Welcome to Charger Foundations, a set of courses dedicated to helping you engage with new ideas, complex situations, and diverse perspectives. Encompassing almost one-third of your undergraduate curriculum, the courses of Charger Foundations will enhance your skills, expand your horizons, and encourage you to build on the core values of the Charger Nation: integrity, respect, diligence, excellence, inclusiveness, and diversity.
The development of competencies associated with these values begins with Charger Foundations coursework. Below, you will see a matrix providing an overview of the competencies central to your Foundations work and aligned with the Alabama General Studies Commission (AGSC) Area Requirements.
Core Competencies
The University of Alabama in Huntsville is committed to four core competencies that serve as the foundation for undergraduate general education. These four core competencies follow.
- Effective communication (Area I)
- Engagement with questions of values, ethics, and aesthetics as represented in literature, the humanities, and the arts (Area II)
- Understanding of the scientific method and application of quantitative or inductive reasoning (Area III)
- Understanding of human behavior and economic, social, and political structures as represented in the disciplines of history and the social and behavioral sciences (Area IV)
These core competencies are consistent with those of the State of Alabama mandated articulation agreement under ACT 94-303, which ensures the transferability of credits from the State's two-year institutions to its four-year institutions.
Requirements by College
Colleges of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Business, Education, Nursing, Professional and Continuing Studies, and Science (41 hours)
| AGSC Area | Categories | Required Hours |
|---|---|---|
| I | Freshman Composition | 3-6 hours |
| II1 | Fine Arts | 3 hours |
| Humanities (literature) | 3 hours | |
| Humanities (non-literature) | 3 hours | |
| Humanities/Fine Arts | 3 hours | |
| III | Mathematics | 3-4 hours |
| Natural Sciences (lab) | 8 hours | |
| IV1 | History | 3 hours |
| Social & Behavioral Sciences (non-history) | 6 hours | |
| History/SBS | 3 hours |
- 1
Take either 1 EH (Literature) + 2 HY (History) or 2 EH (Literature) + 1 HY (History). Take no more than six hours in a single discipline in Area II or Area IV.
College of Engineering (35 hours)
| AGSC Area | Categories | Required Hours |
|---|---|---|
| I | Freshman Composition | 3-6 hours |
| II1 | Fine Arts | 3 hours |
| Humanities (literature) | 3 hours | |
| Humanities | 3 hours | |
| III | Mathematics | 3-4 hours |
| Natural Sciences (lab) | 8 hours | |
| IV1 | History | 3 hours |
| History/SBS | 6 hours |
- 1
Take either 1 EH (Literature) + 2 HY (History) or 2 EH (Literature) + 1 HY (History). Take no more than six hours in a single discipline in Area II or Area IV.
Pathways through Charger Foundations will vary by college and major. Confer with your academic advisor to select appropriate Foundations courses each semester.
| Code | Title | Semester Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Area I: Freshman Composition | 3-6 | |
| COLLEGE WRITING I | ||
or EH 101S | COLLEGE WRITING I W/STUDIO | |
| COLLEGE WRITING II | ||
| ACCELERATED COLLEGE WRITING | ||
| HONORS ENGLISH SEMINAR | ||
| Area II: Humanities and Fine Arts* | 12 | |
| Fine Arts | 3 | |
| ARH SUR: ANCIENT-MEDIEVAL | ||
| ARH SUR: RENAISSANCE-MODERN | ||
| ARH SUR: WORLD ART | ||
| DRAWING: FOUNDATIONS | ||
| THEATRE APPRECIATION | ||
| INTRO TO FILM STUDIES | ||
| INTRO TO MUSIC LITERATURE | ||
| Literature | 3-6 | |
| READINGS LITERATURE/CULTURE I | ||
| READINGS LITERATURE/CULTURE 2 | ||
| HONORS SEM READINGS LIT/CUL I | ||
| HONORS SEM READINGS LIT/CUL 2 | ||
| LITERATURE WITHOUT BORDERS | ||
| MYTHOLOGY | ||
| PROTEST LITERATURE | ||
| HEROES &/OR MONSTERS | ||
| LOVE &/OR ROMANCE | ||
| SPECULATIVE REALITIES | ||
| Humanities and Fine Arts | 3-6 | |
