Core Curriculum

Undergraduate Studies

Salve Regina University takes a unique approach to general education, with a focus on educating the whole person. Our 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 the 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

Core Curriculum Requirements

Foundational courses (11-14 credits)
  • PHL105: Finding Your Moral Compass
  • RTS105: Faith, Mercy, Justice in the 21st Century
  • STU101: First Year Studio
  • STU201: Sophomore Studio
  • WRT102/103: College Writing and Research Part I and II or WRT105: College Writing and Research Intensive
Liberal arts distribution (27-30 credits)
  • 3 credits of creative expression and fine arts
  • 3 credits of history
  • 3-6 credits of languages (based on placement)
  • 3 credits of literature and media
  • 3 credits of mathematics
  • 3 credits of natural science
  • 3 credits of philosophy or religious and theological studies
  • 6 credits of social sciences (from two different disciplines)
Worldview and Values Exploration (up to 12 additional credits)

Earn a credentialed concentration by taking four courses from distinct academic areas that examine the same complex societal issue from different perspectives.

  • Advancing freedom and resolving conflict
  • Appreciating cultures and identities
  • Discovering creativity and innovation
  • Promoting health and sustainable environments

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.

  • 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?
  • 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?
  • 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? 
  • 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?