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Millikin Program of Student Learning (MPSL
Expect to be challenged. Expect to be changed. At Millikin, we challenge students to exceed their expectations and meet ours. We challenge students to be changed in order to meet the demands of the world with knowledge, skills, and values acquired through Millikin’s Program of Student Learning.
The distinctive Millikin Program of Student Learning (MPSL) is designed to challenge minds from the student’s very first week on campus and to transform lives throughout the education experience as students gain knowledge and expertise culminating in capstone courses in the majors that emphasize practical nearprofessional performances in their areas of expertise. The MPSL celebrates the potential of every student who comes to be challenged and transformed.
The strategy of the Millikin Program of Student Learning is to provide each student with appropriate challenges and necessary support in essential transitions for academic success in the first year of study, to continued development in advanced studies for breadth of knowledge and skills both within and beyond the major for several years, concluding with empowering academic student-mentoring into a productive professional life following undergraduate studies.
The four components of the Millikin Program of Student Learning (MPSL) include: (1) an intensive major area of study in pursuit of student growth and professional success (2) the sequential and non-sequential University Studies program requirements, which includes a first-year experience opportunity for all incoming students. All students are required to complete a minimum of 124 cr to graduate, including at least 39 cr at the 300 level or above.
The Major
The Millikin Program of Student Learning has established guidelines for the structure of high-quality majors. At Millikin, each major is deliberately designed to offer students an intensive and collaborative learning experience customized to fit their needs in preparation for professional success. Millikin students begin with an introductory course in their major, as early as their first year, in which they learn about the curriculum and opportunities for study in the discipline. In their second year, students enter into a more concentrated inquiry of their major through critical analysis of primary texts and theories of the field. As the major progresses, faculty and students engage in collaborative efforts for academic inquiry and research, applying theory to practice in the field, which culminates in a performance learning moment. Each major has developed a Senior Capstone course or experience that features high-quality intellectual inquiry and near-professional performances of the student. To best suit student needs and demands of the major, approaches to implementing the capstone include apprenticeship learning, portfolios, problem solving, and academic inquiry seminars.
The University Studies Program: Expect To Be Changed
Reflection, writing, and ethical reasoning will guide your studies. Through the integration of reflection throughout the University Studies curriculum, you will explore and discover ways for developing a life of meaning and value. As you practice and polish your ethical reasoning skills and learn discipline based knowledge, you will come to understand and participate in a variety of opportunities to develop democratic citizenship in a local, national, and global scale. By asking you to write across the University Studies curriculum, we foster confidence in your ability to write for professional success.
Sequential Program Elements Year Fall Semester Spring Semester
1 University Seminar (IN140) University Writing (IN180) 2 U.S. Cultural Studies (IN250) Writing in the Disciplines (IN280) U.S. Structural Studies (IN251) 3 Global Issues (IN350)
Non-Sequential Program Elements
Creative Arts Natural Science with a Laboratory Oral Communication Studies Quantitative Reasoning International Cultures and Structures (2 courses)
The Millikin University First-Year Experience
Millikin prepares first-year students for professional success, democratic citizenship in the global environment, and a personal life of meaning and value through challenging yet supportive curricular and co-curricular offerings. In the area of professional success, first-year students learn how to be critical thinkers and how to collect, evaluate and synthesize knowledge in University Studies courses like University Seminar and University Writing. Outside the classroom, first-year students apply critical thinking skills and develop leadership abilities through student-run organizations, through interaction and participation in residential life, and through intercollegiate athletics. In the area of democratic citizenship in the global environment, first-year students complete a service-learning project in University Seminar while learning to embrace diversity in the community through residential living and through intentional student development programming. Inside the classroom, first-year students prepare for a personal life of meaning and value by engaging faculty in discussion relating to ethics and integrity and by learning to become reflective thinkers in the University Studies Program’s Seminar and Writing courses. Outside the classroom, first-year students learn interpersonal skills and personal responsibility in the residence halls, through intercollegiate athletics, student-run organizations, and through campus support services.
In addition to ensuring the quality of curricular and co-curricular experiences within the University Studies Program, each academic major has deliberately created a course that introduces students to the major, engaging them within their chosen discipline during the first college year. Millikin is committed to providing a challenging yet supportive experience for new students, intentionally ensuring that full-time faculty are teaching and advising students during their first college year.
