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UNT’s 2011 Core Curriculum
William Cherry
Discover the Power of the Core
Advisor Development Day: October 22, 2010

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Brief History and Background
The State of Texas mandates public institutions of higher
education to have a core curriculum, which must include:
state-mandated component areas (36 hours):
English (6 hours)
US History (6 hours)
Math (3 hours)
Social/Behavioral science
(3 hours)
Science (6 hours)
Government (6 hours)
Humanities (3 hours)
Visual/Performing Arts
(3 hours)
institutional option (6 hours)
A few years ago UNT was required to reduce its core
curriculum from 47 hours to 42 hours.
To do this, UNT reduced the number of hours in natural
science courses for non-science majors and began re-thinking
its institutional option.

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In UNT’s prior core, our institutional option consisted of
three component areas:
communication diversity wellness.
The current core curriculum requirements were always
intended to be transitional – a way to buy us some time to
carefully consider what we wanted the institutional option of
our core curriculum to be. Courses in the prior areas were
lumped together into “Understanding the Human
Community.”
In the Fall 2011 Core our institutional option will consist of:
Discovery (3 hours)
Capstone (3 hours)
Notice that the new institutional option does not emphasize a
type of knowledge for a student to acquire, but a type of
experience for the student to have, experiences which could,
in principle, be provided by courses in any discipline.

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Don’t panic!
As the new core comes into effect next fall, an important message
we as advisors need to get out to students is that most continuing
students will be able to choose between working with the old core
requirements or moving forward to the new catalog to elect the
new core requirements.
Core curriculum requirements go with the catalog year the
student’s degree plan is linked to. Students who do not move
forward to the new catalog will continue to work under the old
(current) core curriculum requirements.
New in-state transfer students who indicate they planned their
community college courses according to a catalog in force
when they were in community college (as long as it wasn’t too
far back) MAY elect to continue working in the older catalog.
New freshmen and new out-of-state transfers (I think) will be
required to work from the new Fall 2011 requirements.

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State mandated component areas
There will be no changes in the general intent of the state
mandated portion of the core curriculum (English, Math,
Science, US History, etc.).
HOWEVER, the change in the core was used as an
opportunity to re-examine all the courses in each component
area. Thus, although many of the courses we are familiar with
meeting a core requirement still do, there have been some
changes, and some courses have moved component areas. For
example,
PHIL 2600 (Ethics in Science) is moving from Social and
Behavioral Science to Humanities.
HLTH 2200 (Family Life and Human Sexuality) moved from
the soon-to-be-defunct Understanding the Human Community
to Social and Behavioral Sciences.

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Where can I find out which courses meet which
requirement?
The Registrar’s Office has created an “unofficial” website listing
the courses in each component area:
http: // essc. unt. edu/ registrar/ dars/ 2011CoreInProg. htm
Sometime over the next few weeks as the 2011 Catalog goes to
print this will become an official website that may be easier to find.

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English
TECM 1700, Introduction to Professional, Science and Technical
Writing, is a new alternative to ENGL 1310, College Writing I.

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Mathematics
Math 1100 is changing its name from “College Algebra” to
just “Algebra” and will no longer count toward UNT’s core
requirement in mathematics. (DON’T PANIC)
If a student completes Math 1100 prior to Fall 2011, Math 1100 WILL still satisfy the math core
requirement, even if the student moves forward to a new catalog.
If an in-state transfer student takes college algebra at an institution that considers college algebra
to meet its mathematics core requirement, that course will automatically transfer meeting UNT’s
math core requirement.
For out-of-state transfer students, a reasonable policy would be that if college algebra completes
the math requirement at the institution the student is transferring from, it should also meet UNT’s
math requirement.
Basic Principle: Students who in good faith believe they have already completed their math
requirement prior to transfer should not have to take another math class just to satisfy university
core. [They may need another math class to satisfy a college-level or department-level degree
requirement.]

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“College” Algebra (continued)
Math 1100 does not really provide students any knowledge or
skills that they should not have already acquired in high
school.
Math 1100 was viewed as a significant obstacle by many
students.
Math 1100 was never intended or designed as a terminal
course. It was designed to prepare students for Pre-calculus
and calculus.
We have other courses (Math 1580 and Math 1680) that
provide non-technical students with a more meaningful
mathematics experience that gives them “added value”
beyond what they were supposed to learn in high school and
should generally be less of an obstacle to student persistence
and graduation.

