texts, writing assignments, both refection and research types, and in-class student presentations will be supplemented, as appropriate, with activities including guest lecturers, museum trip, attendance at local cultural events and or field excursions.

The first year seminar is specially designed for and open to freshmen, thus all freshmen should take a first year seminar during either their first or second semesters at SJU.  However students who fail to successfully complete a First Year during one of their first two semesters at SJU will be required to take an additional Philosophy or Theology/Religion Studies course as a replacement for the FYS.  This replacement course cannot count for any other major or GEP requirement.

Note: For non-transfer students, these six signature courses must be completed at SJU.  Transfer students may use transfer credits to meet Signature Core requirements if course equivalency is approved by the CAS Dean's Office. Transfer students are exempt from the First-Year Seminar requirement.

Variable Courses

Please note students may earn AP credit and/or use transfer credits to meet these requirements. Students must take approved courses in the following areas:

• One Art, Music/Theatre/Film, or Literature Course
• One Mathematics-Beauty Course
• One 4-credit Lab-Based Natural Science Course
  • (Note: An alternative of two 3-credit Lecture-Based Natural Science courses may be available)
• Non-native Language Requirement (1-2 courses at the appropriate level, depending on language placement)
• One Social/Behavioral Science Course
• One Philosophical Anthropology Course (Pre-requisite PHL 154)
• One Religious Difference Course
• Writing Requirement (ENG 101 or AP credit)

Integrative Learning

This component includes three courses determined by a student’s primary major department or program. These courses must be College of Arts and Sciences courses outside of the major department. The Integrative Learning component aims to foster integration of the major with general education. The Integrative Learning component requirement is in addition to GEP Signature and Variable requirements.

GEP Overlay Courses

Students in the Class of 2022, Class of 2023, and Class of 2024 take one Ethics Intensive course, one Writing Intensive course, and one course from any of the following three areas of Diversity, Globalization or Non-Western Studies. Students in the Class of 2025 and following classes take one Diversity course, one Ethics Intensive course, one Writing Intensive course, and one course from any of the following three areas of Diversity, Globalization or Non-Western Studies. Courses may be certified in multiple overlay areas.

Diversity

Diversity courses analyze the construction and maintenance of social categories such as race, class, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, ability as well as the material, political, economic, social and ethical consequences of these identities. Each diversity course employs theoretical frameworks that provide sustained analytical inquiry. Each course emphasizes the ways in which social categories overlap and interact to produce multiple identities and attend to the complex consequences of these intersections. Diversity courses are not purely empirical, though they contain empirical components; rather, they are critical-seeking to account for and understand the significance of such social categories and, where appropriate, to investigate methods of challenging social institutions that promote injustice.

Globalization

Courses in this area will address the theoretical foundations (economic, political, historical, cultural, environmental and ethical) of the international framework that is increasingly linking countries, cultures and peoples around the world. These courses will examine the ways in which global processes and interactions among nation states, societies, international organizations and individuals shape human experience, both in the past and present. These courses will focus on the forms of interaction and interdependency among the world’s peoples and the social structures that bring us closer to one another.

Non-Western Areas Studies

In identifying courses in this category, the "West" is used primarily in its cultural sense. This broad usage extends beyond the narrow geographical boundaries of "western Europe". These courses therefore focus primarily on cultures different from those emphasized in courses on "Western Civilization". Non-Western Area course do have a geographical component because they concentrate on the language, culture, history, society, economics and politics of one or more region outside of North America and Europe. These courses emphasize understanding a region and its cultures on their own terms and from the perspectives of their own peoples rather than in the context of the West or as part of global comparative systems. This may also include appropriate language courses above the intermediate level. The Diversity, Globalization, or Non-Western Studies overlay requirement may be satisfied by any approved course outside of the Signature Common Core and Faith and Reason. If so certified, any GEP Variable course, any Integrative Learning course, any First Year Seminar, any Concentration or Major course, or any Free Elective can satisfy this requirement, with the following exception: A course taken for Religious Difference GEP Variable credit may not at the same time count for Diversity, Globalization, or Non-Western Studies overlay credit.

One Ethics Intensive Course

Ethics-intensive courses evaluate ethical issues in a particular discipline or field. Such critical evaluation requires applying to the disciplinary material some of the theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools that students have acquired in their signature/core courses. Ethics-intensive courses will thus push beyond professional ethics (where "the good" is determined only by the rules of the discipline or field) and will rigorously investigate the subject matter of a course in light of more fundamental moral values and ethical principles (e.g., justice, human dignity, vocation, beneficence, utility, double effect, proportionality). Through this study, students will come to a deeper understanding of a moral life and will be enabled to better act with self-agency in their lives beyond. This requirement can be satisfied by any approved course outside of the Signature Core. If so certified, any GEP Variable course, any Integrative Learning course, any Concentration or Major course, or any Free Elective can satisfy this requirement. (pre-requisite PHL 154)

One Writing Intensive Course

Writing is a means of communication and a skill that develops with structured practice. It is grounded in the foundations of proper punctuation, grammar and thesis statement and development. This requirement can be satisfied by any approved course outside of the Signature Common Core and First Year Seminar. If so certified, any GEP Variable course, any Integrative Learning course, any Faith and Reason course, any Concentration or Major course, or any Free Elective can satisfy this requirement. (pre-requisite: ENG 101).

The General Education Program (GEP) at Saint Joseph’s University involves a distinctive liberal arts education in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition.  General education is essential to the University’s mission, providing all students with the broad knowledge, essential skills, appreciation of diversity, and ethically informed perspective needed by those who would aspire to be “men and women for others.” The GEP ensures mastery of skills required for further study, exposes students to the principal achievements and problems of the major fields of human learning, and introduces them to new disciplines that they may or may not wish to pursue. The Major component gives depth in a particular field and is thus a preparation for an effective career or for graduate study in that field. Free or general electives allow students to pursue interests, explore new fields, or to continue concentration in their major. 

The Degree Completion Education Program (GEP) applies to students who are completing a Bachelor of Liberal Studies (BLS) or Bachelor of Business Administration degrees (BBA). 

The Degree Completion GEP is comprised of Signature Core, Variable Core,  Integrative Learning courses and a Diversity Overlay.

Signature Core

Variable Core

• One approved course in Art, Literature, or Music, Theater, Film.

• One course in the Natural Sciences (lab-based or lecture based) in biology, chemistry, environmental science, or physics.

• Two courses in Mathematics.  BLS degree majors require MAT 101 or higher; BBA degree majors require MAT 103 (or MAT 120 precalculus) and MAT 123 (or an alternate calculus course).

• One course in a Non-Native Language (e.g., SPA 111-SPA 112) or one approved alternative course in Literature in Translation or Classics. Students who are bilingual may request an exemption for the language requirement from the Department of Linguistics and Languages.

• One course in the Social-Behavioral Sciences including Political Science, Economics, Sociology, and Psychology.  Please note that some majors require a specific course.

• One course that is certified as a Philosophical Anthropology course.

• One course from Religious Studies or Theology that is certified as a Religious Difference course.

• ENG 101 Craft of Language.

Integrative Learning Courses

(2 courses required)

• Courses approved for ILC requirements will vary by major. Some majors have specific courses that must be taken.

Overlay

• Adult Learner Program students are required to complete one couse that is certified as a diversity overlay.

Free Electives

Except for Early Childhood/Elementary Pre K-4 Education majors, all students must complete a minimum of 18 free elective credits.  Elective credits may be used to pursue a minor or secondary major.