Fulfilling General Education Requirements

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Arts, Humanities (HU), Social Sciences (SS), and Natural Science with Lab (NS-L) Requirements

These 4 general education requirements are self-designated by instructors, when academic department chairs approve specific off-campus study courses, they may also approve those courses to count for either ARTS, SS, HU or NS-L as appropriate.

Any approved off-campus study courses that an academic department chair approves as an exact course equivalent to an existing St. Lawrence University course will come in with any distribution requirements for which the SLU course has been approved EXCEPT FOR DIV13.  DIV13 credit can ONLY be earned for off-campus study courses through the CIIS reflection process, as described under the link to Diversity (DIV13) Requirement.

Environmental Literacy (EL) and Qualitative/Logical Reasoning (QLR) Requirements

EL and QLR designated courses must be approved as such by the Academic Affairs Committee, the only way to request that an approved off-campus study course also be approved for EL or QLR is to submit an Academic Petition, in which the student clearly explains the specific ways in which this course fulfills the criteria for EL or QLR as described in the University Catalog.

The exception is when an academic department chair approves an off-campus study course as the exact course equivalent of an existing SLU course that has already been approved by Academic Affairs to carry EL or QLR. In that case only, the EL/QLR designations will also apply to the approved off-campus course equivalent.

Diversity (DIV13) Requirement

Students may apply to meet one of two Diversity (DIV13) requirements through reflection on diversity prior to and following participation on many, but not all, St. Lawrence approved off-campus study programs (see list below).

Applying for diversity credit is a three step process: 

A) Students will be provided with specific instructions on how to address questions of diversity. They will be advised about the process for meeting the DIV13 requirement before and after their off-campus program during a mandatory workshop provided to students before their off-campus semester. 

B) A reflection must be completed and submitted in the online application file PRIOR to the diversity workshop.  Students cannot participate in the workshop if the reflective work has not been submitted.

C) An additional reflection must be submitted to Studio Abroad by the first day of classes in the semester following their off-campus semester. This reflective work will be reviewed by a committee consisting of the Associate Dean for International and Intercultural Studies and Diversity and Inclusion as well as three members of the CIIS committee. This committee makes the final judgment.

Students will be prompted to submit their reflections online before departure AND after their return from off-campus study. 

Students may apply to meet one of two Diversity (DIV13) requirements on the following St. Lawrence approved off-campus study programs:

  • Australia
  • Austria
  • China (Shanghai and Suzhou)
  • Costa Rica
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • ISEP
  • Italy (Cortona and Sorrento)
  • Japan
  • Jordan
  • Kenya
  • Nepal
  • New Zealand
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Thailand
  • Trinidad
  • United Kingdom (London)
  • United States (Washington, DC and New York City)

Students studying on Non-SLU programs are not eligible to apply to fulfill the DIV13 requirement.