Description of the Core

UNC’s new Liberal Arts Core, designed to implement the short-term recommendations made last year of the Council on the University Experience, replaces the UNC’s General Education program for all students entering UNC in Fall 2006 and afterwards.

The description of the program in the 2007-2008 Catalog.

Here’s a comparison between the Liberal Arts Core and the old General Education program advisers might find useful:

Component	The Liberal Arts Core¹ 2007-2008 Catalog	The Old Gen Ed Program 2005-2006 Catalog
Writing	Area 1 — Communication – 6 hours Elementary Composition Intermediate Composition	Category 1 — Composition – 6 credits Elementary Composition Intermediate Composition
Mathematics	Area 2 — Mathematics – 3 hours	Category 2 — Mathematics – 3 credits
Physical Activity		Category 3 — Physical Activity – 1 hour
Humanities and Social Sciences	Area 3 — Arts and Humanities – 6-9 hours² Arts Literature and Humanities Ways of Thinking Foreign Languages	Category 4 — Arts and Letters – 6 credits Fine Arts Foreign Language History Literature Philosophy
	Area 4 — History – 3 hours^2,3	Category 5 — Social Sciences – 6 credits Anthropology Economics Geography Political Science Psychology Sociology
	Area 5 — Social and Behavioral Sciences – 3-6 hours² Economic and Political Systems Geography Human Behavior and Social Systems
Natural Science	Area 6 — Physical and Life Sciences – 7 hours	Category 6 — Science and Mathematics – 7 credits Earth Sciences Life Sciences Mathematical Sciences Physical Science
International, Multicultural, and Interdisciplinary Studies	Area 7 — International Studies – one course⁴	Category 7 — Interdisciplinary, International, and Multicultural Studies – 3 credits Interdisciplinary and International Studies Multicultural Studies
	Area 8 — Multicultural Studies – one course⁴
	Electives — Enough additional courses from Areas 1-8 or the special list of interdisciplinary studies electives to bring the total to at least 40 hours.
Other		Enough additional courses from Categories 4-7 to bring the total to at least 40 hours
Notes: ¹Hours indicated are minimums. ²Courses taken in Areas 3, 4, and 5 of the Liberal Arts Core must total at least fifteen hours, and three of those hours must be in Area 4. ³The state considers history a social science so far as gtPathways is concerned; UNC has decided to make it a separate area. ⁴Some of the courses in Areas 7 and 8 in the Liberal Arts Core (starred in the Catalog) simultaneously count towards the satisfaction of requirements in Areas 3, 4, or 5.