University Studies Program Sequential Requirements
All Millikin students take a sequence of University Studies courses designed to provide a challenging development through the first three years of study at Millikin. The sequential courses IN140, IN180, IN250, IN251, IN 280 and IN350 form a common learning experience for undergraduate students at Millikin. Three learning threads are introduced and developed through the sequential requirements: (1) ethical reasoning, (2) reflection, and (3) intensive writing. The first year courses emphasize ethical reasoning and academic inquiry along with related skills necessary for academic success, including critical writing, reading, research, reflection, and communication. In the second year, all Millikin students take IN250 United States Cultural Studies and IN251 United States Structural Studies. Taught by faculty from across the disciplines, all students engage in ethical reasoning, writing, and reflection skills as they relate to the study of the diversity of cultures, institutions, and social structures in the United States. In the third year, we challenge all Millikin students to examine, reason, reflect, and write about global issues through IN350, which is taught by faculty from a variety of disciplines. The sequential University Studies requirements deliberately challenge students to prepare for academic success, to understand our own country’s multicultural realities and to make connections to the international global society of
the contemporary world. The sequence introduces and reinforces key skills necessary for success and provides students with various models for ways of knowing and for inquiry into broader and more important questions that may arise within or beyond the major’s area of expertise. All along the way, students are asked to perform their learning through engagement in activities characteristic of democratic citizens in a global environment. Such performance provides the foundation necessary for students to actively engage in civic duties now and beyond.
University Studies Program Non-Sequential Requirements
The University Studies Program’s non-sequential requirements may be taken by students any time throughout their undergraduate experience at Millikin. These requirements insure a breadth of learning and ways of knowing from a variety of academic disciplines and approaches to inquiry, including (1) a quantitative reasoning course, (2) a creative arts course, (3) a natural science with a laboratory course, (4) an oral communication studies course, and (5) international cultures and structure courses. Through course advising, students can select and shape the direction of these non-sequential University Studies requirements to complement and supplement learning opportunities in their majors. Students in a major or minor that delivers a non-sequential course or a sequential course outside of the first year (e.g., IN250, IN251, or IN350) may take it to fulfill both the non-sequential or sequential requirement of University Studies and a requirement in the major or minor, depending on requirements of the major or minor.
Global Awareness
Over the course of four years, students will complete nine credits in global and international coursework. Sequential Global Issues courses (IN350), taken during the junior year, explore a topic of global importance. Students will continue to develop their understanding of democratic citizenship with an intense focus on a particular issue of global importance and associated ethical and social justice issues. These courses include a significant research component, are writing intensive, and require exploration of primary sources (e.g., texts, music, artifacts, etc.). The two-course non-sequential requirement, International Cultures and Structures, focuses on cultures and social structures outside the United States. “Culture” refers to learned systems of meanings, and their representations, that people use to interact with the world around them, including language, values, beliefs, norms, traditions, customs, history, art, and artifacts. “Social structures” refers to generally stable patterns of interactions, from the smallest units found in individual social relationships, through larger economic, political and social institutions in societies, to worldwide systems of relationships among nations. Through a combination of opportunities offered through sequential and nonsequential studies, Millikin graduates will complete their education with a greater understanding of global awareness.
Immersion and Summer School Opportunities
The Millikin Program of Student Learning also provides students with opportunities for alternative approaches to courses and learning. Courses are offered in summer school sessions and as intensive short-term immersion studies in January, May, and August. These alternative time-structures provide unique opportunities for travel courses, workshops, internships, and special undergraduate research efforts. Recent examples of travel courses include ecology field studies in Alaska, poetry studies in Chile, business studies in Paris, theatre studies in London, Shakespeare in London, photography in the Southwest, urban studies in Chicago, and teaching experiences in the Dominican Republic as well as in China. Recent on-campus workshops and courses include web design, digital photography, Midwest literature, business communication, and many more. These immersion and summer school offerings provide special opportunities not available through the regular semester term and help students catch up or get ahead in their studies as needed. A study abroad course may fulfill the general education requirement for an international cultures & structures course.
