Mar 28, 2024  
2020-2021 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2020-2021 Undergraduate Catalog

Individually Structured Major- Integrated Health Sciences Option BA


Introduction

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Integrated Health Sciences option provides students with the opportunity to construct an individualized major that meets their unique needs, and which results in a B.A.

These degree requirements are subject to periodic revision by CLAS, and the College reserves the right to make exceptions and substitutions as judged necessary in individual cases. Therefore, the College strongly urges students to consult regularly with their CLAS Academic Advisor to confirm the best plans of study before finalizing them.

Program Delivery

  • This is an on-campus program.

Declaring This Major

  • Click here  to go to information about declaring a major.

General Requirements

To earn a degree, students must satisfy all requirements in each of the areas below, in addition to their individual major requirements.

Program Requirements


The ISM program plan must comply with the following policies:

  1. Students must complete a minimum of 39 credit hours from the approved courses.
  2. Students must complete a minimum of 9 upper-division (3000-level and above) credit hours in the approved cluster area and must complete all of the upper-division requirements for the minor or certificate they choose to pair with the cluster.
  3. Students must earn a minimum grade of C-(1.7) in all major courses taken at CU Denver and must achieve a minimum cumulative major GPA of 2.0. All graded attempts in required and elective courses are calculated in the major GPA. Students cannot complete major or ancillary course requirements as pass/fail.
  4. Students must complete a minimum of 15 credit hours with CU Denver faculty from the approved cluster area and must complete all of the residency requirements for the minor or certificate they choose to pair with the cluster.
  5. Students can double-count a maximum of one course across their areas (in addition to an introductory course).
  6. Students combine ONE of the identified CLAS minors or certificates with ONE of the topical clusters to make up their major areas.
  7. Students must take courses from at least TWO different disciplines in their topical cluster.
  8. Students are required to take TWO courses as an introduction to their major. If an introductory course is also part of a student’s topical cluster, a student may count one introductory course as part of that area’s credits.
  9. NOTE: Some courses in each cluster require prerequisites that must be met making them a 21 credit cluster. Please see course descriptions.

 

Take two of the following four courses as an introduction to their major:

Note: If an introductory course is also part of a student’s chosen area, a student may count one introductory course as part of that area’s credits.

Choose and complete one CLAS minor or certificate:

The undergraduate minor in Public Health is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the social, cultural, and biological dimensions of health. The minor curriculum provides students with the intellectual and methodological tools needed to understand the joint bio-cultural determinants and contexts of health, health care and public health.

The Health Humanities minor critically analyzes historical and contemporary connections among health, medicine, and society. The minor deepens understandings of disease and wellness, pain and suffering, personhood, the nature of death and dying, embodied experience, and the limits of technological knowledge. Students explore the human dimensions of medical practice and how they interact with lived experience.

The Certificate in Health Communication seeks to impart the knowledge and skills necessary for creating, analyzing, and assessing health communications in a diverse and global world, where health occupies an increasingly prominent portion of our public life. This certificate provides students with a theoretically rich and practically relevant education in how health messages are generated, negotiated, and understood. 

The Sociology of Health and Medicine Certificate provides training in the core research methodologies and theories of medical sociology, examining individual experience, institutional structures, laws and policies that affect health, and broader systems of inequality that lead to unequal rates of illness and access to care.

And choose and complete 15 credit hours, 9 upper division in at least one topical cluster:

  • Aging and End of Life Cluster
  • Biology and Society Cluster
  • Environmental Health Cluster
  • Drugs and Addiction Cluster
  • Family Health Issues Cluster
  • Food and Nutrition Cluster
  • Sexuality and Reproduction Cluster

Take the following Capstone course toward the end of your career (junior/senior year)

Topical Clusters