General Education Program

A liberal arts education consists of three components: the core curriculum, which provides a structured breadth of knowledge and development of skills; the major, which promotes specialized, in-depth knowledge and hones and expands the skills necessary to use that knowledge; and the free electives, which broaden areas of personal interest. The following General Education requirements apply to all students matriculating in Fall 2020 or later. Credit for General Education courses is given for grades of 1.0 and higher. Students may consider the S/P/U option for General Education courses, please consult the S/P/U  web page for more information.

Potsdam General Education Mission Statement

The Potsdam General Education core curriculum provides our graduates with competencies, literacies, and experiences that enrich students’ lives. The Potsdam General Education Program develops our students’ potential so that they graduate from SUNY Potsdam as active lifelong learners and problem solvers.  Working through a series of purposeful and incremental requirements that connect and integrate knowledge from major programs and across disciplines, students will develop:

Competencies in Critical Thinking, Writing, Speaking & Information Literacy

Potsdam graduates will generate well-reasoned and creative approaches to historical and contemporary issues, problems, and challenges by locating, evaluating, synthesizing, and contextualizing relevant sources of information. They will articulate ideas in a coherent, logical, and compelling manner in written, oral, and/or visual forms.

Literacies in the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences & Natural Sciences

Potsdam graduates will demonstrate a familiarity with the methods, concepts, processes, and creative and cultural expressions of the liberal arts and sciences adequate to make relevant and informed decisions.  

Connections Between the Classroom and the World

Potsdam graduates will demonstrate an understanding of multiple worldviews and perspectives. In addition, they will apply their learning by integrating abilities, theories, and methodologies to grapple with complex problems. They will identify possible solutions and communicate their findings in forms appropriate to their disciplines. More information about the General Education Program can be found here.

Ways of Beginning: 3 courses (9 credits) required

First-year students will complete the Ways of Beginning requirements (WAYS 101  , WAYS 102  and WAYS 103  ) in their first year. Most students will take two WAYS classes in the fall, one of which must be WAYS 101 . Students who do not feel prepared for WAYS 102  should take a Core Writing (CW) course in the fall semester and WAYS 102  in the spring. Registration in WAYS 101  , WAYS 102  and WAYS 103  is restricted to first-year students.

For students who earn less than a 1.0 in WAYS: 

Students who receive less than 1.0 in any of the Ways of Beginning courses must retake the course in the following semester. The last opportunity to retake Ways of Beginning courses is the third semester at SUNY Potsdam. In the third semester, students will need special permission from the Director of Potsdam General Education to enroll in a Ways of Beginning course. If the student does not earn a 1.0 or higher in the course by the end of the third semester, contact the Director of General Education to discuss fulfilling the requirements. Students may email pathways@potsdam.edu or contact the General Education Office.

Should a substitution for the WAYS classes become necessary, students must first talk to the Director of General Education for approval. Typically, WAYS 101 equivalent courses include a second TF course; WAYS 102 equivalent courses include courses with substantial instruction in college writing; and WAYS 103 equivalent courses include substantial instruction in public speaking skills and Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (DEISJ) content.

WAYS 101 : Critical Thinking Seminar (3 cr.)

(SUNY Critical Thinking and Reasoning/SUNY Information Literacy)

WAYS 101   will be a “Big Ideas” course focusing on “wicked problems” and the contexts in which those problems occur. The courses focus on significant issues with which the faculty experts are deeply engaged. They feature explicit instruction in critical thinking - the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do and what to believe - as well as oral and written applications of those abilities. Critical Thinking has been characterized as “the awakening of the intellect to the study of itself.” This is important, as it implies a high degree of self-consciousness about and reflection on one’s thinking processes. Wicked problems seminars are specifically designed to introduce students to a rigorous and demanding liberal arts curriculum, to provide the opportunity for students to work closely with a faculty mentor, and to establish a sense of community among participants.

WAYS 101   SLOs

Through written and oral assignments, after completion of this seminar, students will be able to: 

1. Articulate the complexities, subtleties, and nuances of the wicked problem. (Understanding)
2. Map out claims made (what is being argued for) and reasons/evidence given in support of those claims. (Analyzing)
3. Evaluate arguments, including detecting inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning (i.e., logical fallacies, or common forms of logical error, e.g., mistaking a correlation for causation). (Evaluating)
4. Construct arguments, anticipating likely objections to those arguments and formulating possible responses to these objections. (Creating)
5. Analyze their own and others’ assumptions in framing the problem and in defining the relevant evidence and reflect on how those assumptions affect their position. (Analyzing)
6. Critically evaluate the reliability of source materials (Evaluating)

WAYS 102 : College Writing Seminar (3 cr.)

