Civics & Individual Ethics

Students will:

1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of what constitutes a good life and/or a good society.
2. Students will apply learning in the course to articulate the nature of a good life or how one may contribute to a good society.

Courses in this category:

1. Courses in this category offer a sustained reflection on the nature of the good life and the good society. Ethical questions and investigations are raised early in the course and returned to frequently.
2. Courses in this category consistently work with concepts such as justice, freedom, fairness, privacy, security, tolerance, equality, rights, or concern for the general welfare.
3. Courses in this category include an assessment assignment that requires students to demonstrate each of the skills in the Civics and Individual Ethics Assessment Rubric. This assessment assignment should be one of the following: an objective exam, an essay question on an exam, an essay, or a research paper.

Students may apply to fulfill the CIE requirement through a co-curricular activity. These criteria apply to experiences that meet the CIE curricular requirement and describe the characteristics of the experience, the steps a student must follow to petition the experience for approval, and the number and types of assignments students must submit to satisfy the requirement.

1. Students must obtain pre-approval for any activity used to satisfy this component. Approval must be obtained prior to the start of the activity.
2. Students must submit independent, third-party, verification of participation in the approved activity, by a supervisor or other authoritative individual, who is not a blood relation.
3. Student experiences must involve 15 hours of engaged interaction in a context in which students are explicitly concerned with concepts such as justice, freedom, fairness, privacy, security, tolerance, equality, rights, or concern for the general welfare.
4. Students wishing to use the same activity for CIE and CE must complete 15 hours of engagement for each component.
5. Students fulfilling Civics and Individual Ethics through an activity must submit either samples of work completed during the course of the activity that demonstrate the required supporting skills or a written reflection of approximately 1000 words that responds to the following prompt:

• Please write a reflection that describes in detail the activity you used to complete the Civics and Individual Ethics requirement. In your reflection, answer the following questions. How did you, through this activity, come to reflect on questions of such as justice, freedom, fairness, privacy, security, tolerance, equality, rights, or concern for the general welfare? In what context did you reflect upon these questions? How did your experiences during this activity change or reinforce you understanding of these concepts? What, based on your experiences, do you believe constitutes a good life or a good society?

Good society: A communally organized form of life that guides participants toward justice, freedom, fairness, privacy, security, tolerance, equality, rights, or concern for the general welfare.

Good life: Reasoning about a good life seeks practical means by which persons pursue what is good, right, or beneficial, and avoid what is evil, bad, wrong, or harmful. Reasoning about a good life requires the ability to discern and express, to some degree, what the distinctions are between what is good/bad, right/wrong, and/or beneficial/ harmful for a particular topic within a course or discipline, and then clearly state the means by which goods, rights, and benefits are achieved and/or bads, wrongs, or harms are avoided. 

Ethical reasoning: Reasoning about a good life or good society.

Students may use pre-matriculation transfer coursework, concurrent enrollment, dual-credit, and test credit (AP or IB) to satisfy Graduation requirements. The coursework must be college-level, credit-bearing work, taken and passed for a letter grade. Students must receive SMU transfer credit for the course.

Courses that transfer in with an SMU equivalent number (for example FREN 2401) will automatically satisfy any Proficiency & Experience requirements fulfilled by the course. The same is true for many courses on the listed on the SMU Transfer Equivalency Guide. 

Courses that transfer in with generic course numbers (for example, ENGL 10XX) will not automatically satisfy Proficiency & Experience requirements and must be petitioned using the Proficiency & Experience (PE) Fulfillment Verification petition.

Students must submit one petition for each graduation requirement, even if they are using a single course to petition multiple requirements. Students may use a single course to satisfy up to three Proficiency & Experience requirements (assuming the course meets the criteria for all three).  

How to petition generic transfer coursework:

1. Fill out the Petition for Fulfillment Verification, selecting the requirement they are hoping to fulfill and checking the second option that says “I am a current or transfer student, and I am requesting fulfillment through a dual-credit or transfer course.”
2. Attach a complete syllabus which includes a daily schedule, grade breakdown, assignments, and assigned readings.
3. Attach a copy of the Transfer Evaluation Report (TER), showing that the course being petitioned has transferred to SMU for credit. Visit my.SMU > Academics > Request Transfer Evaluation
4. Attach a brief supporting statement, using the provided template, that explains how the course fulfills the Proficiency & Experience being petitioned.

