Community Colleges and the Future of the Humanities

To engage the most community college students with humanities learning, we need to reach beyond humanities majors to find ways to integrate humanities and liberal education into general education and other majors, including professional programs. At LaGuardia and Guttman Community Colleges, we affirm this principal with teaching, learning and assessment focused on college-wide Core Competencies that embody powerful aspects of humanities ways of thinking. As faculty build these Competencies into CUNY’s Pathways Core AND the curriculum of every major, they build a clear and accessible path to graduation. Strengthening curricular cohesion in every academic and professional program, this approach engages all students with the concepts and questions of liberal education, and builds the 21st century learning capacities that students need for success in education and career. Our session thus illuminates an innovative community college strategy for expanding the reach of humanities learning.

For our presentation, we’ll discuss how each of our institutions have
• Created Humanities-centered curriculum frameworks;
• Incorporated assignment design into authentic assessment;
• Improved access to Humanities education for all.

LaGuardia will highlight our Occupational Therapy and Natural Sciences programs. Guttman will present a brief overview of each of their five programs of study – Liberal Arts and Sciences, Human Services, Information Technology, and Business Administration.