General Education
General Education | Governance
| Accreditation | Approved
Certification Programs
Nondiscrimination Policy | Affirmative
Action/Equal Opportunity Commitment
Campus, Facilities, and Sites | Catalog
Statements and Terms of Issue
Waivers and Exceptions to Academic Regulations
General Education:
- Credo and Overview:
The faculty of Aurora University believe that general education rests on
a foundation in the liberal arts and sciences, and addresses three learning
needs of undergraduate students:
- Knowing that: (Declarative Knowledge)
human history is best understood and most fully lived as an
inclusive conversation spanning time and space. As educated persons we
are involved in a constant dialogue both with those who have preceded us
in the human story, and those who are living it with us, across the
entire range of human diversity and experience. We may best participate
in this conversation if we have a broad store of declarative knowledge
related to the persistent and significant issues of human activity and
the human condition. Believing that diverse traditions and diverse
voices and many disciplines have essential contributions to make to this
process, the faculty embraces and seeks to promote, for its students and
its own work, the importance of aspiring to a broad base of declarative
knowledge. This breadth of knowledge is seen as fundamental to the
development of the liberally-educated professional.
- Knowing how: (Procedural Knowledge)
facts receive their meaning through context and through the exercise
of our cognitive skills. The faculty believes that a second main role of
general education is to help each student achieve the collection of
skills - the cognitive toolkit - to understand, apply, interpret, and
very importantly, to act in a complex and rapidly changing world. These
skills range from ones ancient and deeply rooted in the human tradition
(reading, writing, speaking, philosophic enquiry, critical thinking, and
problem solving) to those inherent in emerging technologies (computing,
electronic networking, and new forms of information literacy), and some
that are ancient but acquire new salience in modern life, such as the
ability to work cooperatively with others in an increasingly diverse and
pluralistic society.
- Knowing why: (Contextual Knowledge)
declarative and procedural knowledge may remain hollow and
mechanical without a rich understanding of why we do what we do, of the
possibilities of human choice, and of the consequences of the way in
which we choose to lead our lives. The faculty of Aurora University is
committed to a learning environment, of which general education is a
critical part, in which students are challenged to examine and expand
their understanding of their own values and attitudes, in connection
with what they learn and the skills they develop.
- General Education within the Universe of Learning at Aurora University:
The faculty of Aurora University believes that learning is whole, that
we have an obligation to address the three key areas of knowledge in
everything we teach, whether in connection with specific general education
offerings or in major or minor programs. Within this universe of learning,
however, the general education program is held to have a special
significance in addressing the essential process of unifying and enriching
learning. General education has a special role to play in helping students
achieve understandings that transcend particularistic knowledge, of building
the skills and attitudes that will help them continue their educational
journey productively throughout their lives, and of becoming better able to
live and work cooperatively in a democratic society and in a diverse world.
Further, the faculty also affirms the centrality of strong general
education, whether achieved at Aurora University or at other accredited
institutions, in the design, expectations, and outcomes of its graduate
programs.
- Outcome Domains with Particular Relevance to General Education:
The mission of Aurora University, in seeking to prepare aspiring persons
to be liberally-educated professionals, embraces many types of outcomes for
its students. The faculty believes that a number of these outcome domains
are addressed in large part through the general education program, as well
as through the productive interplay of general education and the student's
major field of study.
- Lifelong Learning and Service:
Graduates demonstrate necessary skills in research, inquiry, and
information literacy to support continued personal and professional
growth after graduation. In addition, they have had an opportunity to
grapple with such attitudinal and value-based issues as: the need to
give back to society; the importance of functioning as an agent of
change; and the responsibility to develop commitment and to act upon
one's values and understandings.
- Understanding for Comprehensive, Lifelong Health and Wellness:
Graduates are expected to adopt a healthy lifestyle, developed
within a wellness perspective, involving positive health-related
behaviors determined by informed personal choice. Health is a continuous
balancing of the physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and spiritual
components of an individual to produce happiness and a higher quality of
existence. Graduates are expected to realize that wellness is a state of
optimal health which allows one to do the most constructive work, render
the best possible service to the world, and experience the highest
possible enjoyment of life.
- Ethical Understanding and Practice:
Graduates are expected to demonstrate both knowledge of the great
and persistent ethical issues confronting humanity, and the skills and
tools of ethical decision making. Each major area of study will be
linked to this general education area with respect to issues of ethical
practice. Graduates also demonstrate awareness of the importance of this
area in learning to live humanely in a racially, ethnically, and
culturally diverse world.
