2002-2003 Catalogue
2001-2002 Catalogue

This information was last updated on: 08/15/04 8:54:50 PM

  - Majors Offered
  - Minors Offered
  - January Program Requirement

Graduation Requirements
To qualify for the degree of bachelor of arts, a candidate must meet specific requirements in residence, quantity, quality, distribution, major, and January Program. Only those seniors who have met all graduation requirements are eligible to participate in the commencement exercises. Students who, because of extreme extenuating circumstances, find themselves unable to graduate with their class, may appeal to the Administrative Committee of the College to allow them to march with their class and receive an empty diploma cover.

The following statements define the graduation requirements.

Residence Requirement
Candidates for the degree must earn in residence at least 64 credit hours. They must be resident students at Colby for at least four semesters, including the senior year. A resident student is defined as a full-time student taking at least 12 credit hours and paying tuition charges at the semester rate.

Unless taken as part of an established institutional exchange program, credits earned at another institution while a student is registered concurrently at Colby may not be applied toward graduation requirements.

Quantity Requirement (Credits)
A minimum of 128 credit hours earned in at least eight semesters of full-time college-level study. Among the 128 credit hours, up to 15 may be earned in courses taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis, and up to 15 may be applied from field experience credits.

Quality Requirement
At least a 2.00 cumulative grade point average. For each credit hour, a mark of:

• A earns four points.
• B earns three points.
• C earns two points.
• D earns one point.
• Each plus mark earned is: .3 quality point per credit hour added.
  
• Each minus mark is: .3 quality point per credit hour deducted.
  

Distribution Requirement
No part of any requirement can be satisfied with the satisfactory/unsatisfactory option or field experience credits.

• English Composition: English 115 (Composition) is required.
• Foreign Language: This requirement may be met in one of four ways:
  1. By attaining before entrance a score of 64 or higher on the SAT-II Subject Test in a foreign language or in the Colby language placement test taken during orientation, a score of 4 or 5 in Advanced Placement language or literature, a 6 or 7 in an International Baccalaureate higher-level exam or 7 on a subsidiary exam. Refer to the section on placement in foreign languages in this catalogue for information concerning language placement tests at Colby.
  2. By successfully completing Colby’s intensive language program in Salamanca, Spain, or Dijon, France. The Salamanca language program is available either fall or spring semester; the Dijon program is available in the fall semester only. These programs are open to first-year students, sophomores, and juniors.
  3. By successfully completing a sequence of modern or classical language courses terminating with a course numbered above 126 in a modern language or Greek 131 or Latin 131. Students will be placed in the sequence according to ability.
  4. By successfully completing a previously approved intermediate-level language course at an approved college or university (see "Transferred Credits").

Students who have studied a foreign language not taught at Colby may fulfill the requirement by presenting evidence of having successfully completed at an accredited institution the intermediate level of that language.

For students whose native language is not English, knowledge of that language will be recognized as fulfilling the requirement. For a language taught at Colby, confirmation from the chair of the appropriate department must be filed with the Office of the Registrar. For languages not taught at Colby, confirmation must be attained from International Student Services in the Dean of Students Office. Testing may be required.

Areas: Students are required to pass one three- or four-credit-hour course in each of Areas I, II, III, IV, and VI, and two courses in Area V. Normally, students will be expected to complete these requirements during their first three years. Course descriptions in the catalogue include a key to the appropriate area(s) met by specific courses.

Area I ARTS: Courses in the history, theory, and/or practice of the creative arts.

Area II HISTORICAL STUDIES: Courses that investigate human experience by focusing on the development of cultures and societies as they evolve through time.

Area III LITERATURE: Courses that focus on literary works of the imagination and/or written texts in which ideas and creative or aesthetic considerations play a crucial role.

Area IV QUANTITATIVE REASONING: Courses that focus on quantitative or analytic reasoning about formally defined abstract structures.

Area V NATURAL SCIENCES: Courses that focus on the understanding of natural phenomena through observation, systematic study, and/or theoretical analysis. At least one course taken to satisfy Area V must contain a substantial laboratory component.

Area VI SOCIAL SCIENCES: Courses that focus on theoretically and methodologically directed inquiry into various aspects of human behavior and interaction.

