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All students must fulfill the requirements of the university's Liberal Studies program. This involves a range of 48 to 54 credits divided among Learning Skills, Knowledge Areas, and Synthesis. The number of credits may vary slightly depending on student choices and program of study. Different colleges and sometimes departments within colleges may have specific variations as to how these Liberal Studies requirements are to be met.

Liberal Studies provides the broad vision and understanding that enable individuals to enjoy full, rich lives and to play constructive roles in their communities. The goals for Liberal Studies include:

(1) the development of important modes of thinking and intellectual skills: critical thinking, literacy, understanding numerical data, historical consciousness, scientific inquiry, ethical perception, and aesthetic sensitivity;
(2) the acquisition of a body of knowledge or understanding essential to an educated person; and
(3) an understanding of the physical, as well as the intellectual, nature of human beings.

• Learning Skills: English Composition
• Learning Skills: Mathematics
• Humanities
• Fine Arts
• Natural Science Option 1
• Natural Science Option 2
• Social Sciences
• Health and Wellness
• Liberal Studies Electives
• Non-Western Cultures
• Synthesis
• Writing Across the Curriculum

English Composition: Two Courses                         7cr

Learning Skills:

*One course in history, one in literature, and one in philosophy or religious studies.

History:

Literature:

Philosophy or Religious Studies:

Natural Science: Option One                            8-10cr

Option I: Two-semester Laboratory Course Sequence 8cr

Two courses with laboratories (4cr each), paired together in a sequence, from the natural science laboratory course list.

Natural Science Laboratory Sequences:

Option II:
One Laboratory plus Two Nonlaboratory Courses 10cr
One course with laboratory (4cr) from the natural science laboratory course list followed by two courses (3cr each) from natural science nonlaboratory course list. One of the nonlaboratory courses may be counted again among the Liberal Studies Electives.

Natural Science Laboratory Courses:

Natural Science Nonlaboratory Courses:

Social Sciences: Three Courses from List*            9cr

An alternate method of fulfilling this requirement is the completion of one year of Military Science/ROTC: MLSC 101 Introduction to Military Science and Lab (2sh) and MLSC 102 Fundamentals of Military Science and Lab (2sh). The courses MLSC 203 and MLSC 204 may be substituted for MLSC 101 and 102. Veterans are given 4sh toward these requirements by validating two years' active duty via form DD214.

Liberal Studies Electives:                                     0-9cr*

*At least one course must be numbered 200 or higher
*No course carrying the student's major prefix may be used
*No course prefix may be used more than once, except for intermediate-level foreign language prefixes (FR, GM, SP, LA, and GK) which may be used twice.
*Refer to program of study for specific requirements

See list of nonlaboratory natural sciences for additional courses which may be used as Liberal Studies electives.

See list of Non-Western Cultures courses, some of which may be used as Liberal Studies Electives.

(1) Students may use this course to fulfill either the Learning Skills: Mathematics requirement, or a Liberal Studies Elective requirement, but not both.
(2) Higher-level language courses may be substituted by students demonstrating such ability on placement tests.

*Students must fulfill this requirement by completing one course from the list; most of these courses will at the same time fulfill other requirements set by Liberal Studies or in some cases by a college or department.

Certain Study Abroad programs in non-Western culture areas are offered (information is in the respective catalog section; further information is available in the Office of International Services).

Prerequisite: 73 or more semester hours earned

This course helps students understand and handle complex intellectual and social issues from multiple perspectives. A selection of topics is available each semester and summer session. Students should schedule the course during the senior year, or at least no earlier than the last half of the junior year. In order to broaden their experiences, students are encouraged to enroll in synthesis sections taught by instructors outside of the students' major fields.  [More information about 'what is the synthesis course' is  here.]

To read course descriptions for synthesis sections (LBST 499):  In the "Comment(s)" block for each synthesis section on the "L" Banner scheduling page (on https://www.banner.iup.edu/production/plsql/szkschd.p_get_category_and_term , choose the correct semester, then choose "L"), click on the Course description link to read a short description.

All students must include among the total courses required for graduation a minimum of two designated writing-intensive courses. One of these courses must be in the student's primary major; the other(s) may be in Liberal Studies, college or major requirements, or free electives. Such courses, which involve extensive use of writing as part of the learning experience, are identified with a W as the first character in the section number (such as MATH 350 W01 History of Mathematics) in each semester's listing of Undergraduate Course Offerings.