By Nate West
News Editor
St. Bonaventure and Clare College are teaming up to give students more options when registering for classes.
Stars and Stellar Systems (PHSC 106) can be taken in place of Inquiry in the Natural World. Human Development and Learning (EDU 210) can be taken in place of Inquiry in the Social World, according to David DiMattio, dean of Clare College.
“We want students to feel like they have a choice,” DiMattio said.
Clare College consists of 12 courses, two of which are skills courses: Composition and Critical Thinking I and II. They’re called skills courses because they give you the skills necessary for college, DiMattio said.
Of the 10 remaining, four are what DiMattio calls the “core of the core”: The Intellectual Journey, Catholic-Franciscan Heritage, The Good Life and University Forum.
“The reason we call them the core of the core is because they map onto two concepts,” DiMattio said. “They map onto the fact that St. Bonaventure is a liberal arts institution, so it’s teaching you skills that the liberal arts believe in. They also try to flirt with the concept of us being a Catholic-Franciscan institution.”
The six remaining courses are the core area courses: Inquiry in the Natural World, Inquiry in the Social World, World Views, Arts and Literature, Foundational Religious Texts of the Western World and Foundations of the Western World.
Several Clare courses can be fulfilled by taking other courses outside of Clare College.
Foundations of the Western World can be fulfilled through:
• Greek Civilization
• Roman Civilization
• Europe to 1815
• Europe since 1815
• United States History to 1815*
• United States History since 1815*
Inquiry in the Social World:
• American Politics
• Politics of Social Policy*
• Introduction to Psychology
• Introductory Sociology
• Microeconomic Principles*
• Macroeconomic Principles*
• Human Development and Learning
World Views:
• World History to 1450
• World History since 1450
• Introduction to International Studies
• Introduction to Cross Cultural Communication
Arts and Literature:
• Understanding Music
• Introduction to the Theater
• Arts and its Appreciation
• Greek and Roman Mythology*
• Literature for Elementary Grades*
The courses marked with an asterisk require a substitution form and only apply to courses taught in the Fall 2012 semester and/or the Spring 2013 semester.
The new courses are for next semester only, according to DiMattio. Students cannot grandfather them in.
“We worked with instructors to change the existing course to meet Clare requirements. In order for a course to sit in the core area, each one of those syllabi includes what we call the course objectives,” DiMattio said. “That’s the similar thread between them, at least from a Clare College perspective.”
