Liberal Arts Core Overview

As an arts and sciences with professions institution with a strong focus on the liberal arts, Olivet College has a unique curriculum that makes use of unique delivery methods. Core components of the Olivet Plan are noted in detail in the Academic Catalog. The Liberal Arts Core component of the Olivet Plan will shape your education from the moment you begin your studies at Olivet College. The following bullet points accentuate the important curricular components of the Liberal Arts Core. You may be enrolling in several of the following courses during your first semester at Olivet.

Liberal arts concentration requirements infuse the concept of Education for Individual and Social Responsibility throughout the curriculum to maximize student achievement of college-wide learning outcomes. The Liberal Arts Core consists of a sequence of required courses providing common learning and shared experiences for all undergraduates.

The Liberal Arts Concentration plan consists of eleven core courses that link skills, viewpoints, learning outcomes, and competencies with Olivet's academic vision of Education for Individual and Social Responsibility.

Thematically linked courses are delivered through a variety of formats and teaching/learning styles including integrated, cross-disciplinary teams, and collaborative teaching. Active and integrative learning are key features throughout the LAC.

Liberal Arts Core courses include:

• Self and Community: A one-semester course in which students are engaged in self-evaluation, the process of socialization, and the study of acculturation. Through pedagogies and topics derived from the Olivet College Compact, Self and Community focuses on individuals and the ways in which individuals fit within larger societies.
  
  
• Writing and Rhetoric I and II: Developing effective writing skills is the main focus of these courses. Reading, speaking and listening are approached as skills necessary in the communication process and in the process of critical thinking from which writing is developed.
  
  
• Creative Experience: Literature, music, theatre, and visual art contribute to the Creative Experience requirement. Creative Experience courses require students to immerse themselves in creative activities in disciplines derived from the core curricula of medieval universities. Current Creative Experience offerings include: ART 105 – Drawing Skills Lab, ART 107 – Visual Foundations, ENG 145 – Intro to Creative Writing, ENG 245 – Fiction Writing, ENG 247 – Poetry Writing, MUS 150 – College Choir, MUS 160 – Wind Ensemble, MUS 162 – Jazz Band, THR EXP – Musical, and THR 111 – Acting.
  
  
• Natural World: Hands-on immersion in the natural and physical sciences. The following laboratory science courses satisfy the Natural World requirement: Principles of Biology I or II, Environmental Science, Biological Science, Astronomy, Geology, General Chemistry I, and Physics I. Additional courses satisfying the Natural World requirement are noted in the Academic Catalog.
  
  
• Civilization Studies: A broad examination of issues of individual and social responsibility in world civilizations.

• Mathematics: Students successfully complete a course in Mathematics at the 120 level or higher, or a course in another department which has a substantial quantitative component and has been pre-approved.
  
  
• Global Diversity: The College’s Global Diversity requirement reflects the Olivet commitment to provide a liberal arts education that prepares our students to effectively participate as responsible citizens in a global context. Students choose any six semester hours of courses from a menu of courses which allow them to explore diversity in a global context, including cross-cultural studies, language studies, and immersion experiences in cultures beyond the predominant cultural environment of the United States, as well as explorations of diversity within our pluralistic society.

• Service Learning:  Usually undertaken in the Junior or Senior years, Olivet students will engage in a Service Learning Project that addresses community needs while at the same time instilling in them the ethic of individual and social responsibility. The Service Learning requirement combines first-hand community service experience with careful and extensive reflection on that experience.
  
  
• Senior Experience:  Undertaken in one’s Senior year, the Senior Experience is a culminating educational experience required of every student, ensuring that students will summarize and synthesize four years of undergraduate learning as they prepare for their future. The experience serves to complete a student’s general education and to assist them in making the transition from college.

As the central, shared academic experience, the general education program holistically engages students across disciplines and encourages investigation of self, society and the natural world. It also embraces multiple perspectives, promotes intellectual inquiry and inspires life-long learning. The Liberal Arts Core Curriculum program is designed to deliver an experience rich in diversity, broad in scope and relevant to liberal baccalaureate education of the 21st century. This program is the centerpiece of Olivet’s strategy to prepare students to effectively participate as responsible citizens in an intercultural world.

For more information on the Liberal Arts Core Curriculum, please contact Professor Karen Chaney, Chair of the Liberal Arts Core Program, at 269-749-7726 or kchaney@olivetcollege.edu.

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