UNDERGRADUATE CATALOG

Introduction to UMass Boston — The University

A Community of Scholars

The University of Massachusetts Boston is a community of scholars that prides itself on academic excellence, diversity, and service. A commuter institution, it is a university serving not only its students, but also the greater Boston community, through scholarship and research in many areas of vital importance to urban life. A public university, UMass Boston was founded in 1964 to provide the opportunity for superior undergraduate and graduate education at moderate cost to the people of the Commonwealth and particularly of the greater Boston area. Today it continues to honor that commitment, offering programs responsive to the particular needs and circumstances of its urban constituency. It is a lively place, where daytime and evening classes go on year round, and where studies in a wide range of disciplines are conducted by a truly distinguished faculty.

At UMass Boston, the second-largest campus in the University of Massachusetts system, almost 12,000 students study at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and in its Division of Corporate, Continuing, and Distance Education. With campuses at Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and Worcester, the University of Massachusetts serves 60,000 students and is the largest university system in New England.

Five academic units grant bachelor’s degrees at UMass Boston. The College of Liberal Arts offers students opportunities to prepare themselves for all areas of human endeavor and behavior as well as careers in such fields as education, law, medicine, and government. The College of Science and Mathematics helps students prepare for careers in multiple areas of human endeavor dealing with nature and the relationship of nature to life and non-life communities; these areas include the environment, cell biology, biotechnology, green chemistry, computational physics, bioinformatics, computer science, mathematics, and scientific research in general. The College of Management offers academic preparation for professional managerial careers in commerce, industry, government agencies, and other institutions. The undergraduate curriculum of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences leads to the BS degree in nursing and entry into professional practice; the College’s Department of Exercise and Health Sciences offers students preparation for careers in health care, and exercise physiology. The College of Public and Community Service prepares students for careers in the social services. In cooperation with these five Colleges and under the auspices of the university’s Graduate College of Education, the Teacher Education Program works to provide undergraduates with the opportunity to begin the pursuit of their careers in education.

Despite differences in perspective, the educational programs of all the academic units of the university are similar in principles and requirements. All UMass Boston undergraduates must achieve competence in expository writing and critical thinking. All become familiar with traditional academic disciplines and explore ways of applying those disciplines to their own lives and to the world at large. All prepare themselves, through intensive study in particular fields of learning, for careers or for graduate education. Graduate education at UMass Boston has been an area of dramatic growth over the last decade. The university awards the PhD, the EdD, the Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study, the MA, MBA, MEd, and MS degrees, and several graduate certificates. It offers graduate programs in thirty different fields, including the central liberal arts disciplines, business administration, clinical psychology, education, nursing, and such new or developing areas of study as computer science, environmental sciences, gerontology, green chemistry, and public policy. Further information about these programs may be found in the university’s Graduate Studies Bulletin.

Academic Excellence

UMass Boston could neither grow as a university center nor sustain the excellence of its undergraduate programs without relying on the energy, commitment, and intellectual strength of a superior faculty. While the lists of faculty members and their credentials in this catalogue show the distinction of the teaching staff’s academic training, these lists can only suggest the faculty’s deep involvement in research and scholarship, the extent of their expertise, and the care and innovation they bring to the development of the curriculum. Their ranks include Guggenheim Fellows, Danforth Associates, and a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Program and course descriptions offer a fuller sense of the university’s resources. Undergraduates at UMass Boston can choose from more than one hundred areas of study, ranging from accounting to ancient Greek, computer science to creative writing, gerontology to women’s studies. There are such traditional disciplines as English, history, mathematics, and physics. There are programs that examine single areas from the perspectives of a variety of disciplines—such programs as those in communication, Latin American studies, and the study of religion. Some programs, such as those in biology and medical technology, community planning, exercise physiology, and accounting, offer specific preparation for advanced professional training or careers.

ndergraduates majoring in a number of different areas may also apply for admission to UMass Boston’s University Honors Program, which offers an enriched curriculum and other services to its students. This program was among the first in the state to receive the coveted designation of “Commonwealth Honors Program.” The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education confers this title only on those honors programs that meet the Board’s rigorous academic standards for university-level honors programs.

It has become increasingly important in the contemporary world to understand other cultures and nations, and to speak their languages. The university is taking several steps to enrich its offerings in fields related to international study, particularly by building stronger relationships between language study and the social sciences, and also by increasing opportunities for study abroad.

