College of Arts and Sciences faculty voted to approve a new undergraduate curriculum earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The new program, set to take effect for the Class of 2031, comes after nearly four years of development. The revised curriculum includes three parts: a new Foundations<\/a> program, a revised distribution of general education requirements, and revamped elective options.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis new framework gives us a way to elevate our community of inquiry,\u201d College Dean Peter Struck wrote<\/a> in a Wednesday announcement. \u201cRight from the start, we\u2019re putting each student\u2019s individual curiosity in the driver\u2019s seat.\u201d<\/p>\n The Committee on Undergraduate Education commissioned a revision of the College\u2019s general education requirements in 2024, seeking input from faculty across a variety of disciplines.\u00a0<\/p>\n Proposals were shared and extensively reviewed over the past two years. The final draft was presented to faculty in March and passed with 70% approval in \u201cmid-April.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n The Foundations program was piloted by 120 first-year students in the 2025-26 academic year. The program includes \u201cKite and Key\u201d courses, a writing seminar, and a first-year seminar that allows students to fulfill six general education requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, students expressed initial mixed reactions<\/a> to the pilot program in conversations with The Daily Pennsylvanian.\u00a0<\/p>\n The revised program also aims to \u201cstreamline and simplify\u201d general education requirements for College undergraduates. Students will now take at least 12 courses in one division of their choosing, five in a second, and three in the third.<\/p>\n \u201cPreviously, our students were restricted to a certain number of courses tagged as fulfilling these requirements, but now, every course counts,\u201d Struck wrote in the April 22 announcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under the current system, students are required to take specifically attributed sources courses belonging to the “Foundational Approaches\u201d and \u201cSectors of Knowledge\u201d categories.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever a student takes in the humanities and arts will count toward the humanities and arts distribution; whatever they take in the social sciences and natural sciences will count toward those,\u201d Struck continued. \u201cThis is our way of making sure that curiosity leads the way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The new curriculum also includes a \u201crevamped\u201d language requirement and requires students to take a course in a new category called \u201cperspectives & difference.\u201d Students will have a broader scope of elective options, including classes offered by other schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the announcement, CUE will be evaluated one, three, and five years after being formally implemented in fall 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnything this complex is likely to have unexpected aspects arise as implementation unfolds,\u201d the announcement read.<\/p>\n