Petitions are electronic and are usually reviewed within two weeks of receipt. Students should not assume that a petition has been completely processed until they receive a formal notification of approval or denial from the Office of General Education via The Common Curriculum email (theccmail@smu.edu). The formal notification, in cases of approval, follows the formal update to the students Degree Progress Report (DPR), noting that the petitioned requirement is satisfied.

Use the course search options below to find Civics & Individual Ethics-tagged courses at SMU. Following successful completion of the course, your Degree Progress Report (DPR) will be updated to reflect satisfying this graduation requirement. Learn how to find tagged courses below via one of two means. 

Search courses on the Common Curriculum website:

1. Go to Course Search on the SMU Common Curriculum website
2. Click Filter by Graduation Requirements and select Civics & Individual Ethics

Search courses in my.SMU:

1. Go to my.smu.edu and select “Students”
2. Login using your username and password
3. Once logged into your Student Dashboard, select Class Information on the left-hand side bar
4. Under Class Information, select Advanced Class Search
5. In the Search Criteria boxes:
   1. select the term you want to take the class
   2. in Course Attribute, select Common Curriculum P & E
   3. in Course Attribute Value, select Civics & Individual Ethics
6. Select Search and the available courses will be displayed

Students may apply to fulfill the CIE requirement through a co-curricular activity. These criteria apply to experiences that meet the CIE curricular requirement and describe the characteristics of the experience, the steps a student must follow to petition the experience for approval, and the number and types of assignments students must submit to satisfy the requirement.

Before the Individual Activity:

1. Student experiences must involve 15 hours of engaged interaction in a context in which students are explicitly concerned with concepts such as justice, freedom, fairness, privacy, security, tolerance, equality, rights, or concern for the general welfare. Students wishing to use the same activity for both Community Engagement and Civics & Individual Ethics must complete a total of 30 hours of engaged interaction.

Complete the Individual Activity: 

During the individual activity:

1. Students must be involved in 15 hours of engagement work, including planning, work toward the engagement project, support of the engagement project, and direct engagement with the community, with a minimum of 10 hours of direct engagement with the community. Students wishing to use the same activity for both Community Engagement and Civics & Individual Ethics must complete a total of 30 hours of engagement work.
2. Ensure the engagement with the community must be such that it provides a tangible benefit to the community in question.

After the Individual Activity:

1. Students must submit a reflection of at least 1000 words that responds to the following prompt: Please write a reflection that describes in detail the activity you used to complete the Civics and Individual Ethics requirement. In your reflection, answer the following questions. How did you, through this activity, come to reflect on questions of such as justice, freedom, fairness, privacy, security, tolerance, equality, rights, or concern for the general welfare? In what context did you reflect upon these questions? How did your experiences during this activity change or reinforce your understanding of these concepts? What, based on your experiences, do you believe constitutes a good life or a good society?
2. Students seeking to petition an experience after matriculation at SMU must submit a pre-approval petition for the experience.

Sometimes students complete, or desire to take, an SMU course which was not tagged with the desired Proficiency & Experience, but after reviewing the Student Learning Outcomes, Supporting Skills, Course Content Criteria (outlined above), they believe they may have satisfied the requirement. Use this process below to petition credit for the graduation requirement. 

Current SMU students who wish to take an SMU course that they believe has activities that satisfy this Proficiency & Experience, must submit, prior to beginning the course:

1. The Proficiency & Experience (PE) Pre-Approval petition and request individual activity-based fulfillment.
2. Attach a complete syllabus which includes a daily schedule, grade breakdown, assignments, and assigned readings.
3. A detailed supporting statement, using the provided template, of how the activities in the course meet the requirements for Community Engagement.

Upon completion of the course and a posting of the student's grade, students must submit:

1. Fill out the Proficiency & Experience (PE) Fulfillment Verification petition.
2. A copy of the student's Degree Progress Report (DPR) with the letter grade of the course. 
3. Attach a complete syllabus which includes a daily schedule, grade breakdown, assignments, and assigned readings.
4. A final supporting statement, using the provided template, which explores the service opportunity, the student’s participation in it, and the ways in which the experience has impacted the student in the identified areas.

There are a number of pre-approved clubs or organizations which can fulfill the Civics & Individual Ethics and Experience. Review them below and get in touch with their organizers to begin. 

Some SMU clubs and organizations offer opportunities to fulfill the Civics & Individual Ethics Proficiency. For a full list of approved activities, click here.