Clusters
- Knowledge does not come in neat one-course-at-a-time packages. Clusters, three or more courses that relate to some theme, help you develop key intellectual skills by fostering the ability to bridge disciplines and understand their interconnections.
-
Clusters prompt awareness of interdisciplinary connections by requiring students to take three courses in an approved cluster, from at least two different departments. Possibilities would include three courses in any of the existing ID programs and/or clusters of courses proposed by faculty groups and approved by the General Education Board such as “Art and Technology,” “Global Cultures,” or “Life in the Universe.” The committee envisions that the list of approved clusters would change over time with new clusters being proposed and older ones, if no longer a focus of interest, disappearing over time.
-
Students may work with their advisors to create a Student Organized Cluster (STOC). A STOC should follow the normal guidelines for clusters: at least three courses that relate to a common theme from two or more departments, no more than one from the department of the major (one from each department for interdepartmental or double majors). A STOC may not be used to complete the cluster requirement using what is essentially the same topic or subject as an existing Cluster. (For example, an advisor cannot approve ‘Women’s Issues’ as a STOC given we have a ‘Women and Gender Studies’ Cluster.) The STOC must be defined by the student and approved by the student’s advisor before the end of the junior year; i.e. approval should be completed no later than the pre-registration advising period at the end of the junior year. No student may declare a STOC in the senior year.
-
Students with a regular departmental major may count one course from their major department toward their cluster. Students with an interdepartmental or full double major may count one course from each department. (Courses required for a major but outside the major department may be included in a cluster.)
-
Students automatically satisfy the Cluster requirement by completing either a major or a minor in an interdisciplinary program an Organizing Theme major or minor. (Note: this includes having an interdisciplinary program as one-half of an Interdepartmental major; e.g. Economics/American Studies.)
-
Students declare or change their cluster in the WebAdvising system.
-
Faculty will see their advisee's cluster choice just below the major and minor in the WebAdvising system.