(SUNY Written Communication)

WAYS 102  helps students develop skills as critical readers, compelling writers, and thoughtful participants in the academic community. This course is designed to help students write effectively in other university courses; develop critical thinking and writing fluency; and find, critically evaluate, and incorporate source materials. Students will read, discuss, and write about a variety of texts; identify underlying assumptions, evidence, and points of view; draw inferences; and reach independent conclusions. They will begin to work with resources - evaluating, incorporating, and acknowledging them - with increasing sophistication.

WAYS 102   SLOs

After completion of this seminar, students will be able to:

1. Respond to the arguments of a diverse range of texts. (Evaluating)
2. Construct (plan, draft, revise, and edit) extended writing in drafts of increasing quality, in response to feedback from diverse readers (peers, instructors). (Creating)
3. Craft arguments with clear purpose, logical organization, internal consistency, and appropriate tone. (Creating)
4. Integrate appropriate outside sources into their own writing. (Applying)

WAYS 103 : Talking about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Seminar (3 cr.)

(SUNY Basic Communication/SUNY Diversity: Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice)

WAYS 103   is a speaking class that exposes students to concepts necessary to live, work, and create in the diverse populations and social identities that characterize the U.S., including but not limited to the following: race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability status, socioeconomic status, religion, gender, gender identity and expression, and age.  Students will explore personal and societal assumptions about differences and will examine systemic cultural, political, and economic imbalances. Students will model civil and respectful discussions about difficult topics and charged issues.

WAYS 103   SLOs

After completion of this seminar, students will be able to:

1. Describe historical and contemporary social factors that shape the development of individual and group identity, involving but not limited to race, class, and gender. (Understanding) 
2. Analyze the social construction of inequality at the individual, interactional, institutional, and ideological levels of society. (Analyzing) 
3. Describe challenges (and responses to said challenges) regarding rights, access, and equity that are faced by underrepresented population(s) traditionally marginalized or oppressed in the U.S., especially in terms of social justice action. (Understanding) 
4. Demonstrate oral communication that informs, persuades, or otherwise engages with audience(s) appropriately. (Applying) 
5. Evaluate communication for substance, bias, and intended effect. (Evaluating)

Ways of Thinking: 6 courses (19 credits) required

Thinking Aesthetically (TA-3 cr.)

(SUNY The Arts)

Thinking Aesthetically courses will develop students’ reflective engagement with the creative process by engaging them in a variety of forms of artistic creativity and by developing their ability to identify, understand, and appreciate the processes through which works of art are produced, analyzed, and interpreted. TA courses can be devoted to one of the following:

• producing forms of artistic creativity (such as painting, acting, poetry writing, dancing, singing, scenic design, music, etc.),
• analyzing, interpreting, and critically discussing forms of artistic creativity, or
• combining the production (doing), analysis, interpretation, and critical discussion of forms of artistic creativity.

TA SLOs

After completion of this course, students will be able to: 

1. Create art within the form. (Creating) - (Required only if the course focuses on (a) under the TA Description.)
2. Critically analyze the form, content, and style of an art form. (Analyzing)
3. Critically evaluate the form, content, and style of an art form. (Evaluating)
4. Interpret the art form being studied. (Understanding)
5. Critically analyze the historical, contemporary, sociocultural, or theoretical contexts of an art form. (Evaluating) - (Required only if the course focuses on (b) under the TA Description.)

Thinking Foundationally (TF- 3 cr.)

(SUNY Humanities or other)

Thinking Foundationally courses are designed to uncover and critically (i.e., skeptically and argumentatively) examine foundational assumptions. Foundational assumptions occur in every subject area: i.e., every subject area is grounded in theoretical/foundational assumptions that guide inquiry in that subject area. Thinking Foundationally courses will build upon the basic critical thinking skills introduced and exercised in the WAYS 101 seminars. WAYS 101 is a prerequisite for Thinking Foundationally courses. Students will be required to develop and practice higher-order argumentation skills. Thinking Foundationally courses will require a significant amount of writing in which students demonstrate their ability to understand and explicate arguments and to anticipate, appreciate, and respond to objections.

TF SLOs

After completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Explain a range of foundational approaches used within the relevant subject area and apply those approaches. (Explaining and Applying)     
2. Articulate the foundational assumptions used by those approaches. (Understanding)
3. Articulate the necessity, benefits, and drawbacks of making foundational assumptions within a subject area. (Understanding)
4. Identify in writing the strengths and weaknesses of different foundational approaches and argue persuasively for and against the assumptions made by those approaches. (Applying and Evaluating)    
5. Compose papers in which they argue first for one foundational perspective and then for an opposing perspective, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each. (Creating)

Thinking Historically (TH- 3 cr.)

