Core Curriculum

La Roche University's core classes challenge you to develop the habits of mind and spirit necessary for lifelong intellectual, spiritual and cultural growth.

Core Curriculum Components

New Core Implemented in the Academic Year 20-21 for all student entering Fall 2020 and later.

Foundations of Knowledge – 15 Credits

These courses provide a foundation of skills for lifelong learning such as writing, mathematics, analytical thinking, problem solving, computer applications, information literacy, and communications.

• ENGL 1011 - Academic Reading and Writing
• ENGL 1012 - Academic Writing and Research
• MATH 1010 - College Algebra or MATH1002 - Foundations of Quantitative Reasoning
• ISTC 1010 - Digital Literacy
• SPCH1010 - Oral Communications

Modern Language Courses

Students must complete at least one introductory-level foreign language course if they have not taken a language in high school. Associate degree students, degree-completion students and adult learners are exempt from the foreign language requirement. Current options include French and Spanish.

Breadth of Knowledge: 12 Credits

These courses emphasize broad-based, liberal education and challenge students to explore the principles, methodologies and resources within areas of intellectual inquiry outside their major field of study. Twelve credits are required, including study within four of the following domains.  One domain will be fulfilled by the student's major.

• Global Perspectives
• Human Expression
• Natural and Physical World
• Social Sciences
• Values and Ethics

Global Perspectives

Courses in this area focus on the breadth and diversity of culture, countries, and societies through the use of global-centered theories or perspectives. They explore and analyze problems, issues, and phenomena impacting communities, nations, and regions in an increasingly globalizing world. 

Human Expression

Courses in this area will require students to review, analyze, and/or create works based upon established criteria within one or more fields of human artistry and expression (literature, performing arts, visual arts, etc.). Students will reflect on how such works embody the interaction of individual voice and vision with community norms and values, as well as understanding such works within their historical and artistic contexts. This exploration of diverse human experiences and perspectives will help students cultivate an awareness of self in relation to their community and the surrounding world. 

Social Sciences

Social science courses introduce students to the diversity and complexity of various social systems. Through scientific inquiry, students will examine patterns of human behavior and relationships as well as social interactions and processes. These courses will prepare students for civic engagement towards personal growth, professional goals, and responsibilities of citizenship. 

Natural and Physical World

Courses in this area focus on using the scientific method to understand the world. Students will build foundational knowledge of scientific principles and apply this knowledge to contemporary issues.  Courses will explore scientific concepts, applications, data analysis, and literature through discussions and hands-on experiments. Students will utilize this knowledge to investigate a specific topic in a project related to the natural and physical world. 

Values and Ethics

Courses in this area will examine, through historical and cultural perspectives, the nature and ramifications of being a human seeking to answer the question “how ought we to live?” Students will reflect on this question through encounters with religious, philosophical, or ethical texts and artifacts. At the same time, by emphasizing the application of ethical choices and behavior to the individual’s daily life, these courses will encourage students to examine their own social, professional, environmental, and/or religious values. 

Depth of Knowledge: 3 Credits

• INQU - Interdisciplinary Inquiry

Courses designed to engage students in an in-depth exploration of a specific topic, as viewed from multiple perspectives

Core Elective: 3 Credits

Students must choose one CORE elective from either the Breadth of Knowledge OR Interdisciplinary Inquiry course areas.

The La Roche Experience: 4 Credits

The La Roche Experience is composed of two courses. The first course is a one-credit course that focuses on the University Mission and history. The second course is a three-credit course that focuses on justice issues viewed through the lens of the University mission, while engaging with the community to plan and execute a service-learning project. Associate degree students, degree-completion students and adult learners are exempt from this requirement.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the core, students are expected to demonstrate the following characteristics, in addition to the learning outcomes described for each component and the component courses of the curriculum.

• Competence in the fundamental activities necessary for success in any field of study. 
• The power to pose academic questions in areas of intellectual inquiry outside the student’s major field of study, and to draw on the principles, methodologies and resources native to those areas in addressing these questions.
• The ability to recognize the complex, interdisciplinary nature of knowledge as it is generated in the world today, and the corresponding ability to approach issues from a variety of perspectives and with a variety of analytical tool  
• The imaginative capacity to conceptualize the interrelationships between local and global communities, and the moral capacity to act on that awareness to further freedom, peace, justice and well-being for all the world’s people.
•   The conviction that academic study is infused with ethical choices and concerns, and the courage to promote ethical beliefs and behavior in their academic and personal lives.

Core Waivers

• Students entering La Roche with 60 – 89 credits will be exempt from the 3 credits of core elective and LRX.
• Students who enter La Roche with 90 or more credits will be waived from: the 3 credits of core elective, LRX, and Interdisciplinary Inquiry
• Adult students (age 25 or older at the point of admission), students with an Associate’s Degree, and degree- completion students are not required to participate in the La Roche Experience.

All core waivers for individual students are reflected in the student’s degree audit.

Core Policy

Students may not use a course that is fulfilling a requirement within a major, minor, or certificate to also fulfill an academic core Breadth of Knowledge or Depth of Knowledge requirement.  A course used to fulfill an academic core Breadth of Knowledge or Depth of Knowledge requirement cannot also be utilized to fulfill any other degree requirement (other than Honors Institute requirements).