Liberal Studies Program

Common Core

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Chicago Quarter

LSP 110 Discover Chicago
Discover Chicago courses, which begin with an immersion week one week prior to the official start of the autumn quarter, acquaint first-year students at DePaul with the metropolitan community, its neighborhoods, cultures, people, institutions, organizations and urban issues. There are a variety of topics from which students may choose. Learning is accomplished through a variety of means, but particularly through first hand observation, participation, personal discovery and reflection. These classes continue to meet throughout the autumn quarter but with reduced hours. Students also learn about university resources, college life, and how to be a successful student. All first-year students are required to take an Explore Chicago course or a Discover Chicago course during the autumn quarter.

If you choose Discover Chicago, class begins one week before autumn quarter. Classes start with Immersion Week; you will spend the week of Monday, August 30th to Friday, September 3rd, 2010, interacting with the city and its inhabitants.

LSP 111 Explore Chicago
Explore Chicago courses acquaint DePaul first-year students with the metropolitan community, its neighborhoods, cultures, people, institutions, organizations and urban issues. There are a variety of topics from which students may choose. Learning is accomplished through a variety of means, but particularly through lecture, discussion, guest lecturers, first hand observation, participation, personal discovery and reflection. Students also learn about university resources, college life, and how to be a successful student. All first-year students are required to take an Explore Chicago course or a Discover Chicago course during the autumn quarter.

If you choose Explore Chicago, courses begin with the regular autumn quarter; you will explore various aspects of the city through lectures, discussions, readings, and at least three field excursions.

Both options include Common Hour which covers topics such as educational planning and career development, diversity, academic citizenship and socially responsible leadership among others.

Please visit the LSP Course Descriptions page for complete listing of Discover and Explore Chicago courses.  If questions arise please contact the First-Year Program at firstyr@depaul.edu.

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Focal Point Seminar

Focal Point Seminars investigate a significant person, place, text, idea or event through multiple methodological or disciplinary perspectives, learning how scholars strive to understand a singular topic in increasingly focused ways. Courses stress "seminar behavior" -- active learning through critical questioning, speaking, listening and discussing, and reading and writing extensively about primary sources or original works. The various topics are framed from the faculty member's experience and intellectual perspective. Only first-year students in the College of Commerce, College of Communication, College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM), College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and the School of Education who have successfully completed WRD 103 are eligible to enroll.

Please visit the LSP Course Descriptions page for complete listing of Focal Point Seminar courses.

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Mathematical and Technological Literacy

The Mathematical and Technological Literacy (formerly Quantitative Reasoning) requirement consists of two courses, LSP 120 and LSP 121, that are designed to help students become confident and critical users of quantitative information, developing facility in the use of spreadsheets (Excel), word processors (Word), email (Telnet), presentation software (PowerPoint) and the Internet (Netscape or Internet Explorer). They will develop quantitative skills in estimation, percentage change, proportional reasoning, scaling, descriptive statistics, and simple mathematical models (linear and exponential).

Students who complete LSP 120 and LSP 121 for their Mathematical and Technological Literacy requirement will reduce by one the number of courses they must take to meet their Learning Domain Area requirements. This course reduction can come from any one of the six Learning Domains, as long as the student still takes at least one course from each Domain and as long as the student still completes the laboratory and quantitative requirements in the Scientific Inquiry area.

Students whose program of study requires calculus or discrete mathematics are exempt from the Mathematical and Technological Literacy requirement.

Students may elect to take a proficiency exam to place out of one or both courses in the Mathematical and Technological Literacy sequence.

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First-Year Writing

All first year students take at least two first year writing courses offered by the Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse (WRD) Department. Some students begin with WRD 102, which prepares students for college writing. All students take WRD 103, a course about the forms, methods, expectations, and conventions of writing at the university level, and WRD 104, a course about conducting academic research and writing papers that make defensible arguments and incorporate material from a variety of sources.

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Sophomore Seminar on Multiculturalism in the U.S.