(SUNY US History and Civic Engagement)

Thinking Historically courses explore some of the sources, arguments, and methodologies used to understand the past. Why does the past matter? How do we know what we know about the past? How do we move beyond the idea that how we know things now is the only way we need to know them? Our understanding of the past is constructed from individual stories that are themselves shaped by larger cultural contexts. These courses are designed to help students become critical consumers of historical knowledge to assist their navigation through contemporary concerns that are themselves rooted in history.

TH SLOs

After completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Evaluate the uses and limitations of relevant source materials commonly used to understand the past. (Evaluating) 
2. Critically engage with evolving scholarly conversations about how we understand and remember the past. (Creating) 
3. Explain the role of individual participation in US communities and government. (Understanding) 
4. Analyze United States’ society and/or history, including the diversity of individuals and communities that make up the nation. (Analyzing)

Thinking Mathematically (TM- 3 cr.)

(SUNY Mathematics)

Thinking Mathematically courses build proficiency with fundamental tools of mathematics, such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, functions, graphs, and statistics. They teach students precise quantitative logical reasoning and applications of mathematical problem-solving skills in abstract and real-world problems. They engage students in oral and written communication of mathematical ideas.

 TM SLOs

After completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Use the fundamental tools of mathematics, such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, functions, graphs, and statistics. (Applying)
2. Apply precise, logical quantitative reasoning to mathematical hypotheses and conditions. (Applying)
3. Identify mathematical structure and pattern. (Applying)
4. Engage in mathematical abstractions. (Applying)
5. Communicate effectively with oral and written skills appropriate to the discipline. (Understanding)

Thinking Scientifically (TS- 7 cr: (1) NW- 4 cr. Includes Lab; (1) SW - 3 cr.)

(SUNY Natural Sciences [and Scientific Reasoning])

Courses that fulfill the Thinking Scientifically requirements (Natural World-NW and Social World-SW) engage students in the basic methods and goals of the natural and social sciences with the aim of making them scientifically literate and able to make reasonable and well-founded judgments on matters concerning the natural and social worlds.

Thinking Scientifically: Natural World (NW-4 cr. Includes lab) (SUNY Natural Sciences [and Scientific Reasoning])

NW SLOs

After completion of this course, students will be able to: 

1. Explain the process of scientific investigation and its strict reliance on empirical evidence. (Understanding)
2. Apply the scientific process to phenomena in the natural world. (Applying)
3. Evaluate scientific claims to make informed and logical judgments about natural science issues. (Evaluating)
4. Discuss the impact of science and scientific discoveries on their lives. (Creating)

Thinking Scientifically: Social World (SW-3 cr.)   (SUNY Social Sciences)

SW SLOs

After completion of this course, students will be able to: 

1. Assess the quality of qualitative and/or quantitative data. (Evaluating)
2. Evaluate the quality of scientific inferences drawn from data. (Evaluating)
3. Identify essential discipline-specific theories, terminology, and conceptual frameworks from the social sciences. (Applying)
4. Comprehend diverse viewpoints from the social sciences. (Understanding)

Ways of Connecting: 4 courses total; 2 General Education courses (6 credits) and 2 courses fulfilled in major (variable credit)

Connecting through Language Other than English (CL- 3 cr.)

(SUNY World Language)

These courses examine salient structural linguistic components of a language other than English as well as key cultural features of other-than-English language communities. Courses will develop effective ways to communicate in that language and will significantly increase students’ understanding and appreciation of a diverse range of non-English language communities and their creative contributions. Students will take one CL course. The level of the course depends on student experience with the language, i.e., one year of high school means the 101 level, two years of high school language mean the 102 level, etc. Students who have completed course IV of high school language have met the CL requirement.

CL SLOs

CL 101
After completion of this course, students will be able to: 

1. Recognize distinct cultural features of at least one non-English language community. (Remembering)
2. Develop pertinent reflections on cultural features of non-English language communities. (Applying)
3. Identify sentences in present tense in the new language. (Applying)
4. Use present tense verbs to discuss basic topics. (Applying)

CL 102
After completion of this course, students will be able to: 

1. Recognize distinct cultural features of at least one non-English language community. (Remembering)
2. Develop pertinent reflections on cultural features of non-English language communities. (Applying)
3. Identify sentences in past tense in the new language. (Applying)
4. Use past tense verbs to discuss a variety of topics. (Applying)

CL 103
After completion of this course, students will be able to: 

1. Recognize distinct cultural features of at least one non-English language community. (Remembering)
2. Develop pertinent reflections on cultural features of non-English language communities. (Applying)
3. Identify structural nuances in the new language. (Applying)
4. Formulate opinions and hypothetical situations in speaking and writing. (Creating)

Connecting Globally (CG- 3 cr.)