- The Greater Community:
Graduates are expected to demonstrate knowledge of American cultures
and institutions in the context of the global community, together with a
sense of historical perspective and consciousness of their place in the
larger temporal picture. The faculty affirms that understanding of both
human behavior and social institutions is essential if individuals are
to aspire, meaningfully and instrumentally, to the goal of enlarging
their scope of understanding and of coming to live humanely in a diverse
world.
- Communication Skills:
Graduates are expected to frame cogent oral, visual, and written
presentations, appropriately selecting means and material, addressing
public, professional, and private contexts. This area encompasses the
entire model of communication: active listening and critical reading, as
well as the generation of messages, both within one's own group and
across cultures.
- Analytic and Interpretive Skills:
This area encompasses applications to a broad range of types of
information and data - qualitative and quantitative, scientific and
technological, economic and demographic. Extending beyond specific
applications in the major, graduates are expected to be able to transfer
and apply these analytic, critical, and logical skills to life outside
the workplace.
- Ideas and the Arts:
Graduates should have a broad familiarity with a range of ideas and
artistic works from the human traditions, as a means of entering the
ongoing cultural conversation. The focus is on the process by which
ideas and works achieve centrality, rather than with the content of one
specific canon. An additional goal is to help graduates develop greater
catholicity of taste and greater understanding of the interplay of
individual and collective judgments of taste and value, as they expand
and develop their individual aesthetic sensibilities.
- Science, Technology, and Society:
This area encompasses understanding and knowledge of the processes
of scientific inquiry, both as they drive a wide variety of disciplines
of modern thought and in their fundamental role of increasing our
understanding of the natural world, and of the philosophy of innovation,
amelioration, and practical application that underlies contemporary
technological society. This area also includes understanding of the
powerful interconnection of scientific and technological advancement and
the human ethical and moral universe.
- Computer/Information Technology:
Beyond "computer literacy," graduates are expected to
achieve a comfortable relationship with the computer as a tool for many
applications, and with electronic information technologies as an
essential means of carrying out many forms of interaction, research, and
information access, evaluation, and synthesis in the modern world. This
area includes both written and quantitative operations and, while many
of the relevant applications may lie within the student's major, it is
expected that graduates will be able to apply their skills and knowledge
flexibly in many contexts.
Governance:
An independent, nonsectarian institution organized under the laws of the
State of Illinois, Aurora University is governed by a Board of Trustees
representing the community at large and various constituencies of the
University. Within the University, students are subject to the provisions of the
"A-Book" (student handbook); faculty are governed under the provisions
of the Aurora University Faculty Handbook; all employees are subject to the
University's Personnel Manual. In common with all schools and colleges in
Illinois, public or private, Aurora University is subject to the oversight of
the Illinois Board of Higher Education as provided by law.
Accreditation:
The Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central
Association of Colleges and Schools accredits Aurora University at the
bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels.
The following individual programs are accredited by the specific agencies
listed below: Bachelor of Science in Nursing (National League for Nursing
Accrediting Commission, Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, and approved
by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation); Bachelor of Social Work
and Master of Social Work (Council on Social Work Education); Bachelor of
Science in Recreation Administration (National Recreation and Park Association/
American Association of Leisure and Recreation); John and Judy Dunham School of
Business (Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
and Master's of Business Administration (Association of Collegiate Business
Schools and Programs).
BSN program accredited by the National League for Nursing
Accrediting Commission
61 Broadway
New York, New York 10006
212/363-5555
BSN program accredited by Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education
One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 530
Washington, D.C. 20036-1120
BSW and MSW programs accredited by the Council on Social Work Education
1725 Duke Street, Suite 500
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-683-8080
BS Recreation Administration program accredited by the National Recreation
and Park Association/American Association of Leisure and Recreation
National Recreation and Park Association
22377 Belmont Ridge Road
Ashburn, VA 20148-4501
703-858-0784
BA and BS in Business Administration and MBA programs accredited by the
Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs
700 College Boulevard
Overland, Kansas 66211
913/339-9356
Approved Certification Programs:
Aurora University has Teacher Certification programs approved by the Illinois
State Board of Education in: Biology, Computer Science, Elementary Education,
English, Mathematics, Physical Education, and Social Studies.
