TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

Undergraduate Bulletin Updated for 1997-1998

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CORE CURRICULUM

At Temple University, we believe that all undergraduate students need to acquire a set of skills and a body of knowledge that will have lasting value. We believe that the need for this knowledge transcends an individual's chosen area of specialty as well as an individual's career goals. We believe that the different roles each of us may play - as professionals, as parents, as spouses, as informed citizens, and as members of a community - will be enhanced and be more fulfilling when we have both a broader and a deeper understanding of the many factors that influence the conditions of our lives.

Achieving these goals requires a combination of factors. These factors include learning to use language effectively, developing the ability to handle quantitative data, understanding our cultural and political history, developing an understanding of a culture and/or a language other than our own, acquiring an appreciation for the creative arts, and understanding the differences between individual and communal needs.

Core requirements, as they are delineated below, will be completed by all undergraduate students. Highly motivated students, who seek especially challenging courses, may wish to apply for admission to the University Honors Program, which offers special honors courses that meet Core requirements. For further information about Honors, see Special Academic Programs.

The University Core Curriculum is divided into the areas described below. Each area has a list of courses approved as satisfying the requirements for that area. For detailed course descriptions, please see the appropriate department in Course Descriptions. Because all approved courses are not offered every semester, students should consult the current Directory of Classes for available Core courses.

Summary

Credits
Library Orientation 0
Composition 3
Intellectual Heritage 6
American Culture 3
The Arts 3
The Individual and Society 3
Language/International Studies 3-6
Quantitative Reasoning 6-8
Science/Technology 6-8
Studies in Race 3
Three Additional Writing Courses, as needed -

45+ Transfer Core policy

[New policy]

Transfer students admitted to Temple for the fall 1997 and subsequent semesters with 45 or more credits for courses taken elsewhere will complete the requirements of the 45+ TRANSFER CORE version of Temple's Core Curriculum. All of these requirements may be met either with equivalent transfer courses or with Core courses taken at Temple, with the exception of the two Writing-Intensive courses, which must be taken at Temple.

Objectives of the 45+ Transfer Core: Temple University recognizes that students with a substantial number of transfer credits have successfully completed several semesters of college courses at other institutions and thus have made the transition from high school to college. They have had opportunities to develop fundamental academic skills, prepare for more advanced courses, and clarify their academic and career interests. Often they have taken general education courses as directed by another school's general education program. The Temple 45+ Transfer Core is designed to combine the goals of the University's Core Curriculum with recognition of transfer students' prior course work and academic achievements.

Transfer Credits: The 45+ Transfer Core is designed for students who have taken significant numbers of courses elsewhere before entering Temple. All college-level courses considered transferable by the Temple Office of Undergraduate Admissions, including those for which evaluation is not complete until after the student begins at Temple, will be counted toward the 45 credit minimum, when they meet either of the following sets of conditions.

1) For students new to Temple: The courses have been taken elsewhere before the student matriculates at Temple.

2) For readmitted students: 45 or more transferable credits have been taken elsewhere since the student's last date of enrollment at Temple and before the date of the student's return to Temple. In both cases, courses taken at Temple as a non-matriculated student do not count as transfer courses, and courses taken elsewhere by students once they are at Temple, with the permission of the student's Temple school or college, receive transfer credit but are not counted toward the 45+ Transfer Core.

45+ Transfer Core Policies:

1) Transfer students should be aware that this Core policy relates only to University Core requirements. All the requirements of Temple's schools and colleges and major programs of study remain in force and are not affected by this policy, including any that involve Core courses but differ from the University Core Curriculum requirements. Students should consult the Temple Undergraduate Bulletin and their academic advisers about school/college and major requirements. 2) Regular Temple Core policies apply to these requirements and the courses they involve unless otherwise stipulated above. For example, it is still the case that:

Important Core Policies

Core Course Numbering

The course number provides important information about a course, including whether or not it receives Core credit and, in some cases, which Core requirement it meets. Because some courses exist in several Core versions, or in Core and non-Core versions, students should pay careful attention to course numbers and to which version of a course they take.

Numbers for courses that meet Core requirements begin with the letters "C," "R," "W," or "X." Those prefixes, along with the two-letter Required Course Indicator (RCI), provide information on the Core area a given course will meet.

C Satisfies a requirement in one of the Core areas except Studies in Race and Writing-Intensive.
R Satisfies the Studies in Race requirement, and may also fulfill another Core requirement, as indicated in the RCI.
W Satisfies a Writing-Intensive requirement.
X Satisfies a requirement in one of the Core areas, and also satisfies a Writing-Intensive requirement. Courses numbered in the 0090's or 0190's are Honors Core courses.
RCI Course Requirement(s) Fulfilled
AC American Culture
AR The Arts
CO Composition
IA, IB Intellectual Heritage
IN The Individual and Society
IS International Studies
LA, LB Language
QA Quantitative Reasoning, First Level
QB Quantitative Reasoning, Second Level
RC Studies in Race and Composition
RS Studies in Race
SA Science and Technology, First Level
SB Science and Technology, Second Level
WI Writing-intensive
WR Studies in Race and Writing- intensive
XA The Arts, Studies in Race, and Writing-intensive
XC American Culture, Studies in Race, and Writing-intensive
XN The Individual and Society, Studies in Race, and Writing-intensive
XS International Studies, Studies in Race, and Writing-intensive

Core Areas

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