At a fine university, scholarship and research are respected, and so is the art of teaching. UMass Boston’s faculty members are committed and accomplished teachers: students and their instructors meet in an atmosphere of academic friendship and concern for individual progress. The university’s educational programs invite students to join in the excitement of intellectual exploration and to achieve the satisfactions of personal and professional growth. Academic work at UMass Boston is demanding—and rewarding.

An Accessible University

The university believes that a good education should be available to anyone who has the desire and potential for academic achievement. The cost of attending UMass Boston is moderate, and the university makes every effort, through financial aid and part-time employment programs, to bring its offerings within reach of students in need. Most UMass Boston students must schedule their course work with diverse responsibilities in mind—some students study, hold jobs, and raise families all at once. The university therefore conducts classes between 8:30 am and 10:00 pm, and makes no distinction between daytime and evening courses: the same faculty teaches both. The university also enables matriculated students to carry part-time course loads and to switch easily between full- and part-time study. The off-campus program of the Division of Corporate, Continuing, and Distance Education extends classes outward into the community by offering courses at a variety of off-campus sites in Boston and the suburbs.

To help students get the most from their education at UMass Boston, the university provides a wide spectrum of services, including orientation and placement testing for new students, academic advising, tutorial assistance in specific courses, and career planning. The University Advising Center offers services for all undergraduates, while each College also provides for the needs of its own students. UMass Boston’s faculty and staff are committed to helping individual students live up to their academic potential.

Students need not pursue degrees to take advantage of UMass Boston’s offerings. Non-degree students can enroll in individual courses where space is available, or earn certificates as “certificate students” by completing one- or two-year sequences of course work in a number of fields through a program of study or a career certificate program. High school students can sample university life, while still in high school, by taking introductory courses at UMass Boston through such programs as Flexible Campus, Urban Scholars, and Upward Bound.

Many UMass Boston students have families, jobs, or both. The University operates a fully certified Early Learning Center, with separate toddler and preschool programs, to care for young children while their parents attend classes. Many veterans are students at UMass Boston. Through the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences, the university provides a wide array of services responsive to their needs. These services include help with educational benefits through the Office of Veterans Affairs, academic and personal counseling, and tutorial and advocacy services.

The university is committed to providing equal access and auxiliary aids and reasonable accommodations to persons with physical and learning disabilities. For the many students with disabilities, the Lillian Semper Ross Center for Disability Services, the University Advising Center, and the Adaptive Computer Lab work together to provide the accommodations and auxiliary aids students may need to have equal access to education at UMass Boston.

The university was built as a totally accessible campus, and renovations and remodeling efforts have always been in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Ross Center provides students with sign language interpreting services and assisted listening devices; testing modifications; and a variety of study aids according to their individual needs. The Center also houses peer support clubs and the Council for Students with Learning Disabilities.

Informational admissions seminars are offered weekly at UMass Boston, and the Office of Admissions regularly sends staff members throughout metropolitan Boston to discuss educational opportunities with parents and students. The Admissions Office provides thoughtful counseling, useful information, and prompt admissions decisions to all students interested in attending the university.

Connecting with Other Cultures

Because Boston has a truly international population, the university conducts a program in English as a Second Language to help those who are native speakers of such languages as Spanish, Greek, Chinese, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, Vietnamese, and the languages of Africa to progress smoothly through the course work of an American university. Special counselors are available to serve the needs of Spanish-speaking students and Vietnamese-speaking students. In addition, the division of Corporate, Continuing, and Distance Education offers ESL in Boston, which entitles the student to an educational visa status (I-20) while enrolled.
The changing demographics of the US population suggest that to be truly educated and function effectively in a changing world, each of us should be able to understand a wide variety of people and their cultures. The university believes that the explicit study of the diversity of the world’s peoples is an essential component of an undergraduate education. UMass Boston has therefore required all undergraduates to take one or more courses that address human diversity as a major theme.
The study of cultural and social groups previously marginalized or ignored in the curriculum is of great value to all students. It strengthens their academic preparation by exposing them to a rich body of scholarship from a wide range of disciplines. Such study also helps them acquire the analytical tools and knowledge they need to understand human diversity in a complex and changing world.

The university’s broad definition of diversity includes race, gender, culture (national origin, ethnicity, religion), social class, age, sexual orientation, and disability.

