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Office of the Registrar

General Education Requirements

Nearly all degree candidates must complete the general education program listed below. Courses fulfilling general education requirements under this program will have the appropriate letter code affixed to the section number. For example, PSYC-100-01B fulfills a Life Science (B) requirement. Students matriculating for the first time at Denison University on August 30, 2004 will be using a new general education package approved by faculty in the spring of 2004.

General Education Requirements (for students who matriculated prior to August 30, 2004)

  1. (B) Life Science
  2. (C) Physical Science
  3. (D) 3rd Lab Science/Mathematics or 2nd selection from (B) or (C)
  4. (F) Textual Inquiry
  5. (G) Critical Inquiry
  6. (H) Social Inquiry
  7. (J) Minority/Women's Studies
  8. (K) Foreign Language
  9. Two of the following three areas are required; students are urged to complete all three.
    • (L) Western Studies
    • (M) Non-West/Global Studies
    • (N) Amer Social Institutions
  10. (P) Artistic Inquiry (2 courses)
  11. (R) Oral Communication
  12. (S) Writing Requirement

Note Well:

Students may use a single discipline not more than twice to fulfill general education requirements. First Year Studies and Honors courses are exempt from this regulation.

General Education Requirements ('08 GE - for students who matriculated on or after August 30, 2004)

Fine Arts Divisional Requirements (A)
Student must complete two courses with the appropriate "A" designation from Art History (ARTH), Studio Art (ARTS), Cinema (CINE), Dance (DANC), Music (MUS), or Theatre (THTR). A discipline can only be utilized one time for general education; Art History and Studio Art are parts of the same Art discipline. One Fine Arts Division requirement may be met by an accrued total of 4 music ensembles, or 4 music private lessons, or 4 credit hours of dance technique work, or 4 credit hours of theatre workshop.
Social Science Divisional Requirements (E)
Student must complete two courses with the appropriate "E" designation from Communication (COMM), Economics (ECON), Education (EDUC), Physical Education (PHED), Political Science (POSC), and Sociology/Anthropology (SA). A discipline can be utilized only one time for general education.
Humanities Divisional Requirements (U)
Student must complete two courses with the appropriate "U" designation from Classics (CLCV), English (ENGL), History (HIST), Modern Languages (CHIN, FREN, GERM, JAPN, SPAN), Philosophy (PHIL), or Religion (REL). A discipline can be used only one time for general education. [An appropriate course in modern language may be used in addition to the selections to fulfill the foreign language requirement]
Science Divisional Requirements (Y)
Student must complete two courses with the appropriate "Y" designation from Biology (BIOL), Chemistry (CHEM), Geology (GEOL), Mathematics (MATH), Computer Science (CS), Physics and Astronomy (PHYS or ASTR), or Psychology (PSYC). A discipline can be used only one time for general education. [Note well: math and computer science are considered the same discipline for general education as are physics and astronomy.] At least one of the courses satisfying the divisional must have an accompanying laboratory.
Quantitative Requirement (Q)
Student must complete one course with a significant numeracy component and the appropriate "Q" designation. The course may be one of those selections chosen to fulfill a divisional requirement or the Interdisciplinary/World Issues requirement or it may be a separate stand alone experience.
Oral Communication Requirement (R)
Student must complete one course with an integral component in oral communication and the "R" designation. This course may be one of those selections chosen to fulfill a divisional requirement or the Interdisciplinary/World Issues requirement or it may be a separate stand alone experience.
Writing Requirement (S)
Student must complete FYS 101 or receive a waiver of the writing requirement by means of score of 4 or 5 on the AP English examination or comparable results on some other similar examination.
Interdisciplinary/World Issues (I)
Student must complete an appropriate course with the appropriate "I" designation from Black studies (BLST), East Asian Studies (EAST), International Studies (INTL), Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS), Queer Studies (QS), and Women's Studies (WMST). In a few rare instances a course in the divisional swquences might also have an "I" designation.
Foreign Language Requirement (K)
Students fulfilling this requirement with language they had in high school must complete the 211 course in that language. Should a student begin a language for which no highschool course work is evident he or she can fulfill the requirement with the 111 -112 elementary language sequence.
Freshman Seminar
Each Student must complete at leaset one FYS 102 course or one Honors Seminar. In most cases, this selection will satisfy one of the other requirements listed above and should not constitute an additional course. Note well that FYS 102 or the Honors seminar is a different experience from FYS 101. The writing seminar FYS 101 cannot be used to replace FYS 102 or the Honors seminar.

GE Check Sheet

If you have Word 2000 or newer, you may wish to use this link to open a Word document containing the General Education Check Sheet that is available in our office.

Contact Person 

For further information concerning General Education (GE) requirements, contact:
Larry Murdock, Registrar or Lisa Davisson, Registrar Assistant
Doane Administration Building
Office of the Registrar
Denison University
PO Box B
Granville, OH 43023