105 Foust Building • 336-334-5241 • aas.uncg.edu

Amy Adamson, Professor and Interim Dean of the College
Stuart Marcovitch, Professor and Interim Associate Dean for Research
Maura Heyn, Professor and Associate Dean

About

Through its programs, courses, and faculty, the College of Arts and Sciences empowers students to succeed by embracing the challenges of a complex, changing world. A liberal education also prepares students for informed and reflective participation in society, for sustained cultural and aesthetic enjoyment, and for a lifetime of learning.

Mission Statement

The College of Arts and Sciences promotes discovery and learning by students and faculty in the sciences, the humanities, and the arts. Firmly grounded in a tradition of rigorous disciplinary inquiry, the College also recognizes the value of connections made across disciplinary boundaries and so supports and encourages interdisciplinary and collaborative scholarship and teaching. The College is dedicated to the liberal arts mission of higher education, which is to develop the knowledge and understanding needed by citizens of a free and just society. The College faculty are committed to offering courses and programs that prepare students to meet the challenges they will face throughout their lives by emphasizing skills of reasoning, writing, speaking, and independent thinking.

Dean's Welcome

Welcome to The College of Arts & Sciences at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. We are the largest of the university’s seven academic units, with 19 departments and six interdepartmental programs that encompass the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics. Through this diversity of offerings, the College provides an education that will give you the skills and knowledge needed for success in the complex and changing world you will face after graduation.

No matter where your career takes you, it will be important to remain flexible and confident of your ability to succeed throughout your working life. Employers are interested in people with flexible skills and a wide-ranging, multidisciplinary perspective. This is just what the College of Arts & Sciences has designed its curriculum to provide. The 21st century world may be full of unexpected challenges, but your experience here will prepare you to embrace those challenges as well as the opportunities they bring with them.

There are a number of ways in which faculty and staff guide your intellectual development so that you can succeed in your studies and prepare for the wide variety of career paths that will be open to you. We emphasize, for example, strong writing and speaking skills, critical thinking, international understanding, research and other “hands-on” experience. As you gain deeper knowledge in your major, you’ll be encouraged to also explore electives across a variety of subjects. Therefore, becoming conversant in more than one field is another important benefit of your time in the College.

Across all of the College’s academic programs, our renowned faculty members share a deep commitment to advancing discovery and learning; they bring that commitment both to classroom settings and to hands-on experiences such as research and internships. Your professors will be accomplished researchers, scholars, and artists, many with national and international reputations. At the same time, they are enthusiastic and dedicated teachers. Whatever the setting, their teaching and mentoring is informed and enlivened by their personal involvement in discovering new knowledge, exploring new artistic forms, or applying the results of research in new contexts.

I invite you to explore the College and what a learning experience here might mean for you. Each of our departments and programs has its own web site. You’ll find that by maintaining strong programs of research and scholarship, the College faculty work to advance our understanding of fundamental problems facing society today. You, too, will be able to use the knowledge and skills you learn here to succeed in the paths you take after graduation, enriching your own life while contributing to society.

Amy Adamson, Ph.D.
Interim Dean

Advising

CASA, the College advising center, provides academic assistance for first-year students.

General Education and/or CIC Credit through Study Abroad

In addition to the previously listed General Education courses, students may receive General Education Core and Marker credit and Additional College General Education (CIC) credit for courses taken through Study Abroad. For more information, see the General Education Program topic in the University Requirements section of this catalog.

Majors

Requirements for each of the degrees offered by the College of Arts and Sciences are included in the descriptions of majors, concentrations, and minors under the respective departments.

Major Requirements

Major requirements are described for each program listed. A course cross-listed in the major department must be taken within the major and counts toward the total hours in the major.

Minor Requirements

Most departments and interdepartmental programs of the College offer a minor program which may be taken in conjunction with a major. A minor usually requires 15 to 21 credit hours in a department and at least 9 credits must be taken in residence at UNC Greensboro.

Second Majors

A student may take a second major in conjunction with the first major. This program requires a minimum of 27 credits in each of two approved majors. All requirements of each major must be met; hours from the second major can be applied toward the General Education requirements.

A student with a first major outside the College who chooses a second major in one of the College departments is required to complete all of the departmental requirements for the second major but need not satisfy the Communicating Ideas in Context requirements (CIC). Similarly, students who are seeking either a dual degree or a second degree are exempt from the Communicating Ideas in Context requirements (CIC). In the case of transfer students, at least 15 credits in each major must be taken at UNC Greensboro.

Communicating Ideas in Context (CIC) 

In addition to developing the core competencies of UNC Greensboro’s Minerva’s Academic Curriculum (MAC) and the specialized knowledge within their field, College of Arts and Sciences majors will also complete the College of Arts and Sciences’ Communicating Ideas in Context (CIC) curriculum.  Answering the important questions of our time and solving the serious problems that we face will require the cooperation and the collaboration of a diverse group of committed, thoughtful, and knowledgeable people. Such cooperation and collaboration are built on excellent communication skills. 

The College of Arts and Sciences’ Communicating Ideas in Context (CIC) curriculum is designed to strengthen your communication skills by developing:

• your skill as a writer so that you can communicate effectively;
• your understanding of how and why different types of academic disciplines make sense of our world and the people within it, so that you can work successfully with diverse teams who approach tasks with different assumptions, perspectives, and values;
• and your ability to communicate multilingually, so that you can be an active, contributing partner in our global community.