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Good Math Advising is Now Trickier and More Important
Starting next fall, students should only be advised to enroll in
Math 1100 if they are contemplating majors in math, science,
engineering, or some programs in the College of Education.
The fact that Math 1100 is not in the core opens an
opportunity to have a discussion with a student about
whether math, science, or engineering is really the right major
for him or her.
Beginning in Fall 2011, we will bring back MATH 1180,
College Math for Business, Economics, and Related Fields.
Business and BA Economics students who would now take
Math 1100 should take Math 1180 instead. Math 1180 does
satisfy core.

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Conceptual Framework for Institutional Option
DOORWAYS:
DISCOVERY is a doorway into academic life at UNT.
CAPSTONE experiences are intended to serve as a doorway
leading from UNT to a student’s life after graduation.

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DISCOVERY
Discovery courses should:
be taken early in a student’s time at UNT,
help students acclimate themselves to an academic
environment,
introduce students to UNT values, resources, and
opportunities,
help students feel they are part of a community.
Types of Discovery courses
Some courses that were formerly part of “Understanding the
Human Community” have been reconfigured into Discovery
courses.
First year seminars
Introductory courses in various majors

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DISCOVERY (continued)
Some Discovery courses are upper-level and intended primarily
for new transfer students. For example
MGMT 3330, Communicating in Business
CJUS 3700, Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice
Discovery courses will be judged, in part, based on how they
affect things like freshmen-to-sophomore persistence.
Discovery courses are singled out to be held responsible for
helping new students feel as if they belong somewhere at
UNT. (This is more important as UNT grows to be huge.)
They give UNT a mechanism to implement things such as
“learning communities.”

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CAPSTONE
Capstone courses are intended to:
be taken when students are juniors are seniors, have
completed all other areas of the core, and are a good way
through their majors; Many students will take capstone
experiences their final semester at UNT.
help students synthesize the knowledge and learning they have
experienced while at UNT;
prepare students to apply the various kinds of knowledge they
have learned in a closer-to-real-world setting.

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CAPSTONE (continued)
Types of Capstone experiences
Major Specific Capstones, such as:
Student teaching
Studio Art
Senior Recital
Honors Thesis
General Interest Capstones such as:
MATH 3870, Inventing Statistics
PHIL 3700, Science, Technology, and Society
PHIL 3900, Philosophy of Food

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A side-benefit of Capstone & Discovery
Most majors which require a large amount of hours will have
discovery and capstone options which also count toward the
major. This will make it easier for some students to graduate
on time.

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Intentionality
How is the Core often viewed?
A series of hurdles to get through before a student is allowed
to take courses they are interested in.
A series of boxes to check.
A series of courses somewhat haphazardly chosen from a
broad menu of options.
How would we rather the Core function?
As a scaffolding which provides intellectual support enabling
students to get the most out of the courses in their major
program.
Courses intentionally chosen to provide maximum support to a
student’s program and interests.

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How can we help advisors help advance student
intentionality?
Look for programs to provide advisor “guidance” sheets indicating
core courses that are particularly well-suited as support to
particular programs.
Does the major REQUIRE specific capstones?
Is there a course that is a major requirement and also meets
the discovery core requirement?
If a particular discovery or capstone course is not required by
the major, are there some that the program prefers or
recommends?
Are there courses within the state-mandated component areas
that might be better choices than some other courses for
certain majors? For instance, for math majors, absent a
particular preference by the student, I like to recommend
Economics for social and behavioral science and philosphy for
humanities.

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Improving Communication with Students about the Intent
and Benefits of the Core
We would like to better communicate with students about
why they are required to complete a core curriculum and why
we believe the core curriculum is a benefit to them.
We will better publicize the learning objectives associated with
each core component area.
We may use Discovery courses as an opportunity to bring in
alumni to talk with students about the UNT community and
about how knowledge and skills they acquired in the core
curriculum has been useful to them in their post-UNT lives.

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An opportunity for improved assessment of the core
Most students enrolled in capstone courses will have
completed all the other core component areas.
As part of the process of being accepted as a capstone course,
the course must agree to devote an hour of class time to a
university-wide effort at assessing the core curriculum as a
coherent whole.
This will give us an opportunity to do more sophisticated
assessments as to whether the core is working as intended and
give us a sense of whether some courses are doing better or
worse jobs at meeting the goals of the core.

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Courses in multiple component areas
In the Fall 2011 core, courses may apply to be part of multiple
component areas of the core.
examples
ART 1300, Art Appreciation, is both a Discovery and
Visual/Performing Arts course.
AGER 2250, Images of Aging Through Film and Literature, is
both a Discovery and Social/Behavioral Science course.
When a course is in multiple areas of the core, a student may only
use the course to satisfy one area of the core, but he or she may
choose which one. Thus, some students may use ART 1300 to
satisfy their discovery requirement, whereas other students will use
ART 1300 to satisfy their visual and performing arts requirement.