GE: Common Curriculum

The Seattle Pacific University General Education program is a Christian Liberal Arts curriculum tailored to SPU’s context and students. It has been designed to help students develop competence and character in the service of the common good. Students develop and deepen skills to pursue the path of wisdom and engage the culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ through both common courses (the Writing Curriculum, University Core, and Theology Core) and distribution courses (the Exploratory Curriculum).

The Common Curriculum includes nine required courses. These courses are designed to help you develop critical academic skills, to understand and engage our multicultural and complex world, and to embrace the Christian story as you become biblically and theologically literate.

Each of the courses in the Common Curriculum includes common texts and objectives to ensure common learning. A Senior Capstone course in your major rounds out the Common Curriculum.

If you completed a Direct Transfer Agreement (DTA) associate's degree or recognized equivalent, in place of the regular General Education curriculum, you are required to complete only TCOR 3001 Christian Scripture for Transfer Students, TCOR 3100 Christian Theology, and the Senior Capstone course in your major—as well as FYS 1000 First Year Seminar, if entering directly from high school.

If you are admitted to the Professional Studies Program, you follow an alternative curriculum: the Curriculum for Special Programs. Students in the Honors Program who complete the Honors Liberal Arts major will fulfill most of their General Education requirements through that major.

Common Curriculum

Course List
Code	Title	Credits
First Year Seminar
FYS 1000	First Year Seminar	3
Writing Curriculum ^{1, 2}
WRI 1000	Academic Inquiry and Writing Seminar	5
Writing in Your Major		5
Advanced Writing in Your Major		5
University Core
UCOR 2100	World History, Faith, and Reconciliation	5
UCOR 3000	Faith, Philosophy, and Science	5
Theology Core ³
TCOR 1000	The Christian Faith	5
TCOR 2000/3001	Christian Scripture	5
TCOR 3100	Christian Theology	5
Total Credits		43

¹: WRI 1000 Academic Inquiry and Writing Seminar requires a grade of C- (1.7) or higher.
²: If you enter SPU with junior or senior standing (90 transferable credits or more), you are required to complete only 10 credits in the Writing Curriculum, 5 credits of Writing in Your Major and 5 credits of Advanced Writing in Your Major.
³: If you enter SPU with junior or senior standing (90 transferable credits or more), you are required to take only TCOR 3001 Christian Scripture for Transfer Students and TCOR 3100 Christian Theology.

First Year Seminar

If you enter SPU as a first-year SPU student, you will enroll in the three-credit FYS 1000 First Year Seminar¹in autumn quarter of your freshman year. First Year Seminar is intended to introduce students to our academic community by studying and conversing about an interesting problem or academic topic with a faculty instructor and student peers.

¹: Transfer students are exempt from FYS 1000 First Year Seminar.

Theology Core

In your first year you will also complete the first of the three¹ required Theology Core courses. The three theology core courses are centered in the foundations of faith.

In TCOR 1000 The Christian Faith, completed during the freshman year, you study and reflect on the Christian life, how our faith is formed, and what it means to live in Christian community.
In TCOR 2000 Christian Scripture², completed during the sophomore year, you will study the Bible and how the diverse collections of the Old and New Testaments narrate the story of God’s redemption, reconciliation, and restoration of creation.
In TCOR 3100 Christian Theology, completed during your junior or senior year, you will learn about the doctrines that are important to Christians and the ways they influence Christian thought and life.

¹: Students who enter SPU with junior or senior standing are not required to take TCOR 1000 The Christian Faith. These students complete TCOR 3001 Christian Scripture for Transfer Students, an upper-division version of Christian Scriptures, followed by TCOR 3100 Christian Theology.
²: Students who enter SPU with 90 or more credits complete the upper-division version of this class: TCOR 3001 Christian Scripture for Transfer Students.

Writing Curriculum

The Writing Program at SPU supports students in all disciplines and majors by providing instruction in the technical, stylistic, and communicative requirements appropriate to writing in academic and professional contexts.

These courses have a substantial writing component. Faculty members spend at least one class period (and often more) providing instruction in writing, and they evaluate written work for both content and form—not only for what is said, but also for how it is said. These courses also provide opportunities for revision.

Students will take:

WRI 1000 Academic Inquiry and Writing Seminar (Requires a grade of C- (1.7) or higher).
Writing in Your Major in their second year (or later in their first year, after WRI 1000 Academic Inquiry and Writing Seminar). (minimum of 5 credits; most majors require their own courses that fulfill this category)
Advanced Writing in Your Major in their third or fourth year. (minimum of 5 credits; many majors offer multiple courses in this category)

Note: Students admitted as Juniors or Seniors complete 10 credits in the Writing Curriculum: 5 credits of Writing in Your Major and 5 credits of Advanced Writing within Your Major. In some cases, students admitted as Juniors or Seniors will have Writing in Your Major met by a transferable academic writing composition course of at least 4 quarter credits.

University Core

Two additional Core courses, taken after the freshman year, complete the Common Curriculum. These courses look at the intersections of Christian faith with contemporary society and thought.

UCOR 2100 World History, Faith, and Reconciliation explores how the modern global system was formed, with special emphasis on the history and patterns of human inequality that mark today’s societies. The course asks how we as Christians should live in a world that is both deeply divided and globally interwoven. You will study how the Christian vision for equality has broken through patterns of injustice, by introducing reconciliation into contexts of inequality.
UCOR 3000 Faith, Philosophy, and Science explores challenging questions for the Christian faith that arise from science and modern philosophy, while teaching you to articulate responses to such questions in thoughtful, informed, rational, and charitable ways.

Academic Catalog