Campus Interchange

As a member of the five-campus University of Massachusetts system, UMass Boston participates in interchanges with the other undergraduate campuses—at Amherst, Dartmouth, and Lowell—which enable students to transfer freely from one campus to another on a temporary or permanent basis as appropriate to their academic needs. And under a restructured President’s Office, the university is exploring additional kinds of collaboration that will make resources and programs within the system available to students on every campus. Accordingly, undergraduates at UMass Boston can expect new opportunities for connections with their peers throughout the University of Massachusetts system.

Commuting and Housing

UMass Boston is a commuter school. Parking space is available for moderate cost at the campus in underground garages and outdoor lots. Both the MBTA Red Line and the Old Colony lines of the commuter rail stop at the JFK/UMass MBTA station. Free shuttle buses run between the station and the campus.
The university wants students to be at home at UMass Boston. Many students commute from their home communities, while others utilize the free computerized Housing Referral Service for assistance with finding rental property and/or roommates.

A University with Impressive Facilities

UMass Boston offers fine facilities for learning and relaxation in a handsome array of buildings on a peninsula three miles south of downtown Boston.

The Healey Library

The university’s Joseph P Healey Library is centrally located on the campus plaza, and is easily accessible from the enclosed walkway connecting all campus buildings. Its study environment includes four levels of carrels and tables.

The Healey Library houses more than 600,000 carefully selected volumes and currently receives 600 print journal subscriptions, over 25,000 electronic journal titles, 81 databases, and holds over 800,000 microfilm units. The library also maintains a collection of government documents, microform publications, and electronic databases. The library’s catalogue is available at workstations in the Main Reference Room (4th floor), 5th, 6th, and 7th floor computers, or from any workstation with access to the Internet.

The Healey Library Internet home page (www.lib.umb.edu) provides access to its catalogue; to the catalogues of other libraries; to databases that index newspapers, magazines, and journals (some of which may be full-text), to email reference services, and to the worldwide web.

These resources support UMass Boston’s programs at every level. Library staff provides instruction on the use of resources in the collection. Students, faculty and staff also benefit from the university’s membership in the Boston Library Consortium and the Fenway Library Consortium. In addition, they have access to the libraries at all Massachusetts state-supported colleges, community colleges, and university campuses. These alliances offer access to over 50 academic and research libraries in the greater Boston area and beyond.

Research Facilities

University students have access to fine research equipment. The science departments, for example, maintain both teaching laboratories and research laboratories in which students can join with faculty in pursuing full-scale research projects. Biology students can make use of such facilities as electron microscopes and the university’s tropical greenhouses and can work at several field stations. Physics students can study in the university’s magnetics laboratory or explore the heavens through a telescope housed in an observatory atop the Healey Library.

Computer Connections

Both teaching and research at UMass Boston benefit from the extensive facilities coordinated by the university’s Office of Computing Services. This office provides a variety of information technology and data communications resources to the UMass Boston community, with network connections in every office and classroom on the campus. The campus network is fiber-optic based with ATM protocol. Multiple transmission facilities are maintained, providing access to the University of Massachusetts private network, and to the Internet. A central computing facility houses equipment from Data General, Dell, Compaq, Sun, and Apple. Operating systems provided in this environment include NT, Unix (various versions), Linux, Apple OS, and VMS. Students have access to 15 general desktop computing labs with more than 250 Dell Pentium III and Apple Macintosh G4s, seven days a week. Additional, specialized computing facilities are provided to students enrolled in specific courses of study, and for those with special needs.

Campus Center

The new Campus Center, opened in March 2004, houses student services and activities, dining facilities, a conference center and function rooms, and academic support services. Students can take advantage of The One Stop for their registration, financial aid, and other enrollment-related needs.

The Clark Center

Home to the first US presidential debate of election year 2000, the Catherine Forbes Clark Athletic and Recreation Center is open to the public, as well as to all UMass Boston students, and provides a large gymnasium accommodating some 3,500 spectators at basketball games and other public events. There is also a hockey rink seating 1,000, and a swimming/diving pool fully equipped for intercollegiate competition. Among the other athletic resources available to UMass Boston students, faculty, and staff are a fitness center, and special equipment for dance, gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, martial arts, weight training, and therapeutic exercise. Outdoor facilities include playing fields, tennis courts, and an eight-lane, 400-meter running track, as well as a small fleet of sailboats and rowing dories.

