May 13, 2024  
ARCHIVED 2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
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ARCHIVED 2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions

The courses listed herein  have been approved by the faculty as authorized by the Board of Trustees.  Prerequisites (if any) and the General Education Requirement(s) which each course fulfills (if any) are noted following each course description.

Current course offerings are available in Merlin.
 

Leadership, Ethics and Values
  

  • LEAD 100 - Design Thinking for Social Impact

    4.00 credit hours
    As members of a diverse and global community, we face a variety of complex social issues. Students will learn the theory and practice of human-centered design, a creative approach to problem-solving that leads students through a process to empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test their ideas. Through readings, case studies, hands-on activities, field experiences, and interaction with community leaders and residents, students will develop the mindset and toolkit needed to create innovative solutions for change, regardless of the discipline or field of study they pursue. Students will identify local social or environmental challenges and work collaboratively to address them through the design thinking process.

    Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Community Engaged Learning.
    iCon(s): Innovating the World.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 120 - Leaders Without Borders

    4.00 credit hours
    World leaders must navigate an array of domestic and international issues on a daily basis. Their leadership qualities and styles often reflect cultural and social norms as well as their nation’s political system. The underlying theme of this course is that the skills and behaviors that are perceived as effective leadership characteristics in one culture are not necessarily those that will be effective in a different culture. Students will explore the ways in which specific characteristics are valued differently by different cultures. Students will also acquire frameworks for assessing how to approach a work assignment in a culture that is not their own. Finally, students will consider the effect of globalization on leadership, and define the characteristics necessary to successfully lead in a highly diverse and complex world that challenges them to understand and respond to nationalism, terrorism, trade, human rights, environmental challenges, power and justice, and explore regional leadership issues.

    Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Global Understanding.
    iCon(s): Thinking Globally.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 180 - Financial Intelligence for Social Entrepreneurs

    4.00 credit hours
    Social enterprises have unique financial management and reporting needs. To operate such businesses successfully, social entrepreneurs require clear and complete financial information, including budgeting and cash flow forecasting, to inform their decision-making and to support their efforts to produce investment in the business. This course will explore the accounting and financial management of social enterprises, focusing on basic accounting practices and principles in a hands-on, skills-oriented, case-study driven fashion.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 200 - Social Innovation

    4.00 credit hours
    Students learn to utilize design thinking and systems thinking methodology in approaching social and environmental problems. Students will develop an innovative skillset and apply it directly to complex issues of their choosing, while building their efficacy as changemakers. Social innovation is derived from the practice of solution-oriented thinking, that seeks to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.

    Prerequisite(s): LEAD 100 .
    Cardinal Directions Designation(s): U.S. Power Structures.
    iCon(s): Innovating the World.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 220 - Leadership for Changemaking

    4.00 credit hours
    An introduction to the scholarship of leadership theory and practice is integral to the preparation of students to be leaders and changemakers in a global community. This course walks students through the development of leadership theory while continually emphasizing its relevance and application. Students will engage with a variety of approaches as they examine case studies, research examples for theoretical application, and reflect on their own leadership style and development.

    Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Ethical Dimensions.
    iCon(s): Engaging Civic Life.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 230 - Conflict Resolution

    4.00 credit hours
    An inquiry into the theories and skills relating to the resolution of conflict in the community and the workplace. A variety of approaches will be used to understand and analyze issues and develop skills including lecture/discussion, negotiation exercises and simulated mediations. The course will focus on developing the ability to practice as a mediator.

    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 300 - Social Entrepreneurship

    4.00 credit hours
    An immersion into the rapidly-growing field of social entrepreneurship, teaching students how to address complex social or environmental challenges through the creation of market-based solutions that are innovative, measurable, sustainable and scalable. Through readings, interactive workshops, guest speakers, and field experiences, students will identify systemic social challenges and corresponding opportunities, pinpoint root causes, ideate and test possible solutions, explore funding sources, consider legal structures, and prepare an impact measurement plan. The course will culminate in a written social venture plan and pitch that communicates a viable solution to a social challenge.

    Prerequisite(s): One of the following: LEAD 100 , LEAD 180  or Junior standing.
    Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Community Engaged Learning.
    iCon(s): Challenging Inequity.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 310 - Leadership and Place

    4.00 credit hours
    (Same as: CHAS 310 .) Leadership and Place traces the influence of home towns and home places on contemporary and historical leadership paradigms while considering such ethical questions as: What role does place play in forming a responsible and responsive leader? How does one lead responsibly and well far from home? How and where do rural, urban and suburban ethical standards and value judgments converge and diverge? Where have the leaders of the past come from and where are they likely to be found in the future? Paying close attention to small communities and neighborhoods as key loci in the production of twentieth-century civic leaders and as ethical centers in a Jeffersonian republic, course texts, lectures and discussions feature real-life case studies designed to engage students in debates weighing ethical and moral positions viewed through the lens of place. Leadership and Place uniquely encourages students in the study of personal (inside-out) as well as cultural (outside-in) place-based, ethical perspectives while inviting them to consider the foundational role home communities play in ethical leadership on the local, regional and national level.

    Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing.
    iCon(s): Experiencing Place.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 320 - Ethical Leadership

    4.00 credit hours
    What connects all leaders is that they attempt to guide or inspire the conduct of others (their employees, colleagues, fellow citizens, and so on). Our study of ethical leadership will investigate both what it means to be an ethical leader at a personal level (i.e., a leader, with the right values and character, who acts properly) and collective level (i.e., a leader who inspires ethical action in others). We will analyze examples of leadership at the top (e.g., business CEOs) and from the bottom (e.g., activists and whistleblowers). The course is organized in four sections, each centered on its own theme: (1) developing a toolkit for ethical decision making; (2) understanding the sources of moral failures; (3) developing ethical leaders; and (4) investigating leadership in the face of great moral conflict. Students will end the course by developing group projects that apply course material to a specific case of successful (or failed) leadership.

    Prerequisite(s): LEAD 220 .


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 350 - Ethnic and Religious Conflict Resolution

    4.00 credit hours
    Students discover the origins of and build a conceptual framework for understanding ethnic and religious conflict. The approach will be interdisciplinary and examine the central causes, consequences, and ultimately solutions for resolving ethnic and religious conflict. We will use numerous case studies to explore the key conceptual and theoretical areas and questions within the field. The reading is plentiful, but thought provoking, and should enable you to explore the dynamics of global conflict with greater rigor and precision. Come prepared for a stimulating academic experience.

    Prerequisite(s): Junior standing.
    Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Global Understanding.
    iCon(s): Thinking Globally.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 360 - Precepting

    2.00 credit hours
    Precepting is a form of leadership in the classroom. A preceptor is not a simply a teaching assistant, a peer mentor or a tutor. A preceptor is an apprentice who works alongside a professor, participating in the management and delivery of a course he or she has already taken. In this seminar, students engage with the scholarship of teaching and learning, leadership theory, and strengths-based development while reflecting on their unique precepting experience. Precepting provides high-impact, experiential learning in the world of higher education.

    Prerequisite(s): Junior standing and instructor consent.
    Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Community Engaged Learning.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 370 - Marketing for Social Impact

    4.00 credit hours
    Effective marketing can be alever for the creation of both economic and social value. Startups and existing organizations, whether focused on marketing goods, services, ideas or values, need a complete strategy for maximizing social impact. Social entrepreneurs face a unique challenge in not just identifying a market opportunity, but tackling a neglected market gap. In addition to understanding product, place, price, and promotion in the creation of a marketing plan, students will learn the theory and practice of branding and identity, storytelling and communication, and the use of available technological tools that contribute to positive social impact.

    Prerequisite(s): Junior standing.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 380 - Finance & Law for Social Impact Business

    4.00 credit hours
    Two early, but significant, challenges facing social entrepreneurs are financing the enterprise and determining what type of business entity the enterprise will be. This course explores a range of financing models and approaches, all of which present the social entrepreneur with the opportunity to both start and scale up a successful social enterprise. The course also considers the range of business entity options, both traditional and social enterprise specific, available to the social entrepreneur. Students will develop finance plans and business formation documents as major projects in the course.

    Prerequisite(s): LEAD 180  and LEAD 300 .


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 390 - Seminar on Leadership Theory

    4.00 credit hours
    The goal of the seminar is to gain familiarity with the considerations involved in framing a comprehensive theory of leadership with special emphasis upon the connections between leadership, values and ethics. In independent projects students relate major theories about leadership to the study of specific leader/constituent relationships.

    Prerequisite(s): Junior standing.
    Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Writing Intensive.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 394 - Conflict Resolution Practicum

    4.00 credit hours
    An advanced, skills-oriented course focusing on the resolution of actual, rather than simulated conflicts. The course continues the conflict resolution theory and skill development commenced in LEAD 230  by applying both to conflicts on the college campus and eventually, in community courts and businesses. The course continues the LEAD 230  focus on developing the ability to practice as a mediator.

    Prerequisite(s): LEAD 230 .


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 400 - Social Impact Measurement

    4.00 credit hours
    Address the growing necessity of social impact measurement in a broad spectrum of industries, including non-profit organizations, for-profit corporations, and social enterprises. Social impact may be defined as any non-financial benefit that a venture will create for the good of society, and can include issues like human rights, poverty, the environment, health & wellness, education and more. Traditional businesses track their performance based on specific economic and accounting metrics. This course engages students in the practice of social impact measurement from identifying an organization’s mission and vision, to mapping data collection and identifying long-term impact. Students identify, secure, and partner with non-profits, for profit social enterprises, or their own entity to complete a course-long, engaged learning project.

    Prerequisite(s): LEAD 300 .
    Cardinal Directions Designation(s): Community Engaged Learning.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.
  

  • LEAD 494 - Capstone: Applied Leadership

    4.00 credit hours
    A structured seminar reflection upon experience of leadership relations gained in an approved experiential setting. Students spend approximately 10 to 12 hours per week in their experiential setting. One two-hour class meeting per week.

    Prerequisite(s): Junior standing.


    Click here for the schedule of classes.