Core Curriculum Clarification (2016)
MEMORANDUM
To: All Faculty
From: Kevin W. Whitaker, Interim Provost
Subject: Core Curriculum Clarification
Date: January 25, 2016
In the 1994-97 time frame, the state’s Articulation and General Studies Committee (AGSC) was formed pursuant to Legislative Act 94-202 and charged with developing (1) a statewide freshman- and sophomore-level general studies curriculum, and (2) a statewide articulation agreement for the freshman and sophomore years addressing the transfer of credit among all public institutions of higher education in Alabama. The core areas developed by the AGSC for the general studies curriculum were: written composition; humanities and fine arts; natural sciences and mathematics and history, social and behavioral sciences.
In November 1997, UA faculty voted to add requirements to the AGSC-developed general studies curriculum for UA students. The two items approved by that vote were:
Since 1997, operational interpretation of the law creating the AGSC has changed. Although UA must accept for core credit those courses approved by the AGSC, UA is not prevented from offering campus-approved core-designated courses for its students. As a result of conversations with the Core Curriculum Oversight Committee and the Academic Affairs Committee of the Faculty Senate, this memorandum seeks to clarify misunderstanding stemming from that 1997 ballot assumption and officially adopts the policy for UA that our core curriculum is not limited to only courses approved by the state’s Articulation and General Studies Committee. Furthermore, since courses not approved by the state’s AGSC have been approved for the UA core curriculum by either the UA Core Curriculum Oversight Committee or the Office for Academic Affairs for over 15 years, all such designation approvals are hereby retroactively made official.
However, an assumption stated on the 1997 ballot was that while UA was adding new campus-approved core designations, only courses approved by the AGSC would satisfy the core areas of written composition, humanities and fine arts, natural sciences and mathematics, and history, social and behavioral sciences.