College of Letters and Science Faculty Document No. 705
May 5, 2005

Recommendation of the Academic Policies and Curriculum Committee to Modify Fac. Doc. No. 678 Defining Criteria and Procedures for Approving Courses that Fulfill the International Requirement

Recommendation:

That the Faculty amends Fac. Doc. No. 678 as indicated below to change the composition of the international subcommittee, to allow the inclusion of courses covering the historical and cultural background of current world matters to satisfy the international requirement, to revise the rationale, and to adopt three implementation provisions.

Rationale:

1. The revised composition of the subcommittee introduces more flexibility to enable finding enough faculty members willing to serve on the subcommittee.
2. It is the belief of the AP&CC that international understanding is improved by a grasp of the historical and cultural background to current world matters.
3. Including courses covering the historical and cultural background brings UWM in line with similar international perspectives requirements at other institutions.
4. A requirement restricted to courses with solely contemporary content would be difficult to implement on this campus from our current array of courses.
5. The implementation provisions have been added to respond to questions about how the requirement is to apply in situations not specifically addressed in the recommendation.
   
   
   

College of Letters and Science Fac. Doc. No. 678
May 6, 2004

Recommendation:

That the Academic Policies and Curriculum Committee, in consultation with the Dean, annually appoint a subcommittee of five to seven members comprised of four C&CC members and three representatives of existing L&S international advisory committees, including the advisory committees of the area studies certificate programs, the International Studies Major, the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, and the Center for International Education, to review courses proposed to meet the international requirement; and

That the following criteria be adopted for identifying appropriate courses, with the understanding that courses must meet all of the criteria:

• shed light on the current world situation by relating the course subject matter to contemporary international issues or events or the historical and cultural contexts underlying them; and
• prepare students for the century now unfolding by imparting a deeper understanding of the broader world in which we live; and
• provide an understanding of the histories, cultures, languages, societies, political systems, economies, or other aspects of peoples' lives in the world outside the United States; and
• incorporate 75% or more international (non-US) content, as represented by curricular components such as assigned readings, case studies, and lecture/discussion subjects.

Implementation:

Study abroad courses count toward the L&S International Requirement regardless of the content.

All 200 level and above foreign language courses count toward the L&S International Requirement.

International students, defined as those students who are identified as such on their official university record, automatically meet the L&S International Requirement.

Rationale:

The Faculty has expressed dissatisfaction with the current guidelines that are used to approve courses to meet the international requirement. Those guidelines are as follows:

1. There should be no limitation to the time period with which the course deals.
   
   
2. The primary content of the course, as expressed in the title and description, must deal with an area or areas other than the U.S. Where the international focus is not clear to the lay person, departments should prepare CAR forms to make this focus more explicit.
   
   
3. Courses that explicitly compare the U.S. with another country or other countries are encouraged. The content, however, must be focused primarily outside the U.S.
   
   
4. A course cannot be both a cultural diversity course and an international course; the UWM definition of a cultural diversity course makes these categories mutually exclusive.
   
   
5. All study abroad courses count toward the international requirement.
   
   
6. Subtitled courses must have the specific subtitles approved to count toward the international requirement
   
   
7. Courses that have not been offered within the last five years cannot be approved for the international requirement.
   
   

These guidelines allow the approval as "international" of many courses that do not impact directly a student's preparation for living in an increasingly globalized world. The list of currently approved international courses is available at: http://www.uwm.edu/letsci/requirements/international.html.

Citizens of the interdependent world of the twenty-first century will need to possess knowledge and understanding of societies other than their own as well as an awareness and understanding of global problems in which we all have a stake, including the historical and cultural contexts underlying them. Equally important, these citizens must have ready access to information in the scientific and humanistic disciplines that is produced in different parts of the world.