
General Education
General Education Philosophy
The General Education program prepares you for success at CWU and as a citizen in our dynamic, diverse, and global society. The program fosters integrated learning, enhancing your ability to make connections across courses and disciplines and to apply a breadth of knowledge to real-world problems. It will help you develop skills in critical thinking, clear communication, creative leadership, ethical decision making, and complex problem solving. Combined with your major, the General Education program will cultivate curiosity, empower personal development, strengthen understanding of and respect for diverse perspectives, and build a foundation for lifelong learning.
Program-Level Goals
Program-level student learner outcomes are within program goals through a student's opportunity and ability to explore, engage, connect, create, and empathize in academic and/or real-world settings.
Resources
Need To Know Information on Resources
Academic Planning & Advising
Information on Academic Planning and Advising at CWU.
Component Areas
Information on component areas at CWU.
Directed Self-Placement Tool
CWU uses a Directed Self-Placement (DSP) tool to help students select and AWI course that best fits their needs.
Explore
You will explore a breadth of knowledge, methods of inquiry and reasoning, and fundamental questions. That process will cultivate curiosity, facilitate the understanding of diverse perspectives, empower personal development and growth, and build a foundation for life-long learning.
Engage
As you engage with new knowledge, people, and perspectives, you will assume responsibility for your learning. In the process, you will develop enhanced communication—written and spoken—and critical thinking skills grounded in logic, reason, analysis, and synthesis. Combining these skills will enable you to employ multiple approaches to complex and real-world problems. As an engaged citizen, you will bring intellectual creativity and curiosity into your personal, civic, and professional life.
Connect
You will discover how disciplines, societal challenges, and cultures are interconnected. This process links coursework and community, local and global issues, past and present. Your ability to integrate learning will lead to new ways of thinking, analyzing, and interacting with our dynamic and diverse world.
Create
Your knowledge and skills will empower you to ask innovative questions and envision unique projects. This process of creative engagement will enable inquisitiveness and original thinking. It will provide you with agility for success in your career and life.
Empathize
Your General Education will facilitate open-mindedness and enable you to better understand and imagine others' experiences. As you become more knowledgeable and curious about the world, you will develop respect for diverse points of view, engage in ethical decision-making, and demand and demonstrate compassionate leadership.
General Education Philosophy
The General Education program prepares you for success at CWU and as a citizen in our dynamic, diverse, and global society. The program fosters integrated learning, enhancing your ability to make connections across courses and disciplines and to apply a breadth of knowledge to real-world problems. It will help you develop skills in critical thinking, clear communication, creative leadership, ethical decision making, and complex problem solving. Combined with your major, the General Education program will cultivate curiosity, empower personal development, strengthen understanding of and respect for diverse perspectives, and build a foundation for lifelong learning.
Program-Level Goals
Program-level student learner outcomes are within program goals through a student's opportunity and ability to explore, engage, connect, create, and empathize in academic and/or real-world settings.
You will explore a breadth of knowledge, methods of inquiry and reasoning, and fundamental questions. That process will cultivate curiosity, facilitate the understanding of diverse perspectives, empower personal development and growth, and build a foundation for life-long learning.
As you engage with new knowledge, people, and perspectives, you will assume responsibility for your learning. In the process, you will develop enhanced communication—written and spoken—and critical thinking skills grounded in logic, reason, analysis, and synthesis. Combining these skills will enable you to employ multiple approaches to complex and real-world problems. As an engaged citizen, you will bring intellectual creativity and curiosity into your personal, civic, and professional life.
You will discover how disciplines, societal challenges, and cultures are interconnected. This process links coursework and community, local and global issues, past and present. Your ability to integrate learning will lead to new ways of thinking, analyzing, and interacting with our dynamic and diverse world.
Your knowledge and skills will empower you to ask innovative questions and envision unique projects. This process of creative engagement will enable inquisitiveness and original thinking. It will provide you with agility for success in your career and life.
Your General Education will facilitate open-mindedness and enable you to better understand and imagine others' experiences. As you become more knowledgeable and curious about the world, you will develop respect for diverse points of view, engage in ethical decision-making, and demand and demonstrate compassionate leadership.
CWU News

CWU selects new executive director of Institutional Effectiveness
September 21, 2023
by University Relations

State of the University address scheduled for September 29
September 20, 2023
by University Relations

New exhibit to open September 28 at Sarah Spurgeon Gallery
September 18, 2023
by Heather Johnson