Students are required to take an approved Liberal Studies course that addresses some dimension of multiculturalism in the context of the United States. Multiculturalism encompasses various dimensions of identity, including but not limited to issues of race and ethnicity, class, gender, language, religion, sexual orientation, disability as well as nationality. These issues and their interrelationships regarding the experiences of individuals and groups are the foci of the seminars. In addition, courses generally include the examination of the history of multiculturalism. Students are asked to develop a critical perspective about the meaning of multiculturalism and provide an understanding of the historical and/or contemporary manifestations of inequality. The seminars examine the contributions of at least three cultural/and or ethnic groups to the ongoing development of the American experience and American society and culture. Examples of course titles include: Multicultural Literacy and the American Autobiography; Multiculturalism in the U.S.: Latino Perspectives; History of U.S. Women to 1860; Diversity in the Workplace; and The American Religious Experience.

Please visit the LSP Course Descriptions page for complete listing of Sophmore Seminar courses.

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Junior Year Experiential Learning

The experiential learning requirement engages students in the first-hand discovery of knowledge through observation and participation in activities in an unpredictable setting, usually (but not exclusively) off-campus. Students are asked to reflect on what they have learned about themselves, others, and a larger social context given the connection between course content and their experience. To do this, they may have contact with a community, an international setting, a workforce environment, or take on a role in the classroom or laboratory that is substantively different than that of student, such as model the professional behavior of a researcher or teacher.

Courses may be offered in a student's major, and can meet both major field and liberal studies requirements. Students who complete one course to fulfill both major field credit and liberal studies credit, will complete an additional domain elective (from outside the major). The third language course of the modern language option can fulfill this domain elective.

The following types of courses will fulfill the junior year experiential learning requirement:

  1. Internship and Cooperative Education
    Courses taken in conjunction with internship and cooperative education programs offer students the opportunity to apply concepts learned in the classroom to work site experiences: workplace ethics and activities, diversity, values-based leadership, hiring processes, communication networks, organizational culture, etc. In addition to intellectual growth, students gain career awareness and develop work-related skills. There are several internship and co-op programs and courses available to students: University Internship and Co-op Program, college-specific programs, and department-specific programs.

  2. Study Abroad
    Study abroad and domestic travel programs emphasize social, political, historical and cultural understanding through intensive or extensive immersion in the lives and histories of people outside the socio-cultural context of Chicago. Although the majority of programs are completed in one quarter, some study abroad programs range in duration from two weeks to a complete academic year. Programs for less than one quarter are taught by DePaul faculty who help students link the experience of travel (either abroad or domestic) with particular topics or content. Longer programs abroad provide students with an extensive immersion experience that reinforces and compliments classroom learning with teachers and students at foreign institutions.

  3. Community-based Service-Learning (CbSL)
    CbSL courses engage students in responsible and challenging experiences in community organizations that relate directly to the topic of the course in which they are enrolled. CbSL courses offer students the opportunity to explore issues of social inequality and injustice, as well as the powerful work conducted by community-based organizations. CbSL courses are found throughout the undergraduate curriculum. Students have the opportunity to reflect upon what they have learned through their community service during class discussions. Information on service learning opportunities is available through DePaul's Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning.

  4. Academic Practicum
    This category includes courses such as scientific laboratory research which involves extensive field or laboratory work or student teaching where students apply pedogical theories in the role of educator in a classroom environment under their charge. All academic practicums must be closely supervised, evaluated and graded by a faculty member.

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Senior Year Capstone

Students are required to take a Liberal Studies capstone course in their major field during their senior year. Some Liberal Studies capstone courses may be offered jointly for students in related majors and fields of study. These courses provide students with an opportunity to integrate their major area of study with broader issues raised in their general education program. The Liberal Studies capstone experience allows students to see the relationship between the ideas, perspectives, and substantive areas of scholarship and creative work within their major field and those learned through significant aspects of their course work in the learning domain courses and other courses and experiences of the Liberal Studies Program.

A liberal studies capstone course can meet both major field and liberal studies requirements. Students who complete one course to fulfill both major field credit and liberal studies credit, will complete an additional domain elective (from outside the major). The third language course of the modern language option can fulfill this domain elective.

Because the course is offered through the major field department, students must receive a grade of C- or better in this course.

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