Pierce College Course Catalog: A Comprehensive Overview
A college catalog is an essential resource for students, outlining the academic year's curriculum, enrollment guidelines, and degree requirements. Pierce College's course catalog is no exception, providing a detailed overview of the courses offered, ensuring students are well-informed about their academic journey. The general catalog that corresponds to a student's enrollment year typically determines their curriculum. College catalogs cover an academic year that reflects enrollment beginning with the fall term and includes subsequent winter, spring, and summer terms.
Maintaining Catalog Rights and Continuous Attendance
Students should be aware of the concept of "catalog rights," which generally allows them to graduate under the requirements outlined in the catalog in effect when they first enrolled, provided they maintain continuous attendance. “Continuous attendance” means attending at least one term (fall, winter, spring, summer) each calendar year at any United States institutionally accredited institution of higher education. Courses with a “W” (withdrawal) count toward determining continuous attendance. Current and former students who completed a degree or certificate during the period in which they maintained catalog rights but have not yet been awarded said degree or certificate, may have it conferred retroactively, effective in the term in which it was completed.
Course Offerings: A Glimpse into the Curriculum
The Pierce College course catalog boasts a diverse range of subjects, catering to a wide array of academic interests. Here's a look at some of the courses offered:
History
- Introduction to Western Civilization I: This course (3 units, UC:CSU, 3 lecture hours) historically teaches the major elements in the Western heritage from the earliest Mesopotamian civilizations through the religious reformations of the sixteenth century.
- Introduction to Western Civilization II: This course (3 units, UC:CSU, 3 lecture hours) historically teaches the major elements of the Western heritage from the Age of Absolutism in the 17th century to the present.
- Political and Social History of the United States I: This course (3 units, UC:CSU, 3 lecture hours) surveys the history of the United States from pre-Columbian times to 1865.
- History: This course covers the main events, actors, and themes of the 20th century, primarily focusing on their impact on American history (i.e. Traces the historical evolution of the Mexican-American since the 1850s, and analyzes the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, legal and illegal immigration from Mexico, the civil rights movement, and the contributions of the Mexican-Americans to the American experience.
- Great People, Great Ages: This course (3 units, UC:CSU - RPT, 3 lecture hours) is a study in some depth of cultural history from the Industrial Revolution to the present. The approach is interdisciplinary, involving art, music, literature, drama, philosophy, and history. UC Credit Limit: History 12, 13 and 44 combined, maximum one course.
Philosophy
The philosophy courses aim to develop critical thinking skills, logical reasoning, and ethical understanding. Students develop and refine the critical thinking skills necessary to formulate and evaluate argumentative essays. Students learn how to understand, evaluate, and distinguish arguments and explanations by applying accepted standards of good reasoning. Students will learn techniques to recognize deductively valid arguments and avoid fallacies. They will also consider what is required for inductively strong arguments in order to avoid informal fallacies. Students analyze techniques for representing truth-functional statements using letters and symbols, determining the validity of arguments using such statements, and demonstrating validity through formal proofs using a natural deduction system. This course introduces the student to a rigorous overview of ancient Greek thought starting with pre-Socratic philosophers and ending with Greco-Roman philosophy of the later ancient period. Students study western philosophy from the Renaissance to the 20th century. Students are introduced to some of the traditional ethical theories and how they apply to contemporary biomedical ethical problems. Students study the relationship between human beings and the environment, in particular human obligations to the environment. This course offers a study of the history and doctrines of those religions that have emerged from the tradition of the prophet, Abraham. The course will consider other major influences on their early development, including, but not limited to, Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian Religions, Zorastianism, Greek Philosophy and Hellenic Mystery Religions. Studies the literary medium as it is employed to express and explore philosophical themes such as freedom, determinism, moral responsibility, and alienation. Each particular class also allows for a review of literature of a relatively specific milieu, for example, twentieth century existentialism. Students examine film as philosophy, as a philosophical statement by the filmmaker via his or her art form, covering the traditional philosophical problems within the human condition, such as the very meaning of that human condition, reality, self, morality, mortality, along with other questions within the human quest that come under the role of philosophy.
Sociology
The sociology courses provide students with a framework for understanding social phenomena, institutions, and interactions. This course is designed to introduce the students to the discipline of sociology. Main theoretical and research approaches will be discussed and applied to a variety of social phenomena. Students examine the sociological analysis of contemporary social problems in the United States. Analyzes issues of power, inequality, privilege and oppression. Topics include racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, the environment, crime, war and terrorism. Students examine the nature and extent of crime and delinquency, theories of causation, types of juvenile and adult offenses, and efforts by society to cope with law violations. Students examine the fundamental principles and methods of sociological research design and implementation. Students analyze the key types of evidence-including qualitative and quantitative data, data gathering and sampling methods, logic of comparison, and causal reasoning. Students examine the definitions, history, and experiences of ethnic and racial groups in the United States from a sociological perspective. Attention is given to Black, Latino, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and White Americans from an intersectional perspective. What social, economic, and political factors affect majority-minority relations? What are the sources of discrimination and prejudice? Students explore social psychology, focusing on the contributions of sociology to this field. The relationship between the individual and the social environment is examined. Students engage in the sociological analysis of religion. The distinctions between the sociological perspective and the alternative approaches to religion are explored. Issues analyzed include the connections between religion and other aspects of social life, such as gender, sexual identity, class, race and ethnicity. Students analyze the social, cultural, historical, and religious influences that shape contemporary sexual values and normative beliefs in the United States. This course is designed to introduce the students to the sociological analysis of the family. Examines the family as a social institution. Students examine the social significance of gender in contemporary US society and analyze the social construction of gender ideology and how people's experiences are affected by social institutions such as work, education, the family, and the criminal justice system. People's differential experiences are analyzed within the context of race, class, and sexual orientation. The course presents a sociological and historical analysis of labor movements in the United States and their effects upon American society. This course is the sociological study of power, politics, and the state. In political sociology, students will examine the interrelation of politics and society by combining sociological analysis with analyses of political structure and political processes. This course is designed to introduce students to the analysis of the historical and current development and emergence of American popular culture and its relationship to social institutions, collective behavior, and roles in people's lives. Social, technological, political, and economic aspects of society are examined with regard to the adoption, maintenance, and changes in popular culture, including the consumption of mass media, fashion, music, consumerism and food. Examines the structural and individual causes of deviant behavior in American society. Both absolutist and relativist analysis describe the very nature of why people engage in "undesirable" and socially "unacceptable" behavior. Apart from criminology, this discipline observes other behaviors that are not sanctioned by a legal body. Generally, the student's curriculum during their educational career is determined by the General Catalog that corresponds to their enrollment year.
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