The Importance of AUx2 Curriculum
The American University Experience (AUx) is a full-year AU Core Curriculum course specially designed for students transitioning into their first year of college at AU. Students will complete AUx1 in their first semester and then complete AUx2 in their second semester. Please read the description of AUx2 below to get a better understanding of the foundations that students learn in their first year. Think about how you can include these types of conversations in your course for students no longer in the AUx curriculum.
AUx2 Description and Outcomes
AUx2 seeks to create a space for learning about discourse and structures of power, privilege, and inequality. The course builds upon concepts introduced in AUx1, and is a starting point for the academic study of the structures of power as well as the practices that challenge those structures. AUx2 aims to equip students to begin the practice of engaging in discourse with intellectual rigor, ethics, integrity, and recognition of impact on individuals, communities, and structures.
The course emphasizes the idea of intersectionality, which is the interconnected nature of social identity categories that produce overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination and oppression. Students explore the social, economic, and political dimensions of information along with its creation, access, and use. They explore concepts such as privilege, inequality, racial formation, and bias and apply these concepts to historic and contemporary examples in education, art, and pop culture.
Assessment by university researchers demonstrates how AUx helps students thrive in college. In 2016, 2017, and 2018, researchers found that AUx helped students to better navigate university resources, feel included on campus, and identify mentors on campus who encouraged them to pursue their goals. As a result, students reported feeling happier about their transition to the university and that AU was a place where they belonged.