When the Catamount Core Curriculum was implemented in Fall 2023, UVM established – for the first time – institution-wide learning outcomes for civic engagement, despite years of providing students with opportunities to practice active citizenship in and out of the curriculum. Specifically, the Global Citizenship GC2 pathway was designed to incorporate community-engaged classes; the learning outcomes were purposely written to be inclusive of all service-learning courses at UVM.
This GC2 pathway established learning outcomes that have been accepted for civic engagement more generally, and the new Civic Engagement minor has adopted both.
To bring these initiatives into alignment, and because community-engaged courses serve as a pillar of the Civic Engagement minor, we proposed to map these learning outcomes back onto UVM's criteria for designating community-engaged learning courses.
After review, the Faculty Senate has approved the following revised designation criteria for community-engaged courses. There are two changes:
- Incorporation of the GC2 Civic Engagement learning outcomes into the criteria for both Community-Engaged Learning designations
- Replacement of the term “Civic Learning” with “Community Learning” to clarify that civic learning occurs throughout the curriculum, while community-engaged courses represent a specific subset emphasizing community partnerships and reflective engagement.
These changes promote consistency across related curricular initiatives, and they ensure that community-engaged courses are fully aligned with university-wide learning outcomes. The Catamount Core Committee commented that “these changes strengthen the coherence of UVM’s general education framework by reinforcing the connection between global citizenship, community engagement, and experiential learning.”
Community-Engaged Course Designation Criteria (rev. Feb. 2026)
The Faculty Senate approved the following changes (highlighted in yellow) to the Community-Engaged Course Designation Criteria in February 2026.
