Our New Core

March 19, 2026

When we welcome the Class of 2030 to campus this August, we’ll also be officially rolling out the revised Core Curriculum that was approved in Spring 2025. While this revision was a “substantive” one, its continuity with the current Core is significant. It reaffirms the Jesuit values that orient the Core’s general goals. And, in maintaining a robust formation, grounded in the liberal arts, for all of our undergraduate students, it ensures that the Core and CAS retain a pivotal role in fulfilling the University’s mission. 

Since the revision was approved last spring, faculty from across the university have been working at implementing its changes to the Core. Many CAS colleagues have participated in discussions whose aim is to articulate “Principles” for Core courses, which spell out the specific ways in which courses contribute to the achievement of the Core’s overall student learning objectives. I’m grateful for the work of my colleagues on the Curriculum Task Force who, over the course of this academic year, have led discussions with their departments and with faculty from allied disciplines about how we understand the ways in which our courses contribute to the Core’s broader aims.

This work has been necessary, in part as an exercise in accountability, oriented to making sure that we have a reasonable plan for how our courses contribute to these shared aims. Work with my departmental colleagues this year has also presented an opportunity to reflect on how my own work in the classroom and beyond contributes to these objectives. If you’ve had a chance to take part in one of these discussions, I hope that the same has been true for you too. I certainly plan to draw on this insight in my work with students going forward, so that I can point out to them, for example, when an idea we’ve encountered in our readings addresses a central Jesuit value; or how work on an essay assignment contributes to the development of a flexible writing skill; or when a challenging conversation that we’ve had in class suggests the possibility of a form of community that we might not have imagined possible.

As the Curriculum Task Force works toward completing its work this spring, we’d like to extend an invitation to all of our colleagues who teach in the Core to participate in a workshop on Thursday, May 14, from 10AM-3PM, the “Revised Core: Course Readiness Institute,” hosted by the CTE. While we’ll provide an overview of the changes to the Core, our main aim is to provide an opportunity for faculty to invest time in considering and making changes to their course offerings in dialogue with their colleagues. If you offer a course in the Core, we hope that you’ll plan to attend, and to bring along a syllabus that you can update in the spring, well in advance of the official rollout of the Core revision beginning in August.

For information about revisions to the Core, please visit the Core Transition site. As ever, please feel free to reach out for answers to your questions to any of your colleagues who serve on the Curriculum Task Force. Thank you to everyone who’s contributed to Core implementation efforts this year.

Learn more on May 14
The Core Course Readiness Institute is an all-day workshop designed to help faculty prepare for Xavier’s revised Core Curriculum before its launch in Fall 2026: Thursday, May 14, 2026; 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.; Alter Hall second floor. Find more information and register here.

Tim  Brownlee
Chair, Department of Philosophy