ILS Requirements

Five areas comprise your learning in the Integrative Liberal Studies

Download our printable checksheet to get details of each requirement and track your progress. For graduation checksheets specific to each major and year, visit the registrar's Web site.  Or, you can follow our online tutorial to learn about the ILS and how it can be used to plan your first semesters on campus.

Each of the 5 sections in the ILS plays an important role in your education

Liberal Studies (6-7 hrs)

Liberal Studies courses help introduce you to the expectations, philosophies, and rigors of a liberal arts education, and help you synthesize what you've learned about a variety of academic disciplines.

• Liberal Studies Introductory Colloquium (LSIC)
• Senior Capstone Course

Learning Foundations (14-21 hrs)

Learning Foundation courses in academic writing, laboratory science, mathematics, foreign languages, and health and fitness offer students an opportunity to develop intellectual breadth and to lay the groundwork for their later studies.

• Academic Writing
• Foreign Language
• Health & Wellness Promotion
• Laboratory Science
• Mathematics
  

Humanities Cluster (12 hrs)

The Humanities Program aims to help develop world citizens of broad perspective who think critically and creatively, who communicate effectively, and who make educated and ethical decisions. The courses examine what humanity has achieved in our several thousand years of recorded history, including diverse values and beliefs, and how these concerns and passions influence our times. 

• The Ancient World
• Medieval and Renaissance World
• Modern World: Mid 17-20th Century

Topical Cluster (9 hrs)

Topical Clusters bring the perspectives of several different disciplines to bear on a particular issue or subject area, a true embodiment of the liberal arts perspective.

• Natural Science
• Social Science
• Elective

Arts (3 hrs)

The Arts requirement features courses in which students become intellectually engaged with the arts. They consider the significance and communicative functions of the arts in human experience, the cultural context of creative composition and performance and the foundations of aesthetic values.

• 3 hours of approved Arts coursework
  

Intensives (22-27 hrs)

Intensive courses emphasize skills and content as a way for students to deepen their liberal studies education and integrate it with other academic experiences.

• 3 Writing Intensives
• 1 Quantitative Intensive
• 1 Diversity Intensive
• 2 Information Literacy Intensives