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Jun 30, 2025
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2025-2026 University Catalog
2025-2026 General Education at CWU
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 Return to: Degrees Offered (listed by degree)
General Education Program Guiding Philosophy
The General Education program prepares you for success at CWU and as a citizen in our dynamic, diverse, and global society. The program fosters integrated learning, enhancing your ability to make connections across courses and disciplines and to apply a breadth of knowledge to real-world problems. It will help you develop skills in critical thinking, clear communication, creative leadership, ethical decision-making, and complex problem solving. Combined with your major, the General Education program will cultivate curiosity, empower personal development, strengthen understanding of and respect for diverse perspectives, and build a foundation for life-long learning.
General Education Program-Level Goals
Explore: You will explore a breadth of knowledge, methods of inquiry and reasoning, and fundamental questions. That process will cultivate curiosity, facilitate the understanding of diverse perspectives, empower personal development and growth, and build a foundation for life-long learning.
Engage: As you engage with new knowledge, people, and perspectives, you will assume responsibility for your learning. In the process, you will develop enhanced communication-written and spoken-and critical thinking skills grounded in logic, reason, analysis, and synthesis. Combining these skills will enable you to employ multiple approaches to complex and real-world problems. As an engaged citizen, you will bring intellectual creativity and curiosity into your personal, civic, and professional life.
Connect: You will discover how disciplines, societal challenges, and cultures are interconnected. This process links coursework and community, local and global issues, past and present. Your ability to integrate learning will lead to new ways of thinking, analyzing, and interacting with our dynamic and diverse world.
Create: Your knowledge and skills will empower you to ask innovative questions and envision unique projects. This process of creative engagement will enable inquisitiveness and original thinking. It will provide you with agility for success in your career and life.
Empathize: Your General Education will facilitate open-mindedness and enable you to better understand and imagine others’ experiences. As you become more knowledgeable and curious about the world, you will develop respect for diverse points of view, engage in ethical decision-making, and demand and demonstrate compassionate leadership.
General Education Program Learner Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:
- Apply quantitative and qualitative methods to describe, analyze, and solve problems.
- Determine when information is needed and be able to locate, evaluate, and effectively use it situationally, responsibly, and ethically.
- Assess the relevance and strength of claims in written texts, visual media and/or other forms of discourse
- Communicate well-reasoned ideas effectively using a variety of methods and genres appropriate to purpose, audience, and context
- Develop knowledge and skills in a practical context and/or environment
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I. Engage: First-Year Experience Credits: 9-10
Students are required to take one course in each row (Academic Writing I and Quantitative Reasoning, approximately 9-10 credits) during their first year. Academic Writing, I: Critical Reading and Responding Credits: (5)
Academic Writing I prepares students with the skills necessary for critical reading and academic writing, including summarizing, reading sources critically and responding to them, synthesizing multiple perspectives, and using academic writing conventions, including grammar and mechanics. Students must take an appropriate assessment before enrolling in an Academic Writing I course. Students may enroll in ENG 101A Stretch Academic Writing A after self-assessment or if they did not achieve the appropriate assessment. For ENG 101B Stretch Academic Writing B the pre-requisite is completion of ENG 101A with a D- or higher. If taking ENG 101A and ENG 101B Stretch Academic Writing students must complete both A and B. In order to enroll in Academic Writing II, students must complete Academic Writing I or ENG 101B with a C- or higher. Quantitative Reasoning Credits: (4-5)
Courses in this category focus on quantitative reasoning and its application. Students will explore various quantitative and statistical processes in order to evaluate and interpret data. Students will develop the ability to identify, analyze, and apply different principles and empirical methods to concrete problems. Students must achieve an appropriate assessment resulting in eligibility for MATH 101 or successfully complete MATH 100B with a grade of C or higher. II. Explore and Connect Credits: 32-40
These courses can be taken any year. Knowledge Areas
Students must take one (1) course in each of the eight (8) Knowledge Areas. A student may take courses from the same department in no more than two (2) knowledge areas. The eight (8) knowledge areas are: K1-Academic Writing II; K2-Community, Culture, and Citizenship; K3-Creative Expression; K4-Global Dynamics; K5-Humanities; K6-Individual and Society; K7-Physical and Natural World; and K8-Science and Technology. **Departments with multiple prefixes in the Knowledge Areas: Curriculum, Supervision and Educational Leadership = ASP, EFC;
Education, Development, Teaching and Learning = EDBL, EDEC, EDLT;
Engineering Technologies, Safety, and Construction = CMGT, EET, ETSC, SHM;
English = ENG, HUM;
Environmental Studies = ENST, SUST;
Family and Consumer Sciences = ATM, CDFS;
Finance and Supply Chain Management = BUS, FIN;
Geography = GEOG, IEM;
Health Sciences = EXSC, NUTR, PUBH;
Information Technology Management = ADMG, IT;
Management Department = ENTP, HRM, MGT, MKT;
Philosophy and Comparative Religion = PHIL, RELS;
Sport and Movement Studies = DNCE, HED;
Science and Mathematics Education = SCED, STP;
World Languages Department = CHIN, FR, GERM, KRN, RUSS, SPAN, WLC Themes
The Themes are intended to excite and engage students in their General Education experience and help them draw connections between different disciplines and perspectives on a given topic. Courses in the Themes will provide opportunities to draw connections to ideas from other courses and experiences in the Theme. The six (6) themes are: Civic and Community Engagement; Health and Well-Being; Perspectives on Current Issues; Social Justice; Sustainability; Ways of Knowing. Knowledge Areas (8 courses, 8 knowledge areas)
All students must take one course in each of the areas of knowledge. A student may take courses from the same department in no more than 2 knowledge areas. K1 - Academic Writing, II: Critical Reading and Responding
The Academic Writing II courses prepare students with skills in research-based academic argument through assignments involving evaluation, analysis, and synthesis of multiple sources. Individual sections will be linked to specific pathway topics. Students must achieve a C- or higher in Academic Writing I prior to taking Academic Writing II. K2 - Community, Culture, and Citizenship
The community, culture, and citizenship perspective engages students with historic and contemporary political, ethical, cultural, socioeconomic, and other emerging issues affecting society. By grappling with the intersection of social concerns, students will learn how societies are created and how to contribute to them as effective citizens. K3 - Creative Expression
The creative expression perspective allows students to explore aesthetic expression and artistic perspectives on common themes in the literary and fine arts. K4 - Global Dynamics
The global dynamics perspective focuses on how individuals, groups, communities, and nations function in a global society. Students will gain a cultural awareness and sensitivity that prepares them for citizenship in a diverse, global society by developing an understanding of how culture shapes human experience, an appreciation for diverse worldviews, and an awareness of the complexity of the interactions among local, regional, national, and global systems. K5 - Humanities
The humanities perspective focuses on helping students interpret their world, culture, and perspectives through the study of philosophical, literary, and historical forms. K6 - Individual and Society
The individual and society perspective focuses on the relationship between people and their socialization. Students will be exposed to connections between behaviors, perspectives, psychology, and influences affecting everyday life. K7 - Physical and Natural World
This Physical and Natural World perspective introduces the core practice of science: generating testable explanations. Students will be introduced to fundamental scientific concepts and will engage in scientific practices. K8 - Science and Technology
The science and technology perspective focuses on scientific inquiry, intersections with technology, mathematical applications, and connections to the world around us. |
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