Distribution Lists

A democracy is dependent upon an informed and articulate citizenry. Effective oral and written communication consistently appears on polls showing desired attributes and core competencies of prospective employees. Students who are competent communicators and who understand the presence and influence of media in their lives and the lives of others will flourish in our world.

Insights gained through the study of contemporary social issues take on a critical significance at a time when the world’s population is increasing rapidly and diverse societies and cultures are coming into closer contact, and in some cases, with intensifying conflict. Questions of class, civil society, gender, public health, justice, and identity continue to be pervasive in societies around the world today. Various methods of inquiry test for connections between the familiar and the exotic, the traditional and the contemporary, and the individual and the group.

Engaged Learning courses will “educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service” in keeping with the mission of Baylor University by helping students develop skills to orient and apply their classroom learning toward broader public goods. This will occur through learning that is active, experiential, often unscripted, and oriented toward the common good, allowing students to discover and apply knowledge in spaces beyond the traditional classroom.

These courses will focus on the creative process by enabling students to generate original artistic work (“doing” art) and/or by exploring the artistic work of others (examining “how art is done”).

Since Baylor’s mission is to “educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service,” it is essential that graduates be able to demonstrate proficiency in a second language.

Courses on this list will teach students how to reason formally either via mathematics, statistics, or logic and critical thinking.

Students study literature in its historical or social context to gain insight into the connections between literature and society, enabling rich interdisciplinary conversations. Students will apply the learned skills to a specific body of literature to contemplate how language and culture enact discussions of issues such as the natural and supernatural world; power and knowledge; and groupings of race, religion, ethnicity, class, and gender.

Students will learn and practice writing and research skills integral to academic, civic, professional or technical pursuits.

Introductory courses in science that focuses on the core concepts of scientific literacy. The course will integrate methods of discovery and examples of data-driven decision making into lectures. The laboratory portion will emphasize problem-based or inquiry-based learning.

The Grand Challenges in Science course will introduce students to a major global challenge in science from a multi-disciplinary approach. The “Grand Challenges” addressed in these courses should be topics that are compelling for both intellectual and practical reasons, that deal with roadblocks for progress in a field, and that will deliver significant payoff when progress is made.