Core Curriculum
Salve Regina University takes a unique approach to general education, with a focus on educating the whole person. Our interdisciplinary Core Curriculum is designed to be relevant for today's graduates, integrating seamlessly with the Salve Compass program and alongside each undergraduate program of study.
Core courses are rooted in Salve's liberal arts and mercy tradition, helping you develop values and behaviors that shape how you learn and engage with the world. By combining a strong foundation in the liberal arts with their chosen major, Salve graduates will:
- Think critically
- Seek wisdom
- Uphold dignity
- Act justly
- Relate meaningfully
- Engage creatively
- Communicate effectively
- Collaborate productively
Building Your WAVE
Our Core Curriculum provides an additional academic credential that will appear on your transcript. At Salve, we call this interdisciplinary concentration a WAVE (Worldview and Values Exploration). By choosing courses from different disciplines, you’ll consider what it means to act justly while addressing complex societal issues, focusing on the Mercy Critical Concerns of antiracism, earth, immigration, nonviolence and women. The four WAVE concentrations are:
Advancing Freedom and Resolving Conflict
- What are the causes of conflict?
- How can our values or behaviors foster or undermine a shared understanding of human dignity, justice and peace?
- What structures – political, religious, economic, social or cultural – support human rights and help to resolve conflict?
- What is good government, how does it work and how can it promote or hinder human rights for all?
Appreciating Cultures and Identities
- How do cultures and identities form and shape perspectives and actions?
- How can we cooperate across cultures to promote cultural understanding and appreciation?
- In what ways are cultures and identities shaped by, or do they shape, societal structures such as science, technology, education, politics and economics in ways that hinder or facilitate human flourishing?
- What cultures and identities have power, how is it used to privilege some and not others, and how might problematic power structures be dismantled?
Discovering Creativity and Innovation
- How does creativity help us understand the world, innovate and shape change?
- How does cultural production reflect, or fail to reflect, diverse perspectives, past and present?
- How do creativity and innovation respond to injustice and inspire people to act justly?
- What are the limitations, challenges or constraints to creativity and innovation?
Promoting Health and Sustainable Environments
- How do environments impact the health of individuals, communities and the natural world?
- How do human actions cause environmental degradation and negative health impacts to populations and how can we reduce these impacts?
- What factors facilitate or hinder the promotion of a just, sustainable and healthy world now and for future generations?
- What is our moral obligation to protect biodiversity and the natural world?