Distinguished Neighbors

Sharing the peninsula with UMass Boston is the John F Kennedy Presidential Library, a public institution established to preserve and make available the documents and memorabilia of President Kennedy and his contemporaries in politics and government. The Library building, designed by IM Pei, has become a Boston landmark. The JFK Library shares its impressive archival resources with UMass Boston students and their instructors through a series of educational programs. An equally impressive range of research opportunities is provided by the university’s other peninsula neighbor, the nearby Massachusetts Archives and Commonwealth Museum.

A University for Students

UMass Boston has two student publications: The Mass Media, a campus newspaper, and The Watermark, a literary magazine. The Harbor Art Gallery and the Wit’s End Café are student-operated. Movies, concerts, and other cultural events are presented free or at minimal cost by student organizations. A large number of student organizations are officially recognized by the Department of Student Life. The Department’s staff administers more than one million dollars in trust funds for student activities, following the recommendations of the Student Senate. Students also share responsibility for the well-being of the university as a whole, serving in the university-wide Student Senate, in governance bodies at individual Colleges, and on the university’s Board of Trustees.

UMass Boston students can extend their educational experiences beyond the campus in many ways. Students in the College of Public and Community Service pursue field-based learning as part of the College’s curriculum; students in the other colleges often participate in cooperative education or internship programs. UMass Boston students can earn credit for study at more than 150 American universities under the National Student Exchange Program. Students who wish to study in other countries and cultures may do so through a wide range of offerings: study abroad and exchange programs, as well as direct enrollment in foreign universities. UMass Boston students are also eligible, with prior approval, to participate in programs offered through other universities, community colleges, and study abroad consortiums.

The University Health Services (UHS), supported by student fees, provide care for students with minor medical difficulties as well as a referral service for those with more serious problems. A health insurance plan is available for medical services not offered on campus. Massachusetts law requires that students be covered either by this university-sponsored plan or by another comparable plan.
Students at UMass Boston can make use of a variety of counseling services offered both through UHS and through other offices at the university. A Campus Ministry offers spiritual resources for members of the Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant faiths.

A University Serving Its Community

The research of UMass Boston’s faculty contributes significantly to the well-being of metropolitan Boston. Some faculty members explore questions of immediate relevance to urban policy and action, undertaking studies of such problems as arson, the health needs of Boston’s black citizens, the effects of social and economic conditions on the mental health of families, and the energy needs of the elderly. The research of others—into the history of Boston’s neighborhoods, labor conditions, and family violence in nineteenth-century Boston, for example—also promises to lead to wiser responses to the problems of the city and its environment. Faculty research directly benefits students as well, as it provides opportunities for student learning and service, readying them for the responsibility of active citizenship.

Centers, Institutes, and Special Programs

Public Policy

The new John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies offers a broad range of graduate degrees in public policy, public affairs, and gerontology. The school teaches students to think and work across traditional boundaries, particularly at the intersection of the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Existing research centers focus on state and local policy, social policy, women in politics and public policy, gerontology, media and society, and democracy and development.
The university’s Center for Survey Research plays a major role in the study of regional policy issues. In recent years, this Center’s reports on race relations in Boston, drunk driving laws, and toxic waste disposal have informed public debate in Massachusetts and other states.

The Graduate College of Education

The Institute for Learning and Teaching at the Graduate College of Education (GCE) works with UMass Boston faculty and with public school teachers, administrators, and parents to improve the quality of elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education in the greater Boston area. The College’s Massachusetts Field Center for Teaching and Learning is another valuable resource for the Commonwealth’s education community. The Center develops activities that involve teachers in school improvement programs at the state and local level, and provides opportunities for professional development. Also within the College is the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE), which focuses on critical policy issues in both public and private sector higher education. Through its research projects, conferences, and ongoing seminars, NERCHE provides technical consultation and professional development activities. The Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) works closely with GCE to develop resources and support for people with disabilities and their families, fostering interdependence, productivity, and inclusion in school and community settings.

Corporate, Continuing, and Distance Education

Other members of the metropolitan Boston community are served by a wide range of non-credit courses offered by the Division of Corporate, Continuing, and Distance Education (CCDE) in such areas as adolescent counseling, alcoholism treatment services, information technology, and others.

