Overview
What are General Education Clusters?
The College's General Education Cluster Program is a curricular initiative that is designed to strengthen the intellectual skills of entering freshmen, introduce them to faculty research work, and expose them to such "best practices" in teaching as seminars and interdisciplinary study. Clusters are year-long, collaboratively taught, interdisciplinary courses that are focused on a topic of timely importance such as the "global environment," or "interracial dynamics." These courses are taught by some of the university's most distinguished faculty and seasoned graduate students and are open only to entering freshmen. During the fall and winter quarters, students attend lecture courses and small discussion sections and/or labs. In the spring quarter, these same students enroll in one of a number of satellite seminars dealing with topics related to the cluster theme.
Advantages of Taking General Education Clusters
- Study with distinguished faculty from different areas
- Delve into thematic, interdisciplinary material
- Join a vital intellectual community
- Complete a third of your general education requirements
- Satisfy the general education seminar requirement
- Fulfill the College's Writing II requirement
- Receive priority enrollment in English 3 (Writing I) class, fall or winter quarter
- Receive College Honors credit for all three quarters
- Gain priority enrollment for winter and spring quarters
