General Studies AA: Studies in Humanities, Arts, Communication, and Languages Area of Concentration (HACL Core): 611A

: 611A

General Studies focuses on developing knowledge and skills across traditional disciplinary boundaries resulting in an interdisciplinary cornerstone for academic and career pursuits. A General Studies major allows you to develop a path for transfer into a variety of majors or that will enhance your career competitiveness and further your academic and personal goals. General Studies has flexible program requirements within core areas that encourage you to synthesize knowledge and approaches on inquiry from various disciplines allowing you to bring creative, multi-disciplinary problem-solving, and critical thinking approaches to a range of modern problems.

The General Studies degree is a flexible curriculum that fosters intentional exploration of academic and career goals through academic coursework and supportive advising. Using interdisciplinary application of practical and intellectual skills through General Education courses and your selected core area of focus, the General Studies program creates a flexible, integrated framework for you  to engage in complex problems related your chosen focus of study while promoting specific disciplinary content and skills. The General Studies program promotes personal responsibility and civic engagement by providing an academic framework in which you will explore contemporary and enduring questions, integrate learning across disciplines, and develop knowledge, skills, and motivation to frame issues and questions presented in the academic experience in the context of a broader community. This program can be completed either on campus or online.

In the Humanities, Arts, Communications, and Languages area, you will select courses and build a degree that will allow you to transfer in a specific area of study, such as English, World Languages, Philosophy, History, and Film or to build an interdisciplinary academic foundation in traditional humanities, arts, communication, or languages. Additionally, this area allows you to develop broad and deep communication, interdisciplinary creative problem-solving, and critical thinking skills as you cultivate teamwork and leadership expertise, all highly valued proficiencies in academic fields and the workforce.

In this core, students will develop an intentional academic plan that reflects personal, academic, and career goals emphasizing the following discipline areas or individual courses:

• Art (ARTT)
• Dance (DANC)
• English (ENGL)
• Film (FILM)
• History (HIST)
• Linguistics (LING)
• Music (MUSC)
• Philosophy (PHIL)
• Speech (COMM)
• Theatre (THET)
• World Languages (ARAB, ASLP, CHIN, FREN, GERM, HIND, ITAL, JAPN, KORA, LATN, RUSS, PORT, SPAN)

Students may elect to take any of the following individual courses as part of their core requirements to enhance their selected academic focus; however, transferability of these courses should be carefully reviewed:

• Graphic Design (GDES 116 , GDES 134 )
• Interior Design (IDES 101 , IDES 211 ) 
• Integrated Studies (ISTD 173 )
• Photography (PHOT 161 )
• Television and Radio (TVRA 134 )

General Degree Requirements

In order to complete this degree, students must:

   1.   complete a minimum of 60 credit hours including:

• 3 credits for ENGL 101  if needed for ENGL 102 /ENGL 103 , or select an elective.
• 31 credit hours of General Education program requirements
  • Two General Education institutional requirement (GEIR) courses are required from the following General Education courses: COMM, HLTH, or one ARTD or HUMD. Students may only take one course from ARTD or HUMD to fulfill General Education institutional requirements (GEIR).
  • One global and cultural perspectives designated course as part of their General Education program
• 15 credits in HACL core courses with a minimum of 3 credit hours at the 200-level
• up to 11 elective credit hours as needed to complete 60 credit hours

   2.  complete a minimum of 15 credit hours at the 200-level with at least 3 credits at the 200-level from the HACL core:

• ENGL 102 , ENGL 103 , COMM 108 , and COMM 112  are not eligible for HACL core requirements if used for General Education foundation requirements. ENGL 101  and ENGL 110  cannot be used to meet HACL core requirements.

   3.   have a 2.0 GPA or higher:

• ENGL 102  or ENGL 103  must have a grade of C or better required to graduate.