Campus Wide Requirements: Compass Curriculum

• Vision
• Requirements 

The Compass Curriculum is UCCS’s unique approach to general education. Students in every college will take courses designed to help them learn to Evaluate and Create, Know and Explore, and Act and Interact, the three major goals the faculty approved for general education for the entire campus.

General education at UCCS prepares students for success in their majors, professional pursuits, and lives as creative, thoughtful, informed, and engaged members of our diverse, global society.

The goals of the Compass Curriculum focus on three interrelated areas of learning, all of which are essential to an undergraduate education. Through the Compass Curriculum, students will develop competencies in each area and the ability to integrate these competencies as a foundation for lifelong learning.

1) Evaluate and Create

Students will develop intellectual and practical skills central to investigation, creative pursuits, and problem solving. Students will gather, understand, analyze, and evaluate information as well as synthesize that information in order to create and articulate new ideas. This area includes:

• Critical and creative thinking
• Quantitative and qualitative reasoning
• Information literacy
• Communication: reading, writing, speaking, and listening

2) Know and Explore

Students will have a broad understanding of fundamental explorations, applications, and innovations in the natural sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and arts and humanities. This area includes knowledge of:

• The physical and natural world
• Humanities, arts, and culture
• Society, social and economic institutions, health, and human behavior

3) Act and Interact

Students will cultivate self-awareness and understanding of their impact-locally, nationally, and globally. Students will be prepared to participate effectively in a society that encompasses diverse experiences, perspectives, and realities. This area includes:

• Responsibility-personal, civic, and social
• Engagement-creative, collaborative, artistic, and innovative
• Inclusiveness-competencies for cultural responsiveness across social differences in contexts ranging from local to global
• Sustainability-understanding the interaction between human development and the natural environment

The Compass Curriculum stretches across all six UCCS colleges, and all four years of a student’s education. In addition to the 24 credits that make up the Compass Curriculum, each college has additional courses they require of the students majoring in that college (please see your college’s section of the catalog for those requirements).

Gateway Courses

Explore Courses

Students complete one course in each of the three areas of knowledge identified in the Know and Explore goal. Some majors may designate specific courses students in that major must use to fulfill one or more of these requirements. Explore courses must be completed outside of a student’s major.

Inclusiveness - one course

Inclusiveness courses prepare students for our diverse, global society where they will interact with people with different experiences, perspectives, and realities.

Sustainability - one course

Sustainability courses introduce the students to social equity, environmental protection, and economic development, among other sustainability topics.

Writing Intensive - two courses: at least one must be upper-division

Writing Intensive courses develop advanced writing skills. They emphasize writing as a process and giving and receiving feedback on writing. Writing Intensive courses assign at least 3000 words across assignments. This course could be integrated into students’ majors, general electives, or other Compass Curriculum coursework.

Navigate Course - one course

This course integrates and applies learning from multiple disciplines. Navigate courses may be interdisciplinary or an upper-division course in a major. Some majors may designate specific courses students in that major must use to fulfill this requirement. Navigate courses must be completed in a department other than a student’s major.

Summit Course - one course

Each major has designated a specific course, project or experience within the major that will assist students in integrating what they have learned in the major with the goals of the Compass Curriculum.

Writing Portfolio Requirement

Prior to graduation, students must demonstrate competency in writing by passing PORT 3000 (The Writing Portfolio) or earning a C- or better in ENGL 3010 or TCID 3080. 

Transfer Students

UCCS applies transfer courses to fulfill Compass Curriculum requirements to the extent possible. Students who have fulfilled all lower-division general education requirements at any public institution in Colorado, including gtPathways, or who transfer 60 or more credit hours are deemed to have fulfilled the Gateway and Explore requirements from the Compass Curriculum as well as their lower-division writing intensive requirement. These students will still be required to complete the Navigate course and their major’s Summit course, as well as the upper-division writing-intensive course. They may also need to take a second writing-intensive course and courses that fulfill the Inclusiveness and Sustainability requirements if they do not have comparable courses in transfer. Please note that each of the colleges, and some individual majors, have additional general education and graduation requirements beyond the Compass Curriculum. Students with more than 30 credits in transfer will have the Gateway Program Seminar requirement waived. Transfer students should work closely with transfer advising to insure the most effective articulation between the student’s transfer work and the Compass Curriculum.

More Information

For more information, please visit the Compass Curriculum website https://www.uccs.edu/compasscurriculum/.