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| ACADEMIC ADVISING |
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Core Curriculum
In promoting this integration of knowledge, a specific part of a Catholic University’s task is to promote dialogue between faith and reason, so that it can be seen more profoundly how faith and reason bear witness to the unity of all truth …a vital interaction of two distinct levels of coming to know the one truth leads to a greater love for truth itself, and contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the meaning of human life and of the purpose of God’s creation.
–Ex Corde Ecclesiae, 17
The founders of the University of St. Thomas stated clearly that their objective was to fashion an institution that would prepare men and women for life. Neither they nor their successors excluded professional training and education from the curriculum. They admitted, however, in the first University catalog, that their educational ideal was “primarily cultural.” They sought “the education of the whole man and his preparation for life on all human levels as opposed to a restricted professional formation.”
All students at the University of St. Thomas study literature, history, mathematics, natural science, a foreign language, social science, communication skills (speaking, writing) and fine arts. Liberal education should include at least some appreciation of these areas of study. Unlike those attending many similar institutions, our students, regardless of their religion (and all are welcome), must also must also engage in extensive study of both theology and philosophy. The first University catalog stated that “the University of St. Thomas gives the place of honor to theology as queen of the sciences.” In so doing, the University is reaffirming the traditional practice of the Church in her university program, since Pope Gregory IX issued the charter of the University of Paris in 1232, the first in the Christian West. According to that tradition, “religious truth is not merely a portion of general knowledge, but its very condition.” Philosophy was, and is, viewed as complementing theology by responding to the deepest questions posed by our minds as we seek to understand our relation to God, nature, time and culture.
The breadth provided by the core curriculum better prepares our students for their chosen major programs and their professions. The earliest University catalogs, including the first one, for the 1947 inaugural year, cited a passage from the writings of Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890) to explain the objectives of the University of St. Thomas:
Here, then, I conceive, is the object of the Holy See and the Catholic Church in setting up universities; it is to reunite things which were in the beginning joined together by God, and have been put asunder by man. It will not satisfy me, what satisfies so many, to have two independent systems, intellectual and religious, going at once side by side, by a sort of division of labor, and only accidentally brought together. It will not satisfy me, if religion is here and science there, and young men converse with science all day long and lodge with religion in the evening. I wish the intellect to range with the utmost freedom, and religion to enjoy an equal freedom, but what I am stipulating is, that they should be found in one and the same place, and exemplified in the same persons.
– Sermon I, Sermons on Various Occasions
The core curriculum is the foundation of the University’s liberal education, in its extent and interconnections a program of studies that forms and informs minds, attempting to liberate them from ignorance of essential truths about human existence, accomplishments, and dignity. Shared by all students, this curriculum is the principal means by which the University imparts its core values and carries out its combined moral, intellectual, and religious mission.
Following are the goals of the core curriculum approved by the University in the year 2004:
- To promote the pursuit of knowledge both for its own sake and to form habits of mind through which knowledge can mature into wisdom and understanding can stimulate the contemplation of truth, goodness, and beauty.
- To educate the whole person – academically, socially, and spiritually – in order to prepare students for meaningful lives and inspire them to continuous learning that confronts essential and enduring questions about the meaning and conduct of human life.
- To encourage an ongoing dialogue between faith and reason and the encounter between culture and the Gospel as ways of integrating knowledge, achieving an organic vision of reality, and deepening an understanding of God and His revelation in the person of Jesus Christ as mediated through Scripture and the Church.
- To affirm the dignity of the human person as the source of social justice, respect for human rights, and regard for the proper interests of communities.
- To develop competence in critical thinking, critical reading, effective writing, and oral communication in necessary relation to the skills of gathering, interpreting, synthesizing, and presenting information with integrity and clarity.
- To understand the bearing of the past on the present and the future and to appreciate the historical character of human inquiry in exploring the principal philosophical, religious, political, literary, and aesthetic traditions of Western and world culture.
- To cultivate a critical appreciation of art and literature that arouses wonder and forms the imagination in its engagement with the enduring cultural and spiritual values inherent in great works of human creativity.
- To develop aptitude in quantitative reasoning together with knowledge of the methodology of the natural and social sciences in order to foster appreciation of scientific thinking for understanding nature and human behavior.
- To inculcate ethical thinking in judging conduct and reflecting on the moral implications of developments in science, technology, business, and society in order to promote making decisions on the basis of transcendent moral values.
- To nurture the study and appreciation of other languages and cultures as a means of promoting charity, understanding, and respect for the diversity of cultural forms, religious beliefs, and social practices; and, in all, to help prepare students for a life of service in a culturally diverse and changing world.
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