College of Arts & Sciences: Core Curriculum

"The core curriculum is the hallmark of a University of Portland degree because it provides a unique liberal arts base for every  major program.  It is the core curriculum that differentiates a University of Portland engineer, business major, nurse, or teacher from someone who majors in these disciplines at other colleges and universities.  Our core curriculum is framed within the context of Catholic higher education's rich tradition of the liberal arts rooted in a series of questions that examines our understanding of God, our relationship with Him, the world we live in, and the way in which we because of our talents and education can improve that world." -- Br. Donald Stabrowski, C.S.C., Provost

The Core Curriculum is premised on the idea that no discipline by itself is sufficient to discover the truth. Reasoned inquiry must cross scholarly disciplines to engage and inform each of them. In the Catholic tradition, there is an emphasis on strong and diverse core requirements in order to prompt students to engage with fundamental questions of existence in a cross-disciplinary way, rather than holding that one particular discipline has all the answers, the unitary way to the Truth. At University of Portland we want to cultivate the Socratic virtue of being aware of our own ignorance while provoking students to engage in the search for truth.

Our Core Curriculum encourages students to use multiple lenses in investigating the pressing questions of existence, and to see that each of these lenses gives a true, yet partial understanding of the universe and all its experience. The Core is grounded in fundamental questions. Each course in the Core Curriculum offers a perspective on answering these questions and prompts the student to engage more deeply with them. In the diverse study that comprises the Core Curriculum, students learn the necessity of integrating fields of study as they grapple with these fundamental questions. In doing this, students also learn to solve complex problems, make effective decisions, and serve the common good.  

Each of our core courses embeds certain Core Skills, such as writing and analytical and logical reasoning. In developing these skills students acquire the tools they will need to contribute to and flourish in an increasingly complex world.

In their post-collegiate lives our students will be citizens, friends, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters, amongst other things, in addition to whatever professional identity they may have chosen. Indeed, many people who train for a particular profession end up leaving that profession for one reason or another. We believe that our students are here not just to learn to be nurses or engineers or accountants, but are here also as whole persons, and that is what we educate. In the words of The Blessed Basil Moreau, founder of the Holy Cross order, we educate the hands, the head, and the heart. The Core Questions are the heart of the Core. The Embedded Elements or Core Skills are the hands.  The disciplinary content of the courses that comprise the Core is the head, which allows us to explore the heart and engage in practice with the hands.