Since 1990, general education competencies define the basic academic skills all graduating students should possess upon completion of their studies. Arts and Sciences students achieve these skills as they move through their required and distribution courses. Professional technical students achieve them in the required courses. Students learn the core knowledge of each program and discipline as they take courses in these areas.
I. Communications Competencies
- Comprehend, identify, and distinguish among the following when reading: main ideas, opinions, facts, inferences, ambiguities, assertions, conclusions, and supporting materials
- Communicate in writing for a variety of purposes and audiences
- Speak effectively
- Listen actively and respond to different audiences
II. Quantitative Reasoning Competencies
- Manipulate numbers (large and small), use common measurement systems, and solve simple linear algebraic problems
- Apply basic computational skills to practical applications
- Recognize functional relationships between and among measurable phenomena
- Apply systematic approaches and logic to solving quantitative problems
- Translate mathematical symbols into words and words into mathematical symbols
III. Information Competencies
- Recognize and formulate an information need
- Find, access, and retrieve information
- Select and reject information within the context of a specific information need
- Evaluate the credibility of information and information sources
- Synthesize and apply information to meet an identified need
- Use basic computer applications
IV. Critical Thinking Competencies
- Identify and troubleshoot problems
- Collect and apply data to solve problems
- Formulate, test, and evaluate potential solutions
- Recognize how individual perspectives and values influence critical thinking
V. Personal & Interpersonal Competencies
- Recognize the importance of accepting ownership for one’s own learning
- Work cooperatively and collaboratively with others
- Function under conditions of ambiguity, uncertainty, and conflict
- Recognize that humans influence, are influenced by, and are dependent upon larger environmental systems: physical, biological, and social