General Education Program

The goal of UMass Dartmouth's General Education program is to educate students to be not only proficient in their areas of specialty, but also

• To have a working understanding of the connections between disciplines;
• To appreciate and respect the differences among ourselves;
• To be ethical, culturally-aware, and socially-responsible citizens;
• To be quantitative and rational thinkers; and
• To be effective and creative communicators.
  

Sustainability Initiative

A sustainable future won’t happen on its own, or by accident. It will come about only through the intentions of an educated and committed citizenry. To that end, CATLS recently conducted a dialogue among several professors, staff members, and local community leaders about developing sustainability as an academic component on campus. Under a CATLS umbrella, a multi-disciplinary curriculum in Sustainability Studies has begun to take shape...

The First-Year Seminar

Research from the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience indicates that approximately 70 percent of American colleges and universities offer some type of a freshman seminar course. Some are offered within academic departments or professional schools, and focus on introducing students to the expectations of a major or career. Others are an extension of summer orientation, and provide students with skills necessary to enhance academic success, interpersonal development, and integration into the college environment. At UMass Dartmouth, the First-Year Seminar combines the objectives of an extended orientation program with the expectations of an academic seminar.

Living-learning communities

Within UMass residence halls, a number of learning communities help students to become integrated into the university, both academically and socially. These communities provide students with clear information and guidance on what is expected of them and support services to assist them in meeting expectations. Learning communities also provide students with the chance to develop a sense of community within a culture that accepts challenges and expects success in meeting those challenges. Some of the existing residential learning communities include: Impulse, College Now, The Pathways Initiative, and The Honors Program.

UMD Honors program

The Honors program at UMD offers special opportunities for development of leadership skills and exchanges between students and faculty.

• Honors courses offer intellectual challenge and stimulation that will enrich the student's university experience.
• The UMass Dartmouth Honors Program provides an umbrella for a variety of honors activities throughout the University. The program and its director are members of the National Collegiate Honors Council and the Northeast Regional-National Collegiate Honors Council.
• Honors students may gain admission to innovative and experimental courses, projects, and programs.
• Opportunities to participate in other University activities that require nomination, such as the Writing Fellows program or the Political Science TA program, often open up to students who have challenged themselves by participating in the honors program.
• Honors curriculum is often innovate and exciting; subject matter is frequently interdisciplinary. The program also supports field trips to museums, performances, and special exhibits
  

COMPASS

"In Fall 2003, the UMass Dartmouth Learning Communities Initiative launched its first series of learning communities, linking first-year Gen-Ed courses to first-year writing courses (with the exception of an Honors Psychology/Philosophy pairing). Instructors for those linked courses collaborated on curriculum and learning outcomes in an attempt to help students see the interrelatedness of subjects and learning, and to nudge them to forge connections between disciplines where perhaps none were readily apparent, and to allow faculty to move outside their disciplinary silo..."

 

To add a project to this site, go to http://www.umassd.edu/catls/facultygallery.cfm.