The Role of the Center for Civic Excellence
The Center for Civic Excellence is the administrative unit responsible for overseeing and assessing general education at Utah State University.
The Civic Center operates within established faculty governance processes, including review and approval through the University Curriculum Committee and the Educational Policies Committee. It works in partnership with departments and colleges to coordinate curriculum, maintain shared learning outcomes and guide continuous improvement.
The Civic Center does not alter credit totals or transfer policy. Its role is to support coherence and coordination across the university-wide program.
Mission and Vision
Mission
By providing an ambitious foundational education in a program that puts students first, the Center for Civic Excellence cultivates the intellectual capacities and durable skills that empower students to succeed in college and beyond. Through applied learning and rigorous engagement with big questions, transformative texts, and evidence-based discovery, we prepare thoughtful, capable citizens ready to contribute meaningfully to their communities and the world.
Vision
Deliver the most compelling, intentional, and meaningful common undergraduate experience in the state of Utah and beyond.
Values
In the Center for Civic Excellence, our primary values are:
- Intellectual Humility: We acknowledge the limits and imperfections of our knowledge and treat them as invitations to engage multiple, and often opposing, points of view with charity, remain open to new insights, and continually learn from others.
- Curiosity: We cultivate active wonder about the world, ask good questions, seek out unfamiliar ideas, experiences, and perspectives and view these as opportunities to expand our understanding of the world and deepen our engagement with others.
- Open Inquiry: The pursuit of truth requires free and rigorous inquiry that welcomes intellectually diverse viewpoints in an environment where exploration, careful thinking, critique, and intellectual risk-taking deepen shared understanding.
- Engaging Diverse Perspectives: We seek to understand complex questions by engaging seriously with multiple positions and considering how differing experiences, ideas, contexts, and values shape meaning, judgment, and the pursuit of truth.
- Civil Discourse: We engage in respectful, good-faith dialogue across differences, listening carefully, interpreting charitably, speaking thoughtfully, and grounding our contributions in reasons and evidence so that a sense of the dignity of the persons permeates our discussions and disagreements become an opportunity for shared problem-solving and improved understanding.
- Civic Engagement: We recognize that the world presents difficult and complex problems and questions, which we view as opportunities to co-create effective solutions, deepen our capacity for self-reflection, and strengthen our understanding of others.
We desire to have students engage with these values during their CIVC coursework, and expect all who engage with Civic Center activities to embrace and demonstrate these values. As we do so, we believe we can provide USU students with an incredible, initial academic credential that also increases retention and completion of USU students.