Mar 29, 2024  
Spring 2017 Catalog 
    
Spring 2017 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

General Education Requirements


SUNY General Education Student Learning Outcomes

The SUNY Board of Trustees has established mandatory General Education Requirements consisting of designated knowledge and skill areas for all SUNY Institutions. Erie Community College is committed to ensuring that its graduates, with Associate in Arts and Associate in Sciences degrees, will have satisfied a minimum of seven categories of the General Education requirement. Of the seven, courses in Basic Communications and in Mathematics are required. The remaining five must consist of at least 3 credits in at least five of the remaining eight academic areas along with the overall competency in the areas of Critical Thinking and Information Management.

SUNY has committed itself to student transfer mobility by mandating a seamless education pipeline to degree attainment throughout the SUNY system. Graduates of two-year colleges within SUNY with an AA or AS degree when accepted in parallel programs at baccalaureate campuses of the university, shall be accorded with full junior status and be given the opportunity to complete the requirements for a bachelor’s degree within four additional semesters of full-time work. Furthermore, graduates of two-year colleges within SUNY, when accepted with junior status within parallel programs at baccalaureate campuses of the university, shall be granted full credit for General Education courses and not be required to repeat successfully completed courses with similar content.

Community college students who have not completed the General Education Requirements in two years are eligible to transfer to a four-year SUNY college or university. However, they are required to fulfill General Education Requirements while at the four-year school. Students are advised to complete this fulfillment at the community college level to make room for academic major requirements at the four-year level. In addition to fulfillment of seven out of the ten categories, full compliance with the SUNY General Education Requirement entails taking 30 credits in General Education.

Following is the listing of knowledge and skills areas and related ECC course offerings which have been approved by the State University of New York. The competencies include Critical Thinking and Information Management. This list of courses is edited on a semester basis and also appears in each semester’s publication of the course schedule.

Note: some programs require completion of the SUNY General Education Requirement as a condition for graduation. Check the program page for details or speak to a program advisor.

I. Knowledge and Skills Areas


Mathematics


Outcomes:


- Interpret and draw inferences from mathematical models such as formulas, graphs, tables and schematics
- Represent mathematical information symbolically, visually, numerically and verbally
- Employ quantitative methods such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, or statistics to solve problems
- Estimate and check mathematical results
- Recognize the limits of mathematical and statistical methods

Natural Science


Outcomes:
 

- Understanding of the methods scientists use to explore natural phenomena, including observation, hypothesis development, measurement and data collection, experimentation, evaluation of evidence and employment of mathematical analysis
- Application of scientific data, concepts and models in one of the natural sciences

Social Sciences


Outcomes:
 

- Understanding of the methods social scientists use to explore social phenomena, including observation, hypothesis development, measurement and data collection, experimentation, evaluation of evidence and employment of mathematical and interpretive analysis
- Knowledge of major concepts, models and issues of at least one discipline in the social sciences

American History


Outcomes:
 

- Knowledge of a basic narrative of American history: political, economic, social and cultural, including knowledge of unity and diversity in American society
- Knowledge of common institutions in American society and how they have affected different groups
- Understanding of America’s evolving relationship with rest of world

Western Civilization


Outcomes:
 

- Knowledge of the development of the distinctive features of the history, institutions, economy, society, culture, etc. of Western civilization
- Relate the development of Western civilization to that of other regions of the world

Other World Civilizations


Outcomes:
 

- Knowledge of either a broad outline of world history, or the distinctive features of the history, institutions, economy, society, culture, etc. of one non-Western civilization

Humanities


Outcomes:
 

- Knowledge of the conventions and methods of at least one of the humanities in addition to those encompassed by other knowledge areas required by the General Education program

The Arts


Outcomes:
 

- Understanding of at least one principal form of artistic expression and the creative process inherent therein

Foreign Language


Outcomes:
 

- Basic proficiency in the understanding and use of a foreign language
- Knowledge of the distinctive features of culture(s) associated with the language they are studying

Basic Communication


Outcomes:
 

- Produce coherent texts within common college-level written forms
- Demonstrate the ability to revise and improve such texts
- Research a topic, develop an argument and organize supporting details
- Develop proficiency in oral discourse
- Evaluate an oral presentation according to established criteria

II. Competencies


Critical Thinking

- Identify, analyze and evaluate arguments as they occur in their own or others’ work
- Develop well-reasoned arguments.

Information Management

- Perform the basic operations of personal computer use
- Understand and use basic research techniques
- Locate, evaluate and synthesize information from a variety of sources.