A Letter from the Dean

It gives me great pleasure to extend a College One welcome to our new students. College One is both an idea and a place. I encourage you to make an acquaintance with both.

General education is about making connections. A student earns the UC Merced bachelor’s degree when he or she has completed two vital kinds of education. The first is general education: a broad encounter with many realms of knowledge and skill development. The second is the major: deep knowledge in a single field of study. General education will help UC Merced students grow in two ways:

• by strengthening your advanced skills, needed by today’s society, in quantitative reasoning, writing, and other communication; and
• by introducing you to the broad domains of knowledge that include the humanities and arts, social and cognitive sciences, and natural sciences and engineering; and teaching you how they can be integrated.

UC Merced’s faculty are creating educational experiences that will prepare you for the challenges of the 21st century. These are detailed in the Guiding Principles for General Education and include helping you develop your abilities in the realms of scientific literacy, decision-making, communication, self and society, ethics and responsibility, leadership and teamwork, aesthetic understanding and creativity and personal potential.

Three Kinds of General Education Requirements

1. University Requirements include meeting the UC Entry Level Writing and American History and Institutions requirements. There are several ways to satisfy these before arriving on campus, described in the UC Merced General Catalog and on the Admissions website.
2. Campus Requirements include College Reading and Composition (WRI 10), a quantitative reasoning course, and the CORE Course sequence, described below.
3. School Requirements: details can be found in the General Catalog or on the School websites.

CORE Course Sequence

College One’s unique way to help you toward mastering the skills described in the Guiding Principles is UC Merced’s CORE Course sequence, The World at Home: Planning for the Future in a Complex World. All freshmen take CORE 1 and all juniors take CORE 100. The CORE Course sequence introduces students to how the disciplines understand problems and devise tools to grapple with them. As Professor Christopher Viney told freshmen at the first CORE 1 lecture, “You leave here as a specialist in something, but also as a citizen of the world. You need to be able to communicate with other people who are not in your field.”

The CORE course sequence is unique, in that faculty from all three Schools--Natural Sciences, Engineering, and Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts--contribute to the teaching. More than 20 UC Merced faculty challenge freshmen to think about ways that academic disciplines connect—or debate—with one another. In discussion sections, the CORE 1 writing instructors work with small freshman groups on writing, critical thinking, and quantitative reasoning.

A CORE Friday event rounds out the week’s lectures and discussions with a film, documentary, panel discussion, theatrical production or distinguished speaker. CORE Friday programming illuminates ideas presented during the week, as well as alternative views.

As a junior in CORE 100, you will begin to apply what you have learned during your first two years from your lower division general education and the introductory work in your chosen major. Every society needs people who can solve problems, and increasingly, problem-solving is accomplished by many professions through multidisciplinary team efforts. The goal of this course is to teach students problem-solving skills through the experience of working on a multidisciplinary team to formulate a solution for a societal problem. The team will be composed of students from several majors to provide the breadth needed for a multidisciplinary approach; and will address the pros and cons of proposed solutions from scientific, cultural, ethical, and economic perspectives.

Other Programs to Expand Your Horizons

College One also offers undergraduates “one-stop shopping” for information on other programs that will enhance their UC Merced years. These include:

Freshman Seminars, featuring intellectual engagement between UC Merced faculty and small freshman groups;

Undergraduate Research Opportunities, which give students a chance to work with faculty in their laboratories or the library;

University of California Off-campus Programs: the UC Education Abroad Program, UC in Washington, DC, and UC in Sacramento

College One is also a place. You can find us in 167 Kolligian Library. We will have information about general education plus directions to people who can help you with specific questions, such as the advisors at the Student Advising and Learning Center, just up the hall from us. College One will be sponsoring special events to help you get to know us better. I welcome you to College One and invite you to help us grow. If you’d like to know more about general education at UC Merced, write to us at collegeone@ucmerced.edu.

I wish you success as you begin your educational journey at UC Merced.

Sincerely,

Jeff Wright, Interim Dean, College One