(SUNY World History and Global Awareness)

This requirement engages students in the study of ideas, peoples, places and/or life in specific global context(s) (not derived primarily from the United States) with a focus on the societies, civilizations and/or cultural traditions in Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Americas, and/or Europe.

CG SLOs

After completion of this course, students will be able to: 

1. Explain key characteristics and concepts in global and/or cross-cultural context(s) that are explored in the course. (Understanding)
2. Identify significant aspects of global and/or intercultural connections with political, historical, artistic, cultural, philosophical, economic, scientific, technological, and/or international components. (Applying)
3. Analyze historical or contemporary global issues, discourses, narratives, and/or artistic expressions from more than one perspective. (Analyzing)
4. Demonstrate competence in cross-cultural understanding through written, spoken, visual, or performed content appropriate to the discipline(s). (Understanding)

Connecting Clearly: Communication in the Major (CM- courses are required courses in the major)

This requirement adopts a “communicating in the disciplines” model that transmits the skills required both to learn and to create knowledge within the chosen academic field, and to develop a professional voice through opportunities to write and speak on substantive issues arising from the major. This requirement may be met by a single course covering both writing and speaking in the major, or by separate courses, one focusing on writing and the other on speaking, to be determined by the major program.

CM SLOs

After completion of this course, students will be able to: 

1. Identify at least two types of written and oral communication specific to their discipline. (Applying)
2. Explain what sorts of rhetoric are generally considered effective within the types of discipline specific communication they are studying. (Evaluating)
3. Explain what sorts of evidence are generally considered valid within the types of discipline specific communication they are studying. (Evaluating)
4. Produce (and accept feedback on) substantive written and oral work of their own that applies the understanding they have gained through analysis of models of the types of discipline-specific communication. (Creating)

Connecting Theory to Practice through Applied Learning (CT- courses are required courses in the major)

Connecting Theory to Practice through Applied Learning is a credit-bearing experience in which students learn by engaging in direct application of skills, theories, and models. Students apply knowledge and skills gained from traditional classroom learning to hands-on and/or real- world settings, creative projects or research, and then apply what they gained from their applied experience to their academic learning. The activity can be embedded as part of a course or can occur outside of the classroom.

CT SLOs

After completion of this course, students will be able to: 

1. Identify the links between skills/theories/models of the discipline and practice. (Applying)
2. Explain how they grew personally, professionally, and intellectually as a result of the applied experience. (Evaluating)

Potsdam General Education Transfer Credit Policies

SUNY Potsdam’s Transfer Coordinator in the Office of Admissions determines and approves undergraduate transfer credit for satisfaction of General Education requirements. Credits will be accepted for course work completed with a final grade of 1.0/D or higher at regionally accredited institutions of higher education (community colleges, four-year colleges/universities, and foreign universities), as well as successful completion of AP, CLEP, IB, and military education.

Students transferring directly to Potsdam with a CUNY or SUNY AA or AS degree, having completed 30 semester hours of general education including seven out of ten SUNY General Education requirements, will be exempt from any additional Potsdam General Education requirements not already satisfied. Students transferring directly to Potsdam with a CUNY or SUNY AAS degree will have their transfer work evaluated for satisfaction of General Education requirements on a course-by-course basis.

Transfer students entering SUNY Potsdam without having earned an associate degree, or transferring from a four-year college/university, will have their transfer work evaluated for satisfaction of General Education requirements on a course-by-course basis. Transfer students will not be required to repeat courses with essentially the same content, objectives, and outcomes as courses contained within the General Education requirements.

All transfer students, even those with an associate degree, will still need to complete the CM and CT requirements. CM and CT courses are required courses for their major and the credits for them will be accounted for in the major.

 Any General Education courses that have not been completed, including WAYS 101, 102 and 103, must be completed at SUNY Potsdam. WAYS courses are restricted to first year students; transfer students must contact the Gen Ed office for an override. Should a substitution for the WAYS classes be more appropriate for a transfer student, students must first talk to the Director of General Education for approval. Typically, WAYS 101 equivalent courses include a second TF course, WAYS 102 equivalent courses include courses with substantial instruction in college writing, and WAYS 103 equivalent courses include substantial instruction in public speaking skills and DEISJ content.

Questions concerning the evaluation of transferred General Education credit can be directed to the Transfer Coordinator, Office of Admissions, Raymond 120.

Substitutions or Waivers for General Education Requirements

The process for substitutions or waivers for General Education Requirements starts with students filling out the Review of General Education Requirements form, linked on this page. The form is reviewed by the Director of General Education and any relevant stakeholders. The Director then informs students, their advisor(s), and the Registrar’s office of the decision. The process generally takes 10-14 business days. Students who do not agree with the local campus decision may appeal by starting with the SUNY Potsdam Provost’s office. They also have the right to take the appeal to the system level. More information on this process can be obtained by contacting the Director of General Education.