PORTLAND – USM has received a $354,420 grant from the Davis Educational Foundation to support implementation of USM’s new general education curricula, a series of courses required of all undergraduate students. The grant follows two other Davis Educational Foundation grants, one for $92,200 and another for $100,000 awarded in 2002 and 2003, which supported the planning stages of the curricula.

The USM Core and the Lewiston-Auburn College Common Core are replacing the university’s 20-year-old general education curriculum. Following recent approval by the USM Faculty Senate, USM is moving toward full implementation of the new curricula, a process to be completed no later than 2012.

The USM core is a progression of courses that begin in the freshman year with the interdisciplinary Entry Year Experience (EYE), college writing and quantitative reasoning courses. It concludes with a capstone project related directly to a student’s major.

EYE courses are team designed by professors from different academic departments who give a range of perspectives on subjects as diverse as shopping, public green space and natural disasters through rigorous reading and writing assignments, group discussions and fieldwork.

The core also will feature a “Mid-Career Seminar,” giving students a chance to consider ethical issues and reflect critically on their roles in society. Students will also have the option to complete a minor that explores a topic or theme in depth.