In March, 2005, the Wesleyan faculty unanimously adopted a set of ten essential capabilities designed to better equip our students for the various social, intellectual, and ethical challenges that they will encounter in their lives after graduation. The capabilities are:

Students may acquire these capabilities through extra- or co-curricular activities, and also through participation in specific courses (listed in WesMaps). To see a definition of the capabilities, please click on "definitions" in the column on the left side of this page. To see a detailed account of how courses can be structured in order to be classified as enhancing a particular capability, please check "read more" under each capability. The criteria listed there were developed by a task force appointed by the Educational Policy Committee, which enlisted the help of over 60 members of the Wesleyan faculty. These criteria are intended to be prescriptive, so courses should not be listed unless they fulfill the appropriate criteria. Note that the faculty legislation defining the capabilities does not require all courses to enhance a capability.

During the academic year there will be on-going discussions at the Academic (Technology) Roundtable, and other face-to-face meetings, in which faculty may share their ideas about how the capabilities may be addressed in their courses. We have also established an on-line forum where you may share such accounts, and learn from your colleagues' experiences. You can join this forum by clicking on the FORUM link in the left column. Wesleyan is committed to an on-going process of curricular renewal, in which we regularly review and reflect on our curricular offerings, pedagogy, and educational goals, and you may also wish to post suggestions regarding the capabilities and how they are defined, thus contributing to their evolution over time.

J. Donald Moon, Chair
EPC Task Force on Implementation of the Capabilities