Undergraduate Catalogue
LIBERAL STUDIES MAJOR
AN OPTIONAL DOUBLE MAJOR at BENTLEY
Overview
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Bentley has always been committed to producing "liberally educated" business students; and Bentley's arts and sciences departments have long developed their curricula to offer perspectives particularly geared to business students while maintaining the content and rigor of individual disciplines. However, all too often in higher education today, students feel they are forced to choose between a professional education that prepares them for their careers and a liberal arts education that prepares them for life. At Bentley this is not the case. In December 2004, the faculty voted to incorporate a new Liberal Studies Major as an option for students already committed to a business education. The faculty vote was the culmination of many months of work by various faculty and student groups, and emphasized the support of this initiative from all corners of the campus. The Liberal Studies Major (LSM) will be significantly different from the traditional liberal arts major--like philosophy or history or political science--that drills deep within a particular field of study. Rather, it will explore important themes that cut across many disciplines of the arts and sciences, such as ethics and social responsibility, global perspectives, media arts and society, and issues related to the environment; the major will offer breadth with coherence.
The LSM is an optional double major. It does not stand alone, but is an interdisciplinary second major for students whose primary major is in a business discipline1. The impulse behind the LSM is to help students increase the value and meaning of their liberal arts education at Bentley by combining some required courses in the general education curriculum with arts and sciences electives and some business electives under specific themes or concentrations.
Concentrations in the LSM
Students opting to complete an LSM will do so in one particular area of concentration. The concentration choices are:
- American Perspectives
- Diversity and (in)Equality
- Earth, Environment, and Global Sustainability
- Ethics and Social Responsibility
- Global Perspectives
- Health and Industry
- Imagination and the Human Experience
- Media Arts and Society
- Quantitative Perspectives
- Workplace and Labor Studies
Once accepted into a particular LSM concentration, students will be required to:
- acquire signoff/approval each semester for all courses in the LSM by their LSM adviser;
- write annual analytical retrospective/prospective pieces to be discussed with their adviser and included in their LSM portfolio; and
- complete a unifying/culminating experience appropriate to the particular student and concentration.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q1: What are the distinguishing characteristics of the Liberal Studies Major?
A1: In pursuing an LSM, students are not required to take any additional courses beyond what they do now. Depending on their chosen concentration, students have varying degrees of freedom and choice as they design their course of study. However, what makes an individual student's collection of courses a major is the analytical thinking and intentional cohesiveness necessary as choices are made within and across disciplinary lines. This cohesiveness is ensured by a strong advising system that stretches throughout the student's LSM career, and an LSM portfolio containing prescribed pieces that demonstrate the student's growth and understanding of the unity of key concepts within the major.
Q2: Will LSM students be able to complete a minor?
A2: Every effort was made to ensure that students could complete a business major, an LSM, and a minor. Careful planning will, in most cases, result in appropriate elective slots being left for minor courses. However, it is possible that students opting for business majors with a large number of required credits, or students opting into a particular LSM or business major or minor later in their careers may encounter difficulties with schedule planning, thus necessitating choices among the options. It is anticipated that in the arts and sciences, some students may choose a related LSM rather than the existing minor. In many of these cases it would also be possible to complete a separate A&S, business or blended minor. In any case, it is essential that students be aware upfront of the possible consequences of choosing various paths through the many curriculum choices at Bentley (e.g., 5-year, honors, study abroad, minors, LSM). For example, even if a freshman or sophomore opts for an LSM, but has not yet decided whether or not to complete a minor, he or she might want to choose courses that will leave sufficient elective slots open should a minor be desired at a later date.
Q3: Where will the LSM "live" on the DAS/DRS?
A3: A student opting to do an LSM will follow the DAS/DRS for his or her primary major. LSM requirements will be satisfied with courses already existing on this DRS. For example, the eight course LSM major may consist of three courses in Gen Ed slots, three in A&S elective slots, one in a business elective slot, and one in a business major course slot. As outlined in the answers to Q1 and Q2 above, careful advising and student planning are necessary to ensure that sufficient DRS slots remain for subsequent student choices. While students are advised to use Gen Ed slots to their fullest potential, they are not required to do so. Courses not filling a Gen Ed slot will reside in elective (A&S, business, unrestricted) or major slot as appropriate.
Q4: What happens if a student has declared an LSM but has not completed all requirements by graduation?
A4: Since the LSM is an optional major that does not stand alone, a student satisfying all graduation requirements who has failed to complete LSM requirements will graduate with their primary major only. Courses taken for the LSM will still appear on the transcript, but the student will not receive credit for the LSM major.
Q5: Students may now take one elective course under the pass/fail option. Will this course be admissible as an LSM required course?
A5: No, the pass/fail option is available only for electives not used within a major.
1 While this will usually be the case, a student completing an A&S major with a substantial business component or required business minor (e.g., Public Policy and Social Change, International Studies, Mathematical Sciences) can also pursue an LSM.