| Intro to Rhetorical Communication | ||
| INTRO FOREIGN LANG I: SPANISH | ||
or WLC 101A | INTRO FOREIGN LANG I: ARABIC | |
or WLC 101F | INTRO FOREIGN LANG I:FRENCH | |
or WLC 101G | INTRO FOREIGN LANG I:GERMAN | |
or WLC 101J | INTRO FOREIGN LANG I:JAPANESE | |
or WLC 101R | INTRO FOREIGN LANG I:RUSSIAN | |
| INTRO FOREIGN LANG II:SPANISH | ||
or WLC 102A | INTRO FOREIGN LANG II: ARABIC | |
or WLC 102F | INTRO FOREIGN LANG II:FRENCH | |
or WLC 102G | INTRO FOREIGN LANG II:GERMAN | |
or WLC 102J | INTRO FOREIGN LANG II:JAPANESE | |
or WLC 102R | INTRO FOREIGN LANG II:RUSSIAN | |
| INTERM FOREIGN LANG:SPANISH | ||
or WLC 201A | INTERM FOREIGN LANG I: ARABIC | |
or WLC 201F | INTERM FOREIGN LANG:FRENCH | |
or WLC 201G | INTERM FOREIGN LANG:GERMAN | |
or WLC 201J | INTERM FOREIGN LANG: JAPANESE | |
or WLC 201R | INTERM FOREIGN LANG:RUSSIAN | |
| INTERM FOREIGN LANG II:SPANISH | ||
or WLC 202A | INTERM FOREIGN LANG II: ARABIC | |
or WLC 202F | INTERM FOREIGN LANG II:FRENCH | |
or WLC 202G | INTERM FOREIGN LANG II:GERMAN | |
or WLC 202J | INTERM FORGN LANG II:JAPANESE | |
or WLC 202R | INTERM FOREIGN LANG II:RUSSIAN | |
| INTERNATIONAL CINEMA | ||
| INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY | ||
| INTRO TO ETHICS | ||
| INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC | ||
| TECH, SCIENCE & HUMAN VALUES | ||
| INTRO WOMENS/GENDER/SEXLTY STU | ||
| ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL WORLDS | ||
| ARH SUR: ANCIENT-MEDIEVAL | ||
| ARH SUR: RENAISSANCE-MODERN | ||
| ARH SUR: WORLD ART | ||
| DRAWING: FOUNDATIONS | ||
| THEATRE APPRECIATION | ||
| INTRO TO FILM STUDIES | ||
| INTRO TO MUSIC LITERATURE | ||
| Area III: Mathematics and Sciences | 11-12 | |
| Mathematics | 3-4 | |
| NATURE OF MATHEMATICS | ||
| ALGEBRA WITH APPLICATIONS | ||
| FINITE MATHEMATICS | ||
| PRECALCULUS ALGEBRA | ||
| PRECALCULUS TRIGONOMETRY | ||
| PRECALCULUS ALGEBRA & TRIG | ||
| MATH PROFESSIONAL APPLICATIONS | ||
| CALCULUS A | ||
| INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS | ||
| Natural Sciences (Lab) | 8 | |
| SURVEY OF ASTRONOMY | ||
| EXPLORING THE COSMOS I | ||
| EXPLORING THE COSMOS II | ||
| FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOLOGY | ||
| PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY and LABORATORY | ||
| ORGANISMAL BIOLOGY and ORGANISMAL BIOLOGY LAB | ||
| HUMAN ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY I | ||
| INTRO TO CHEMISTRY and INTRO CHEMISTRY LAB | ||
| GENERAL CHEMISTRY I and GENERAL CHEMISTRY LAB I | ||
| GENERAL CHEMISTRY II and GENERAL CHEMISTRY LAB II | ||
| GENERAL, ORGANIC, BIOCHEMISTRY and INTRO CHEMISTRY LAB | ||
| CONCEPTUAL PHYSICS | ||
| GENERAL PHYSICS I | ||
| GENERAL PHYSICS II | ||
| GEN PHYSICS W/CALCULUS I and GENERAL PHYSICS LAB I | ||
| GEN PHYSICS W/CALC II and GENERAL PHYSICS LAB II | ||
| GEN PHYSICS W/CALC III and GENERAL PHYSICS LAB III | ||
| Area IV: History and Social and Behavioral Sciences* | 12 | |
| History | 3-6 | |
| WORLD HISTORY TO 1500 | ||
| WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500 | ||
| UNITED STATES TO 1877 | ||
| UNITED STATES SINCE 1877 | ||
| Social and Behavioral Sciences | 6-9 | |
| WORLD REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY | ||
| PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY | ||
| PRINC OF MACROECONOMICS | ||
| PRINC OF MICROECONOMICS | ||
| GLOBAL SYSTEMS AND CULTURES | ||
| INTRO TO AMERICAN GOVERNMENT | ||
| INTRO TO COMPARATIVE POLITICS | ||
| INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS | ||
| GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY I | ||
| LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT | ||
| INTRO TO SOCIOLOGY | ||
| ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS | ||
| INTRO TO CRIMINOLOGY | ||
* Take either 1 EH (Area II) + 2 HY (Area IV) <OR> 2 EH (Area II) + 1 HY (Area IV). Take no more than six hours in a single discipline in Area II or Area IV.