In November 2011, the author--Ivan Fuller, a professor of theatre and associate dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Rider University--attended a joint symposium of the American Conference of Academic Deans and Phi Beta Kappa that was designed to wrestle with the question of why the humanities matter. At one session, participants…

The use of a learning community approach to college curriculum design is explored, and examples are drawn from the following Temple University (Pennsylvania) and the following Washington colleges: Evergreen State College, North Seattle and Seattle Central Community College, Tacoma Community College, and Lower Columbia College. Contacts for further…

The development of a universitywide general education requirement for undergraduates at the University of California at Davis is outlined, and the lessons learned in the process are discussed. (MSE)

The curriculum development process leading to Bradford College's new Practical Liberal Arts Education plan, an interdisciplinary core curriculum focusing on the theme of the common bonds of human beings, is discussed. (MSE)

Chronicles the process of reforming the liberal education program at Franklin Pierce College (New Hampshire), organized around the theme of the individual and community. Discusses objectives in integrating the "civic arts" into the core curriculum and challenges encountered in balancing "individual" and "community"…

Fairleigh Dickinson University (New Jersey) students take four core general education courses from the second half of the freshman year through the first half of the junior year. All sections have the same syllabus, and faculty teaching them on separate campuses review and refine the courses together. Core course faculty participated actively in a…

The history of Arizona International College, a four-year public institution with a multicultural and global emphasis, is chronicled. The college evolved as an alternative to Arizona's existing public institutions, with a curriculum emphasizing communication skills, problem solving, quantitative and qualitative analysis, technical literacy, moral…

A new program at Madonna University (Michigan) builds on the institution's existing emphasis on the humanities in teacher education by creating faculty development activities that promote an interdisciplinary learning community and developing courses to forge formal curricular links between key humanities general education courses and required…

Describes an Alverno College (Wisconsin) first-semester general education course in studio arts that attempts to use the creative arts to develop skills in communicating, analyzing, inferring values, and formulating responses to works of art; to use varied teaching strategies to meet the needs of first-semester students; and to tailor these…

The evolution and design of an interdisciplinary honors course at the University of Maryland at College Park are described. The course, on knowledge and its human consequences, brings together faculty experts, "teacher-learner" faculty, and first-year honors students to explore different kinds of knowledge and their philosophical,…

The study of liberal arts and sciences and teacher training have drifted apart, reinforcing polarities between theory and practice, intellect and action, collaboration and competition. Brooklyn College (New York) has reorganized its curriculum to bring them back together. Students write and reexamine autobiographical accounts of their own…