A: The Topic of Inquiry guidelines are as follows:

• Students must pass at least a total of 21 credits in the Topics of Inquiry.
• Students must pass at least three credits of coursework in each of six Topics of Inquiry. Topics of Inquiry courses may be counted toward the major.
• The courses fulfilling the Topics of Inquiry must represent at least six different subjects as designated by subject code (e.g., ANTH or WGSS) and at least one course must be passed in each Topic of Inquiry (some courses fulfill two). Exceptions to this rule are subject heading designations that group interdisciplinary studies through cross-listing, such as LLAS, AFRA, WGSS, AAAS, URBN, ENVS, EVST, HRTS, UNIV, and INTD. Other current and future interdisciplinary groups would also apply.
• TOI courses may only have TOI courses as prerequisites and corequisites, with three exceptions: (a) Honors courses may require Honors student status, and (b) TOI-6 courses and Writing Competency courses may have prerequisites and corequisites that are not Common Curriculum courses.
• Students must take at least three Common Curriculum courses in one Focus Area. Topics of Inquiry are by default eligible to serve as a Focus Area, but other Focus Areas may be proposed by a group of faculty and approved by CCC+ to fulfill this requirement. For example, faculty may design a Theme that spans multiple disciplines. Themes are recommended but not required.
• To satisfy the Focus requirement, a student must fulfill at least three courses in a single Topic of Inquiry or all requirements of at least one Theme.
• Up to three credits of repeatable one-credit courses may be included in the Topics of Inquiry. No more than six credits with the UNIV or INTD prefix may be elected by any student to meet the Common Curriculum Requirements.
• Students must complete at least one laboratory course in TOI-6 (see TOI-6 for definition of laboratory class). This does not restrict courses outside TOI-6 from having laboratories, nor does it limit TOI-6 courses to be only laboratory courses.

A: No. The task force resolved to make the new Topic of Inquiry (TOI) courses require no more credit hours to complete than the old Content Area (CA) courses. Both fulfill the same broad goal of what is sometimes called a distributive curriculum, to ensure that students learn from a robust variety of perspectives and subject areas across the university. Thus, exactly as with CAs in the old model, each student is explicitly required to complete at least 21 credit hours in TOI courses and with at least six distinct subject area codes represented. Beyond these TOIs total-credit requirements, credit hour requirements for competencies (W, Q, & Second Language) remain unchanged, resulting in a new system that does not require more credit hours of education than the legacy system.

Additional Information of Note:

• By retaining the same minimum total-credit requirements of the legacy system, we remain in compliance with NECHE accreditation standards for the entire university.
• While the general University requirements for the Common Curriculum remain the same, individual schools and colleges (e.g. CLAS, CAHNR, etc) may still decide to require their students to take additional or specific credits in a particular area. For instance, under the previous system, CLAS requires students to take additional credits in CA, Q and a Second Language beyond the general University-required credits.

A: No. The Content Areas (CAs) have been revised into Topics of Inquiry (TOIs), but the Quantitative (Q), Writing (W), and Second Language (SL) competencies are all remaining the same.*

• All students must pass two Q courses, which may also satisfy TOI requirements. One Q course must be from Mathematics or Statistics.
• All students must take either ENGL 1007, 1010, 1011, or 2011. Students with Advanced Placement English scores of 4 or 5 are exempted from the ENGL 1007/1010/1011/2011 requirement. Additionally, all students must take two writing-intensive courses, one of which must be approved for the student’s major. These courses may also satisfy other TOI requirements. A writing-intensive course approved for the student’s major does not have any credit-hour restriction, but it is to be at the 2000+level.
• Students meet the minimum requirement if admitted to the University having passed the third-year level of a single second language in high school, or the equivalent. When the years of study have been split between high school and earlier grades, the requirement is met if students have successfully completed the third-year high school-level course. With anything less than that, students must pass the second course in the first-year sequence of college level study.

*Please note that some schools and colleges require additional credits in these competencies beyond the general University requirements. Please check with an advisor in your school or college to see if you need additional credits.

A: Yes. Given the new structure that requires one course in each of the six TOIs (breadth) plus three courses in one area (depth), this technically adds up to 24 credits. However, the new system only requires 21 credits in the TOIs, which automatically allows for a double-dip.

Under the new guidelines, any course may be designated to fulfills up to two TOIs, but not more. Courses may also fulfill one or more competencies, though. For example, then, a student could potentially count one course as TOI-2, TOI-4, and W.

Remember, however, that courses fulfilling the TOIs must still represent at least six different subjects as designated by subject code (e.g., ANTH or WGSS) and at least one course must be passed in each TOI. Exceptions to this rule are subject heading designations that group interdisciplinary studies through cross-listing, such as LLAS, AFRA, WGSS, AAAS, URBN, ENVS, EVST, HRTS, UNIV, and INTD. Other current and future interdisciplinary groups would also apply.