180-00 Course Designations and Criteria for University Requirements

A wide variety of social, cultural, and political forces have shaped the culture and institutions of the United States.  As a result, it is important for university students to be exposed to the historical background, development, and current configurations of various groups in our pluralistic American culture.  Such exposure will promote an understanding of the many complex issues of inter-group relations and the many kinds of cultural contributions that have shaped our nation.

A course that fulfills the United States Cultures requirement must strive to increase students’ understanding of contemporary United States society. Such a course need not focus exclusively on the present and may concern a historical subject.

Courses with the United States Cultures designation will include two or more of the following components and will include those components in the graded evaluation of student performance.

United States Cultures courses will have at least 50% of the course content addressed by the US course designation criteria:

1. Cultivate student knowledge of issues of social identity such as ethnicity, race, class, religion, gender, physical/mental disability, age, or sexual orientation;
2. Convey to students a knowledge of different United States values, traditions, beliefs, and customs;
3. Increase student knowledge of the range of United States cultural achievements and human conditions through time;
4.  Increase student knowledge of United States social identities not in isolation, but in relation to one another (for example, the interaction of race or gender with socioeconomic status.)
5. Introduce students to interpersonal communication and interaction issues among United States cultures. (Senate Agenda Appendix C, 3/13/12)
6. Increase student understanding of the nature of societal justice, and equity in the United States at the societal, institutional, and individual levels.  (Senate Agenda Appendix D, 4/19/16)

A wide variety of social, cultural, and political forces have shaped the cultures, nations, and institutions of the modern world.  As a result, it is important for university students to be exposed to the historical backgrounds, cultural and scientific contributions, and economic, social, psychological, and political circumstances of civilizations, cultures, and nations outside of the United States, to promote understanding of the variety of world cultures.

A course that fulfills the International Cultures requirement must strive to increase student knowledge of the variety of international societies and may deal to some extent with U.S. culture in its international connections.  It need not focus exclusively on the present and may, indeed, be a historical subject.  Courses with the International Cultures designation will do two or more of the following with at least 50% of the course content addressed by the IL course designation criteria:

1. Cultivate student knowledge of the similarities and differences among international cultures;
2. Convey to students a knowledge of other nations’ cultural values, traditions, beliefs, and customs;
3. Increase students’ knowledge of the range of international cultural achievements and human conditions through time;
4. Increase students’ knowledge of nations and cultures not in isolation, but in relation to one another.
5. Introduce students to interpersonal communication and interaction issues among International cultures. (Senate Agenda Appendix C, 3/13/12)
6. Increase student understanding of the nature of societal justice, and equity in international nations at the societal, institutional, and individual levels.  (Senate Agenda Appendix D, 4/19/16)

Penn State writing-intensive courses reflect that students:

1. write to learn in ways that help them think about new material; and
2. learn to write in discipline-specific genres.

A writing-intensive course must balance those two writing activities.  “Write to learn” means that students use informal, writing early in the process to think and explore without regard to formal elements of writing (e.g., Thomas Edison’s lab notebooks fraught with misspellings, fragments, and cross-outs).  “Learn to write” means that students learn to use writing standards such as unity, coherence, development, style, and mechanics that their discipline requires of formal documents (e.g., Thomas Edison’s patent applications). The criteria for writing-intensive courses have been derived from the goals outlined in the writing-intensive course legislative report presented to the Senate on April 18, 1989. The Senate recommends a maximum enrollment of 25 students per section.

Pending Senate approval, courses may be offered as writing-intensive on a permanent or one-semester basis.