Syracuse University’s Shared Competencies are six learning goals that enhance undergraduate education through an integrated learning approach. Undergraduate students develop competencies through their major degree courses, liberal arts requirements, and co-curricular experiences. The Shared Competencies enable students to communicate their learning experience, provide pathways for academic development, and integrate different aspects of a Syracuse University education. Each competency includes corresponding framing language that communicates the content of that competency to educators and learners. The framing language suggests a range of knowledge, skills, and attributes that each competency entails.
Exploration and analysis of a complex and changing world. Engagement in responsible, collaborative, and inclusive intercultural learning, with an emphasis on self-reflection, civil discourse, reciprocity, and participating as engaged citizens in local and global contexts.
The Civic and Global Responsibility rubric articulates what Syracuse University students should know and be able to demonstrate by the time they graduate through four learning outcomes and specific indicators. The Civic and Global Responsibility rubric was created by a community of practice with faculty, librarians, staff, and students from across the University and adapted to align with Syracuse University’s strategic plan, Leading with Distinction. This rubric is intended for institutional-level use in assessing and reflecting on undergraduate student learning. Faculty teaching courses with a Civic and Global Responsibility course tag may refer to the learning outcomes when developing course learning objectives, signature assignments, and other learning experiences for students. This rubric will continue to evolve as Syracuse University collects feedback from faculty who utilize it to reflect on student learning.
This rubric is meant to provide faculty and students with specific learning outcomes for Civic and Global Responsibility. The indicators associated with each learning outcome are broadly worded so each discipline has the flexibility to apply them in their own context. Within the rubric, “the civic” and “the global” are deliberately treated as intertwined concepts to avoid a binary conceptualization of civic as “the local” and global as “the international.” Rather, the rubric is premised on the idea that as denizens of the world, each of us has a responsibility to perform our “civic duty.” This requires us to weigh in on, and potentially work with others to address, issues and problems that transcend the individual to impact the collective. These issues and problems can be detected in many localities across the entire planet and require close scrutiny as well as an appreciation for how they are connected but can manifest differently. A uniform model for approaching them does not suffice. Learning outcomes 1 and 2 stress the development of students’ ability to reflect on their commitment to engaged citizenship and investigate civic and global issues and interventions. Learning outcomes 3 and 4 invite students to engage in deliberative democracy and civil discourse to plan for and practice taking action.