The University and the Harbor

A number of University programs focus on nearby Boston Harbor, which is both a community concern and a community resource. The Urban Harbors Institute is a public policy and scientific research institute that conducts multidisciplinary research on urban harbor issues ranging from water quality and coastal resource protection to harbor management and port planning. The Institute provides technical assistance and consultation on policy formulation to government, private industry, and community groups whose findings influence public policy locally and abroad. The Environmental, Coastal, and Ocean Sciences PhD Program has taken a leading role in working with both government and private industry toward the improvement of water quality in Boston Harbor. Harbor Explorations is a collaborative project involving the Institute for Learning and Teaching. ILT staff work with Boston area K-12 teachers and their students in a program that includes workshops, a summer institute, curriculum development, and short ocean trips on the Enviro-Lab III, a 50-foot oceanographic research vessel.

UMass Boston in the Community

A number of centers and institutes carry on activities that help connect the University with the wider community of metropolitan Boston and the Commonwealth. The William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences carries on a number of activities involving veterans, refugees, and others with particular concerns about the consequences of war. Among these activities is the annual Writers’ Workshop, a two-week-long series of readings, seminars, panel discussions, and special events that includes individual consultations with a large number of distinguished writers from UMass Boston and elsewhere.

The William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture sponsors lectures, research, and public policy forums. Among the Institute’s published research projects is a six-volume series, The Assessment of the Status of African Americans. Other activities have included fellowships for visiting scholars.

The Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy undertakes policy analysis and research. The Institute informs policy-makers about issues of concern to the growing Latino community in Massachusetts, and fosters the community’s participation in public policy development.

The Institute for Asian American Studies is a center for research and policy analysis on the status and needs of Asian Americans in Massachusetts. The Institute also sponsors fellowships and offers a range of educational activities for policy-makers, educators, community organizations, service providers, foundations, the media, and the public.

The Gerontology Institute, part of the McCormack Graduate School, conducts conferences, research studies, and education programs addressing the concerns of the aging. The Institute, together with the Gerontology faculty in the College of Public and Community Service (CPCS), is an important resource for the university’s pioneer PhD program in gerontology, only the second such program in the country.

The Center for Social Development and Education is dedicated to enhancing the quality of education of children and adolescents, particularly those at risk for failure due to environmental, behavioral, or genetic factors. Their new graduate certificate program aims to help teachers meet the expectations of educational reform in the Commonwealth.

Cultural Outreach

UMass Boston is also growing as a cultural center, not only for its students, but also for its surrounding neighborhood and beyond. Lectures, concerts, theatrical presentations, and special festivals regularly bring residents of greater Boston to the university, and UMass Boston students, staff, and faculty members are deeply engaged—as writers, painters, sculptors, actors, dancers, and musicians—in the artistic life of the city.
The university’s nationally recognized public radio network, with broadcasting facilities in both the Boston (WUMB FM) and Worcester (WBPR FM) areas, as well as in Falmouth (WFPB FM), Newburyport (WNEF FM) and Orleans (WFPB AM) on Cape Cod, provides folk-based public radio programming for most of eastern Massachusetts from its professional studios at UMass Boston. The station also takes a lead role in organizing and presenting various public musical events and services both on and off campus, notably its Summer Acoustic Music Week, and the annual Boston Folk Festival.
The university’s “Arts On The Point” project has brought various three-dimensional pieces of differing styles and sizes to the UMass Boston campus where they are on public display, enhancing the visual ambience of campus grounds and building interiors. The project is spearheaded by UMass Boston Professor Paul Tucker, internationally known for bringing together widely-acclaimed and popular exhibits and tours of works by Claude Monet.

The University of Massachusetts Boston is committed to the ideals of public higher education. Through an excellent faculty, innovative programs, and fine facilities, UMass Boston offers its community a multitude of educational opportunities of high quality at moderate cost, and brings the benefits of a major public university to the people of metropolitan Boston and the Commonwealth.

General Education

The university has adopted the set of principles set forth here as the foundation on which its general education program for undergraduates has been built.
Besides providing training to pursue a satisfying career, the undergraduate curriculum at UMass Boston seeks to develop the ability of students to undertake a lifetime of intellectual inquiry and continued learning. To this end, the curriculum emphasizes both depth and breadth of learning. Depth is achieved by completing a major in a particular discipline. Breadth of learning is the aim of general education requirements. To meet—with enthusiasm—the challenges of a complex and changing world, students must develop habits of critical analysis and logical thought, master verbal and quantitative reasoning, understand human diversity, and learn about the principal approaches to knowledge.

