Required Proficiencies - Baccalaureate Programs

The ability to communicate and use information effectively is critical to both professional achievement and the fulfillment of public responsibilities and personal relationships. The faculty at St. Catherine University support and encourage the development of oral and written communication and information and technology skills. Throughout the curriculum, whether core requirements or courses directly associated with your major, you will learn to communicate to a variety of audiences and access and manipulate information in myriad ways. The University provides a Writing/Reading Center with professional and student staff ready to assist you to improve your communication skills and a Computing Services Center that offers training and help desk support for your academic computing needs.

BACCALAUREATE WRITING REQUIREMENT
Clear, eloquent writing opens doors to worlds students aspire to enter. At St. Catherine University, writing competency is required of all students as part of the basic process of earning a degree. To this end, each student must take four writing-intensive courses. This University writing requirement is fulfilled in the following ways:

CORE WRITING REQUIREMENT
Both CORE 1000 The Reflective Woman and CORE 3990 Global Search for Justice are writing-intensive courses. Successful completion of the two courses fulfills two writing-intensive course requirements.

WRITING REQUIREMENT FOR MAJOR
You must take one writing-intensive course, or the equivalent of one writing-intensive course, in your major. In those disciplines where the writing requirement has been integrated throughout the departmental curriculum, you fulfill the major's writing requirement through drafting and redrafting a sequence of writing assignments in several courses, following plans specially devised for majors. If you plan to complete a major through another Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC) school, you should consult with the dean of arts and sciences to determine the St. Catherine's writing-intensive course(s) related to your major
that can satisfy this component of the writing requirement.

FOURTH COURSE REQUIREMENT
A fourth and final writing-intensive course may be taken in the form of any other writing-intensive course, whether elective or required for a major or minor course of study. ENGL 2000 Writing for Life: Developing Skill and Confidence, a composition course with emphases upon the writing process, drafting techniques and concerns with audience, is recommended for students wanting a course focusing exclusively upon writing. All writing-intensive courses are indicated by a "WRIT" course attribute (see online course catalog and course schedule). A list of the courses that meet this requirement for the 2007-08 academic year are listed below.

LIST OF WRITING INTENSIVE COURSE FOR 2009-2010*
*List is subject to change.

Majors that have elected to integrate writing across the curriculum will describe their plans in separate departmental materials. Consult your major advisor for information on your major's writing requirement. An expository writing course transferred from another college or university may be credited as one writing-intensive course, depending upon approval from the director of writing programs and the registrar.

INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY PROFICIENCY
The information and technology proficiency requirement is integrated into the course work for majors of most departments. You will be expected to use discipline-appropriate computer applications (e.g., word processing, graphing, database searching, statistical analysis, spreadsheet construction) in courses within your major and in the required mathematics or statistics course. Information technology is also addressed in CORE 1000 The Reflective Woman.

In the event that the major does not fulfill the requirement, the department will advise you on an alternative method for its completion (e.g., successful completion of INFM 2500, PHYS 1110, CSCI 1060 or any other St. Catherine's computer science course).

If you plan to pursue a major through the ACTC, you should consult with the Office of Academic Affairs on an acceptable way to demonstrate satisfaction of this requirement.