Foundations Plan for General Education

In the fall of 2001, the faculty of Birmingham-Southern College adopted the following graduation requirements in general education to go into effect with the entering class, September 2001. The goals of this new program are to promote academic and intellectual engagement on the class, campus, and civic community level, as well as to promote scholarship, skills, and habits of mind that will lead to life-long learning.

“Foundations”

A plan for general education at Birmingham-Southern College

At Birmingham-Southern College, we believe that a liberal arts education is the foundation for life-long learning, and a foundational understanding of a breadth of scholarly disciplines forms the fundamental core of that education. This belief is the organizing principle of our liberal arts curriculum. The curriculum at Birmingham-Southern College is taught through academic disciplines. These disciplines, however, are not completely distinct. Many disciplines share common methodologies or are constructed around a common body of knowledge.

We recognize this fact by grouping the academic disciplines at Birmingham-Southern College into six broad areas:

behavioral and social sciences,
business,
education,
fine and performing arts,
humanities, and
mathematics and natural, physical & computer sciences.

While we teach our curriculum through these disciplines, the ideal goal of a liberal arts education is an integration of knowledge and understanding gained through them. Moreover, we recognize that some important concepts, especially scholarship, cross all disciplines.

The college's intentions for general education are explained in the General Education Goals and Integrated Studies statements that precede the Foundations requirements in the catalog and serve as its basis. Click Here to link to the BSC College Catalog Edition Index.