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ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
Birmingham-Southern College Catalog 2016-2017
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performing arts events, and those presentations by invited speakers to the College that
have been approved by the Committee on Curriculum and Standards.
(7) Residency: complete at least two years of work (18 units, including two Exploration
terms) at Birmingham-Southern College. A student who has transferred to the College
from another institution must complete at least five units in his or her major discipline,
and, if declaring a minor, earn at least half of the required units at Birmingham-Southern
College.
If a student has completed the requirements for one baccalaureate degree at Birmingham-
Southern College, he or she must earn at least eight regular units and one Exploration
term unit of additional credit in residence at the College, and must satisfy all
requirements for graduation, in order to complete a second baccalaureate degree.
Completion of two majors alone does not warrant the awarding of two separate degrees to
graduating students.
(8) Discharge all obligations and college duties.
Explorations Curriculum Requirements
The Explorations curriculum at Birmingham-Southern College emphasizes what students
will be able to do as a result of their education. In our view, students who successfully
complete a program in the liberal arts from Birmingham-Southern College will be able to
do the following:
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communicate effectively
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solve problems creatively
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engage their social and political world
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connect their coursework to the wider world
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engage in self-directed teaching and learning
These five values embody a liberal arts educational experience and cannot be
accomplished through any one discipline or by any one academic area. Many areas share
similar approaches or examine similar content; at the same time, disciplines and areas of
study are different precisely because they study different materials and approach those
materials with different methods.
These similarities and differences in content and methods, we believe, provide generative
ground for purposeful exploration and renewed insight. Learning in a liberal arts context
is a creative endeavor, one that is best understood as an exploration, whether that
exploration addresses ongoing problems considered for many millennia or identifies new,
emerging problems unique to citizens of the twenty-first century.
Because we assume these five values require familiarity with the knowledge accumulated
in and the methodologies employed by multiple disciplines, students in the Explorations
curriculum are expected to explore a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary
approaches. Likewise, we invite students to seek out connections between the coursework