CIC Requirements 

1. Complete two (2) courses with a College Writing (CW) attribute.

2. Complete twelve (12) additional credit hours distributed across three (3) categories:

• CIC Humanities (6 credits)
• CIC Natural and Data Sciences (3 credits)
• CIC Social and Behavioral Sciences (3 credits)

3. Complete an additional language or culture requirement.

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1. CIC College Writing Requirement

• In addition to the MAC Written Communication competency, students in the College of Arts and Sciences must complete 2 courses at the 200 level or above carrying the College Writing (CW) attribute. At least 1 of these courses must be in the student's major.
• Courses with a College Writing (CW) attribute can also be used to fulfill requirements for the student's majors and/or minors and the CIC Breadth of Knowledge requirement.
• Students who transfer 60 or more credits to UNC Greensboro are exempt from the CIC College Writing Requirement.

2. CIC Breadth of Knowledge Requirement

• In addition to the MAC, students must complete 12 additional credits distributed across three categories:
  • CIC Humanities (6 credits)
  • CIC Natural and Data Sciences (3 credits)
  • CIC Social and Behavioral Sciences (3 credits)
• The categories of courses are defined by the following course prefixes/courses:
  • CIC Humanities: ADS, ASL, BLS, CCI, CHI, ENG, FRE, GER, HIS, IAR, JNS, LLC, MST, PHI, REL, RUS, SPA, WGS
  • CIC Natural and Data Sciences: AST, BIO, CHE, CSC, GES, MAT, PHY, STA
  • CIC Social and Behavioral Sciences: ATY, CST, IGS, PSC, PSY, SOC, SSC

The 12 credits can be at any undergraduate level (100-499). Transfer credits that are not equivalent to specific UNC Greensboro courses can also be used to fulfill the Breadth of Knowledge requirements, as long as they are at the undergraduate level and include these course prefixes: ADS, AST, ATY, BIO, BLS, CCI, CHE, CSC, CST, ENG GES, HIS, IAR, IGS, LLC, MAT, MST, PHI, PHY, PSC, PSY, REL, SOC, SSC, STA, WGS.

Three of the 12 Breadth of Knowledge credits may also be used to fulfill requirements for the student's primary major (i.e., the 3 credits can be used to fulfill both a major requirement and a Breadth of Knowledge requirement).

Credits used to fulfill the College Writing requirement may also be used to fulfill the Breadth of Knowledge requirement.

However, 101-204 language courses used to fulfill the Additional-Language Requirement cannot be used to fulfill the Breadth of Knowledge requirement.

Students who transfer 60 or more credits to UNC Greensboro are exempt from the CIC Breadth of Knowledge requirement.

3. CIC Additional Language Proficiency Requirement*

Students are encouraged to take a placement test to determine what level they should start with the additional language. For both BA and BS students, the demonstration of proficiency of an additional language above the 204-level (either via placement test that indicates placement above 204 or successful completion of a 300-level language class) will satisfy this requirement.

• BA students (0-12 hours) - can be satisfied in one of two ways:
  1. Successfully complete a 203 course in an additional language and complete a 204 course in the same language. 
  2. Successfully complete a 203 course in an additional language and complete a course carrying the CIC Culture (CC) attribute.
• BS students (0-6 hours) - can be satisfied in one of three ways:
  1. 6 hours of additional language coursework related to a single language, between the 101-204 level, depending on their starting point in the language.
  2. 3 hours of additional language coursework, between the 101-204 level, depending on their starting point in the language, and a course carrying the CIC Culture (CC) attribute.
  3. 6 hours of courses that carry the CIC Culture (CC) attribute.

*

• Students who transfer 60 or more credits to UNC Greensboro can satisfy this requirement by successfully completing a 102 level course. Students who transfer 90 or more credits to UNC Greensboro are exempt from this requirement.
• Students with fewer than 60 transfer credit hours who have previously completed an additional language through the 102 level, with a subsequent learning gap of five years or more (from the completion of the 102 equivalent), may apply to the College Appeals Committee for permission to use courses from the list of approved MAC Global Engagement and Intercultural Learning Competency courses as substitutions for the intermediate-level 203 and 204 language classes. These courses must be taken in addition to the courses taken to meet the MAC Global and Intercultural Competency requirement.

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The CIC requirements are waived for students in:

• the Interior Architecture, B.F.A. program.
• the Integrated Professional Studies Online major.

The following modification of the CIC requirements apply to students in the Bachelor of Arts in Liberal and Interdisciplinary Studies program:

1. Students who transfer in 60+ credit hours and do not have 101 and 102 of an additional language can complete 6 credit hours (or 3 credit hours if they have 101 credit) of MAC Global Engagement and Intercultural Learning courses to satisfy the additional language requirement.
2. The breadth of knowledge requirement and the additional language requirement are waived for reactivated students and students who change their major from outside of CAS with 90 or more credits.

Second Majors

A student may take a second major in conjunction with the first major. This program requires a minimum of 27 credits in each of two approved majors. All requirements of each major must be met; hours from the second major can be applied toward the General Education requirements.

A student with a first major outside the College who chooses a second major in one of the College departments is required to complete all of the departmental requirements for the second major but need not satisfy the Communicating Ideas in Context requirements (CIC). Similarly, students who are seeking either a dual degree or a second degree are exempt from the Communicating Ideas in Context requirements (CIC).