Diversity: Students prior to the Class of 2007 are required to pass one course centrally concerned with how diversities among peoples have contributed to the richness of human experience. Courses that may be taken to fulfill the requirement are those that (a) focus on history, perspectives, or culture of non-Western peoples or on a culture whose origins lie outside of the European traditions; (b) focus on issues and/or theories of ethnicity, gender, or class as these may be found anywhere in the world; or (c) examine the nature, history, and workings of prejudice as experienced by any group.

Beginning with the Class of 2007, students are required to pass two courses that are centrally concerned with: (a) the structures, workings, and consequences of; and/or (b) efforts at political and cultural change directed against; and/or (c) progress in overcoming prejudice, privilege, oppression, inequality, and injustice. One of these courses must deal with these issues as they concern the United States, and one must deal with these issues in a context other than the United States.

Courses meeting this requirement are identified in catalogue descriptions.

First-Year Supper Seminars/ Wellness Program: Students must attend dinner lectures offered for all first-year students as part of the extended orientation called the First-Year Supper Seminars (FYSS). A variety of topics that the College has identified as fundamental health concerns for the college years will be covered. The purpose of the program is to encourage and assist in the development of responsibility for one’s own lifestyle through programs centered on mental, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual fitness. Meeting this requirement, which is certified by the Health Center, does not earn academic credit hours. In order to register for classes in their second year, all students must have attended five of seven dinner/lectures in the first year.

Members of the Class of 2005 who have not already fulfilled their wellness requirement must do so by watching approved wellness videos at the Health Center and by writing a response paper for each video.

Major Requirement
Each student must satisfy requirements of a major. Near the end of the first year, students are asked to make a declaration of intent regarding a major, either by electing a specific major or by filing an “Undeclared” statement. A major may be chosen in a single subject, in one of a number of designated combinations, or in an individually designed independent major. Students are encouraged to re-examine their choices of major during the sophomore year and are required to declare a major prior to electing courses for their junior year. The respective academic departments and programs specify the courses constituting a major; requirements are detailed in the section “Courses of Study.”

With the consent of the departments or programs concerned, a student may change majors. Forms for officially effecting such change can be obtained from the Registrar’s Office. A student may change majors at the end of the junior year if the equivalent of at least 12 credit hours, with a 2.00 average, has been earned in the new major. If, in the senior year, the average in courses completed toward the major falls below 2.00, the major requirement is not fulfilled, and the degree cannot be awarded.

Any student whose major average falls below 2.00 will be placed on probation by the Committee on Academic Standing. A student who fails to regain a 2.00 major average in the subsequent semester has lost the right to continue with that major. Each department or program designates the courses to be calculated toward retaining the major.

Majors Offered
Students may elect majors in the following disciplines:

• African-American/American Studies
• American Studies
• Anthropology
• Art
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Chemistry-A.C.S.
• Chemistry-Biochemistry
• Classical Civilization
• Classical Civilization-Anthropology
• Classical Civilization-English
• Classics
• Classics-English
• Computer Science
• East Asian Studies
• Economics
• Economics-Mathematics
• English
• Environmental Studies: Policy
• Environmental Studies: Science
• French Studies
• Geology
• Geoscience
• German Language and Literature
• German Studies
• Government
• History
• International Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Mathematics
• Mathematical Sciences
• Music
• Philosophy
• Physics
• Psychology
• Religious Studies
• Russian Language and Culture
• Science, Technology, and Society
• Sociology
• Spanish
• Theater and Dance
• Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Minors
In addition to a major, students may also elect a minor. A minor normally consists of five to seven courses and involves a coherent progression of courses including both introductory exposure to a field of knowledge and advanced work. A minor must include at least four courses taken in addition to courses taken to satisfy requirements for any major or other minor. Students must maintain a 2.00 average in the minor. Current minors are as follows:

January Program Requirement
The January Program, introduced in 1961-62, grew from a desire to extend to students a greater measure of academic responsibility. January is a period during which topics may be pursued single-mindedly, free from the competing demands of an orthodox curriculum. Selected courses, designated in the catalogue with “j,” are offered during January. January courses are offered for two or three credit hours. No more than three credit hours may be earned in any January.