Politics

JOE P. DUNN
JOHN M. THEILMANN, Chair
ALLISON VICK

Department Mission Statement

To develop students with the traditional liberal arts skills: to read and analyze challenging material within their discipline, to write coherently, and to articulate their views competently. Through this preparation, our students will have the skills to pursue graduate study in various fields or to enter the job market successfully.

Politics

The department offers a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in politics that consists of a minimum of 36 hours of course-work as distributed below. Internships do not apply to the 36 hour minimum.

Student Learning Outcomes for Politics Majors

Because no common core of specific content knowledge is expected, each student through the individual course curriculum that she selects will pursue a somewhat different path. However, whatever the mix of specific study in the various areas and subfields of political science that she follows, she will develop the liberal arts skills designated in the department mission statement. We trust that each student enhances her capabilities in the learning outcomes as she gains experience through completion of individual courses. The department’s assessment of the fulfillment of the learning outcomes resides in the Senior Capstone Seminar in which each student is expected to validate that she can:

Read and interpret political science material and demonstrate how a student of political science approaches political phenomena.
Conduct research by formulating valid research questions, identifying source materials, organizing data, and completing an article length paper that reflects proper documentation and citation practices.
Demonstrate the oral skills to present and defend research conclusions in a presentation before peers.

Consistent with the emphasis on preparing students for graduate study in a diverse array of fields or for success in whatever vocational fields that they pursue, a secondary identification that reflects that the department’s mission statement is being achieved is the annual record of our students’ post undergraduate accomplishments. Traditionally our majors have pursued law, international diplomacy, public policy, public administration, business, teaching at the secondary or college levels, the nonprofit sector, library science, and many other fields too numerous to list. The department maintains records of the next step in the life process for each member of each graduating class of majors.

The General Education Program is a requirement for all degrees. The requirements listed below are approved for the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Fine Arts.

ENG 101	3 hours
Language and Culture	9 hours
MTH 108 or higher	3 hours
One course designated as Quantitative reasoning	3–4 hours
Health and Well-being Wellness	2 hours
Activity course	1–2 hours
Humanities	6 hours
Literature	3 hours
Fine Arts	6 hours
Natural Science	7–8 hours
Social Science	6 hours
Total	49–52 hours

Graduation requirements but not a separate course:

First Year Seminar
Writing Intensive course
Non-European/non-Anglophone course Capstone experience.
- For more information see the GEP requirements in this catalog.

Degrees and Certificates

Courses

POL 101: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

Class Program