COURSE CURRICULUM

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic Design is a professional degree that prepares students for careers as practicing graphic designers or for continued graduate study in the field. The program requires completion of University, College, and departmental requirements, including general education coursework and a structured sequence of studio, art history, and graphic design courses, totaling at least 120 semester hours. The curriculum begins with foundational BFA core courses such as Drawing I and II, 2D and 3D Design, Color Theory and Application, and Introduction to Digital Photography, along with a range of studio art electives that strengthen technical and conceptual artistic skills. Students also complete art history coursework through Survey of Art I and II and additional upper-level art history electives to build critical understanding of visual culture and historical context. The major sequence includes core graphic design courses beginning with Introduction to Graphic Design and advancing through Typography, Digital Layout and Production, Brand and Identity Systems, and Publication Design, which develop professional-level skills in visual communication and design systems. Students culminate their studies with Graphic Design Portfolio, where they assemble a professional body of work, and additional upper-level electives that may include specialized areas such as illustration, interactive design, motion design, or package design. A required internship or senior thesis option further provides real-world or research-based experience. The program emphasizes both creative exploration and technical proficiency, ensuring that graduates are prepared to enter the design industry with a strong portfolio, professional experience, and the conceptual ability to solve visual communication problems across print, digital, and multimedia platforms.The Bachelor of Arts in History is a 33-credit major that helps students study past societies while developing strong skills in critical thinking, writing, and analysis, with requirements including introductory survey courses, field-based coursework across U.S., European, African/Asian/Latin American, and hidden histories categories, electives, and a required capstone seminar (HY 497), while also mandating completion of a minor and maintaining a minimum 2.0 GPA with residency and upper-level course requirements at the university. Students choose at least 12 hours across historical fields, allowing flexibility to specialize in areas like American political and cultural history, European wars and revolutions, global empires, or underrepresented historical perspectives such as gender, race, slavery, disability, and environmental history, and may also pursue concentrations such as public history or legal history that add applied training through internships and specialized courses like oral history, archival work, museums, or legal case studies. In contrast, the Bachelor of Science in Geology is a more structured 128-credit program emphasizing scientific training in earth processes, requiring extensive foundational coursework in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and core geology subjects like mineralogy, structural geology, petrology, sedimentology, and field geology, along with a concentration or elective pathway and a required minor, with a strong emphasis on laboratory and field-based learning and a higher volume of STEM ancillary courses. Both programs require a minimum GPA of 2.0 and significant upper-level coursework in residence, but they differ in focus: history prioritizes interpretation of human societies and written analysis, while geology emphasizes quantitative reasoning, scientific modeling, and physical earth systems. History students can further specialize through structured tracks and concentrations such as public history or legal history, while geology students can optionally concentrate in areas like earth system science or geoscience techniques such as GIS and remote sensing. Overall, both degrees prepare students for diverse careers, but history leans toward education, law, public service, and research, whereas geology leads more directly into environmental science, resource management, engineering-related fields, and earth science industries.