Critical Analysis and Logical Thought

The habits of critical analysis and logical thought that are important to all forms of intellectual activity come from frequent consideration of complex problems. These habits can be learned in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from analysis of history to computer programming. Analytical thinking begins with raising and clearly defining issues so as to form answerable questions or testable hypotheses, proceeds through the gathering and evaluation of appropriate evidence, and culminates in the formation of some reasoned conclusion or judgment. Critical analysis must include consideration of alternative or opposing viewpoints. In addition, critical evaluation requires an awareness of the problems of the reliability and relevance of information, and the possible biases of researchers and their sources. An analytical intelligence is also self-critical—always ready to reconsider a hypothesis or revise a conclusion on the basis of new evidence.

Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning

Verbal and quantitative reasoning, at the collegiate level, provides the foundation for intellectual inquiry. Symbols (words, phrases, numbers, graphs) are the vehicles of thought—they enable us to communicate our thoughts, and they also give us the ability to abstract and manipulate simple ideas to form the complex associations and logical sequences that are crucial to analytical thinking. This is why the powers of critical analysis and logical thinking are so closely related to the powers of expression. Many complex ideas cannot be fully formed, tested, or appreciated until they have been given symbolic expression in speech or writing. Reading and listening skills are required to assimilate the many concepts given formal expression in intellectual discourse. The structural principles and procedural rules for symbolic argument, as used in verbal and quantitative reasoning, must be mastered by the educated person.

Human Diversity

Patterns of thought and behavior are derived from human interaction with the natural environment, exchanges among cultures, interaction between social groups and the legacies of social history. In a world growing smaller because of rapid advances in communications, increases in mobility, and changes in life styles and work environments, contact among people of different backgrounds becomes more frequent. The perspective gained from studying human diversity helps us to value the variety of individual and cultural traits we encounter. Learning how different patterns of thought and behavior develop helps us understand the richness and complexity of diversity in our society.

Principal Approaches to Knowledge

Exposure to the principal different pathways to knowledge gives a broad appreciation for the unique perspectives offered by each, and for the relationships between them. Groups of disciplines (for example, the natural sciences) share common approaches to knowledge, with similar intellectual perspectives and similar methods. Intellectual consideration of a particular issue will often require the perspective and methods of a particular pathway to knowledge, as well as critical thinking and the application of verbal or quantitative reasoning. Understanding the different methodological approaches used in each area opens up a wide array of issues for intellectual analysis and discourse.

Objectives

These four major goals of general education give rise to a set of eight objectives, encompassing critical analysis and logical thought, verbal and quantitative reasoning, human diversity, and four principal approaches to knowledge—-natural sciences, social and behavioral sciences, arts and humanities, and world languages and cultures. The new general education program, comprising one-third of a student’s total curriculum, is designed to meet these objectives.

Objective 1: Students will learn about the procedures of critical analysis and logical thought, with emphasis on disciplined inquiry, including the development of appropriate questions, the evaluation of evidence, and the formation of a reasoned conclusion or judgment.

Objective 2: Students will demonstrate the ability to read and listen critically, and to speak and write effectively.

Objective 3: Students will demonstrate the ability to reason quantitatively and use formal systems to solve problems of quantitative relationships involving numbers, formal symbols, patterns, data, and graphs.

Objective 4: Students will learn about human diversity, including how different patterns of behavior and thought evolve and how development of cultures is influenced by interactions among different social groups.

Objective 5 (Natural Sciences): Students will learn how the laws of the physical and biological world are derived through observation, theory, and experiment. In this age of expanding scientific knowledge and powerful technologies, an educated person should understand the importance of falsifiable hypotheses, the nature of scientific “truth,” and the impact of science on society.

Objective 6 (Social and Behavioral Sciences): Students will learn about the nature and development of human behavior and institutions through time, in order to become aware of the complex and ambiguous nature of changing human experience.

Objective 7 (Arts and Humanities): Students will develop an informed appreciation of the arts and humanities, which encompass philosophy, literature, the fine arts, and the performing arts. Students will learn how people have come to understand and express artistic, aesthetic, moral, spiritual, and philosophical dimensions of the human condition.

Objective 8 (World Languages and Cultures): Students will learn how language and culture impose their own structurings of knowledge. This may be achieved through intensive study of unfamiliar cultures, or by the study of a foreign language or foreign literature in translation.