"Type 73" Illinois certification in School Social Work is offered
through the School of Social Work.
"Type 75" Illinois certification in Educational Leadership is
offered through the School of Education.
Aurora University does not offer approved certification programs in any areas
other than those listed above.
Nondiscrimination Policy:
Aurora University admits qualified students without discrimination on the
basis of race, ethnicity, color, creed, national origin, religion, sex,
disability, sexual orientation, age, family relationship, or status as a Viet
Nam Veteran to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities accorded or
made available at the institution, including but not limited to: administration
of educational policies, activities, and services; financial aid programs;
athletic programs; and student employment programs.
Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Commitment:
In addition to pursuing a policy of nondiscrimination, Aurora University is
committed to a process of affirmative action in all areas of recruitment and
employment of individuals at all levels.
This policy extends to all employment practices, including but not limited
to: recruitment, hiring and appointment, selection for training, upgrading,
promotion, demotion, job classification, assignment, working conditions,
employee treatment, hours, compensation, benefits, transfer, layoff,
termination, and all other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.
This policy extends to all individuals, both employed and potentially
employed by Aurora University, and whether on full-time, part-time, student, or
temporary employee status.
Questions, comments, inquiries, or complaints should be addressed to:
University Affirmative Action Officer, Aurora University, 347 S. Gladstone Ave.,
Aurora, IL 60506-4892.
Campus, Facilities, and Sites:
Located in an attractive residential neighborhood on the southwest side of
Aurora, the 27-acre main campus contains 19 instructional, administrative, and
residence buildings. The distinctive, red-tiled roofs specified by Charles
Eckhart in his donation for the original campus mark the major buildings. Dunham
Hall houses state-of-the art computer facilities, the Schingoethe Center for
Native American Cultures, the University Bookstore and a pleasant atrium that is
a popular campus gathering place. Athletic fields, gymnasium, and sports complex
(including racquetball courts, fitness center, and weight room) are close at
hand. The Charles B. Phillips Library has holdings of more than 145,000 volumes,
over 950 current periodicals (including titles in print, CD-ROM, and electronic
formats), and more than 10,000 audiovisual materials. Electronic resources
include two dozen periodical indexes in CD-ROM and online computer formats.
Through several library networks, students have access to over 10 million
volumes and over ten thousand current periodical titles held in other libraries
in the area as well as throughout the nation. A state-of-the-art television
studio, serving both the University's Communication Program and the local cable
system, is located in Stephens Hall, along with the fully equipped Perry
Theatre, science labs, and the College Commons. Music practice rooms, piano
labs, and a spacious art studio are also available. Both modern and
traditional-style residence halls surround the open central quad.
In addition to the main campus, Aurora University offers programs off-campus
for the convenience of students. The Nursing Program provides opportunities for
students to earn a BSN degree in a rigorous but flexible program that includes
clinical and internship experience at major metropolitan hospitals. A satellite
M.A.T. and M.A.E.L. (Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Arts in
Educational Leadership) program is offered at the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin campus.
Additional individual classes and degree programs are offered at numerous other
sites in northern Illinois.
Special Study Opportunities: In addition to study on campus and at regular
University sites, AU offers its students an opportunity to advance their studies
in several special programs in the United States and abroad.
Catalog Statements and Terms of Issue:
This catalog does not constitute a contract between Aurora University and its
students. Where possible, Aurora University permits its students to graduate
under the degree requirements in effect when they entered the University
provided enrollment is continuous from time of matriculation to graduation, or
as provided under the leave of absence policy. However, the University reserves
the right to modify or eliminate academic programs and course offerings and to
modify academic requirements for all students at any time without prior notice
and without incurring obligation of any kind. The University also reserves the
right to modify its academic and administrative policies, regulations, and
procedures, as well as tuition, fees, and conditions of payment, without prior
notice at any time.
While this catalog represents the best information available at the time of
publication, all information contained herein, including statements of fees,
course offerings, admission policies, and graduation requirements, is subject to
change without notice.
Waivers and Exceptions to Academic Regulations:
No exceptions to academic regulations or waivers of academic requirements are
recognized by the University except in those cases where a student has followed
the University's procedures for obtaining such waiver or exception as published
in the University's Academic Regulations. Individual advisors or faculty members
are not authorized to grant waivers or exceptions. All waivers and exceptions
granted by authorized University officials must be provided in writing.
Posted: 11 March 2002
