Completing a Cluster or Focus Area is one option for undergraduate students seeking to meet their upper-level general education requirement. The requirement can also be met by completing a minor.
Clusters represent the collective effort of faculty from different disciplines bringing their interest and knowledge to bear on a specific theme or focus area. In order to ensure diversity of perspective, all clusters contain courses that provide a scientific perspective (natural or social science) and courses that provide a humanities perspective (history, philosophy, the arts and literature).
The cluster option provides students and faculty with opportunities to study specific themes in an integrated and in-depth way as part of the undergraduate teaching and learning experience at Old Dominion University. Completing a cluster option helps students prepare for life where coping with the problems of the world calls for understanding multiple perspectives and complex interrelationships.
A cluster consists of nine hours of upper-division courses on a specific issue, viewed by multidisciplinary perspectives; three hours can be in the major.
Questions should be referred to Dr. Lou Lombardo, University Cluster Coordinator, at 683-3800.
