Undergraduate Core Curriculum

Since 1599, Jesuit education has promoted a distinctive plan of studies (Ratio Studiorum in Latin) that adjusts to each generation, always maintaining a strong commitment to the Liberal Arts Catholic Jesuit tradition. At Xavier University this plan of studies begins with the Undergraduate Core Curriculum. In Fall 2015, Xavier launched a new Core that revolved around the Jesuit values of magis, reflection, discernment, cura personalis, solidarity and kinship, and service rooted in justice and love. The new Core significantly reduces the total credit hours required for most students, and thus allows for numerous possibilities for double majors, additional minors, immersion experiences, study abroad, and a wide range of electives that students can use to satisfy the overall number of credit hours required for graduation.

Bachelor Degrees:

Below are the requirements for all first-year students entering Fall 2015 or later. For students enrolled before Fall 2015 and graduating after Spring 2015, please see the Transition Core .

Each line represents a three-credit hour course, unless otherwise noted.

First-Year Experience

Ethics/Religion and Society Focus

THEO 111 - Theological Foundations
PHIL 100 - Ethics as Intro to Philosophy
Literature & Moral Imagination

Perspectives Courses

Creative Perspectives
Historical Perspectives
Mathematical Perspectives
Philosophical Perspectives (PHIL 200 )
Scientific Perspectives
Theological Perspectives (THEO 200+)

Skills

ENGL 101 Composition or ENGL 115 Rhetoric
Language
- For students entering prior to Fall 2017: any two three-credit hour courses or 202 proficiency
- For students entering in Fall 2017 or later: 201 level proficiency

Electives

Humanities Elective
Natural Science Elective
Social Science Elective

Five Flags

Students also must satisfy five flags in addition to the 48 credit hours listed in the chart above. A flag constitutes a significant portion of a course in any discipline that is devoted to one of the five topics. Flagged courses are approved by the committee or subcommittee devoted to each flag topic. No single course can be used to fulfill more than two flags. Flagged courses often double count for other courses in the core, for major requirements, and/or for minor requirements, and thus do not add to the total number of credit hours required in the Core Curriculum.

Diversity (DCR)
Ethics/Religion and Society (E/RS)
Oral Communication
Quantitative Reasoning
Writing

CORE 499

All Bachelor degree students must successfully complete CORE 499 during their anticipated final semester as a requirement of their Bachelor degree.

Notes

The Ethics/Religion and Society Focus also includes an E/RS flagged course, one of the five flags at the bottom of the chart.
Literature and Moral Imagination can be fulfilled with CLAS 205 , ENGL 205 , FREN 205 , GERM 205 , or SPAN 205 .
Humanities Elective can be satisfied by one course from any of the following categories: All Classics except 205, ENGL 121+ except 205, FREN 300+, GERM 300+, HIST 200+, PHIL 300+, SPAN 300+, or THEO 300+. The Humanities Elective may not double count as an E/RS flag (though may be an E/RS flagged course). While all Theology courses 200 and above count as Theological Perspectives, and all Theology courses 300 and above also count for Humanities Electives, no Theology course can double-count for both Theological Perspectives and Humanities Elective.

Associate’s Degrees

Core Requirements For Most Associate’s Degree Programs

Eng. Comp./Rhet. (3)
Phil 100 (3)
Theo 111 (3)
Creative Perspectives
Historical Perspectives OR Humanities elective
Natural Science elective (3)
Social Science elective (3)
DCR elective (3)

Total: 24 hours

Core Requirements For Associate’s Degree Program in Early Childhood Education

Eng. Comp./Rhet. (3)
Phil 100 (3)
Theo 111 (3)
Creative Perspectives
Historical Perspective OR Humanities elective
Natural Science elective (3)
Social Science elective (3)
DCR elective (3)

Total: 24 hours

Core Requirements For Associate’s Degree Program in Business Administration

Eng. Comp./Rhet. (3)
Phil 100 (3)
Theo 111 (3)
Creative Perspectives
Historical Perspectives OR Humanities elective
Mathematical Perspectives
Natural Science elective (3)
Social Science elective (3)

Total: 24 hours

Transfer Students

Transfer Students/Work In Core Curriculum

All transfer students who start during or after Fall 2016 must complete the new Core. The rules governing Transfer students with the New Core are as follows:

Students can transfer to Xavier with a wide range of courses counting for core and/or major and minor requirements, as long as each transferred course can be assigned an equivalent Xavier course. If the Xavier course carries core attributes (for example, Humanities elective, Scientific Perspectives, Writing Flag, etc.), so too will the transferred course. Xavier’s Office of the Registrar, in consultation with department chairs, will help transfer students determine which Xavier course is equivalent to the transferred course.
The flag standards are set by the Core Curriculum Committee (CCC), via the relevant subcommittees who communicate the standards to the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. If it is determined based on its description that a course may satisfy any flag (E/RS, DCR, writing, oral communication, or quantitative reasoning), equivalence may be requested of the CCC chair or the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Public speaking or similar courses will satisfy the oral communication flag, and courses flagged as “writing-intensive” at other universities can satisfy the Xavier writing-intensive flag. However, if a student transfers in a course deemed equivalent to a Xavier course that has one or more flags, the flags are retained without independent evaluation by the flag subcommittee.
Some interdisciplinary courses to be transferred have no analogous Xavier departmental affiliation; these courses are identified, for example, as “Humanities” or “Engineering.” The Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences will approve these equivalences in consultation with whomever he/she deems appropriate.

Identifying Courses that Satisfy Core Requirements

To identify which courses satisfy a core requirement for a given term, use the Browse Classes function available through the Self Service link of the Xavier Hub. First, choose the term in which you are interested. Next, in the Subject Area, leave blank for All Subjects or select the individual subject(s) in which you are interested. Then, use the menu in the “Attribute Type” box to select the area of the core you would like to search for (e.g. Diversity Curriculum Requirement or ERS Focus Elective). This will return a list of courses that meet the area of the core you selected and are being offered that term.