In a new approach to liberal arts education, Brenau University this fall debuts the first in its series of new courses based on the "four portals of learning" that will shape future curriculum.

First-year students will be required to take a two-hour orientation course that, in addition to providing basic college survival skills, will expose them to liberal arts learning opportunities designed to broaden communication skills, improve world views, expose them to a variety of art forms and enhance their curiosity about science, math and social issues.

Also, upperclassmen in all majors will have access to the first "portals elective," a detailed examination of spirituality in society. The course delves not only into the philosophical differences between spirituality and religion but also into different types of spirituality around the world and spirituality´s relationship with art, music, business and health care.

"Like other multidiscipline approaches to academics, these courses are designed to nudge students out of their comfort zones," said Brenau University President Ed Schrader. "What is different about the Brenau approach is that by requiring students to pass through all the learning portals, we will do much more than nudge."

The first-year orientation course is a good example: students cannot graduate from Brenau unless they complete it successfully.

The first requirement is that all Women´s College students read the Afghanistan-set novel, "A Thousand Splendid Suns," in preparation for author Khaled Hosseini´s October visit to the campus. Beyond that, among about a dozen wildly eclectic choices, they will have an opportunity to learn communications skills from a psychology professor while a communications professor teaches a section on social significance of horror films and the chair of the nursing department exposes them to Zen and other meditation techniques. They will also gain some insight on how to throw a pretty good dinner party to boot.

"It´s a true entryway to the four portals," says Conflict Resolution and Legal Studies Professor Ken Frank. "If we don´t get our students excited about and engaged in this unique portals curriculum that Brenau offers, we´re not doing our jobs."

Frank directed efforts of several faculty and administrators to repackage what previously was an hour-a-week "freshman seminar." The basic text for the two-credit-hour course, which ultimately will expand to three credit hours, will be "Rhythms of College Success" by Steve Piscitelli. Frank and the author met accidentally on an airplane, and their initial discussions led to an agreement with the publisher for a version of the book customized for the unique Brenau-specific curriculum.

Portals courses nudge faculty out of comfort zones, too. The elective "Spirituality and Society" will be directed not by a theologian, philosopher, sociologist or anthropologist, but by Occupational Therapy Professor Mary Shotwell. For the three-hour Monday and Wednesday offering, Shotwell will, however, get help from specialists in those aforementioned disciplines as well as experts in other areas, such as business. "We will look at it two ways," she says. "There is, of course, the business of spirituality, but there is also lots of spirituality in business." Shotwell´s particular interest is spirituality in health care. By completing the course, students - who can at times be a bit narrow-minded - should have "a deeper sensitivity to spiritual issues and the importance different people place on them," Shotwell says.

New students at Brenau Women´s College for the fall term will receive a detailed list of existing courses from which they can chose to fulfill "portals" requirements. They will, for example, have to complete nine credit hours of fine arts and literature courses for the artistic and creative imagination portal; 13 to 14 credit hours in mathematics and science; nine credit hours for world understanding, and 15 to 18 credit hours for communication and language fluency.

About a dozen prototype portals electives are in various developmental stages. In the spring Biology Professor Louise Bauck heads the "Island Microcosms" interdisciplinary course that studies one island from a variety of perspectives - ecological, biological, economic and anthropological. The course also will involve some domestic or international field work. Another new elective course explores all aspects of the creative mind and still another exposes the impact of individual choices.

And, just in time for the 2010 winter games in Vancouver, Augusta-based Business and Economics Professor Simon Medcalfe offers for the 2009-10 academic year an interdisciplinary study of virtually every aspect of the Olympics, including economic, geopolitical, global marketing, the science of designing athletes´ clothing, even artistic and cultural expression in the opening ceremonies´ song-and-dance numbers. Students cannot pass the course without writing a detailed analytical thesis applying their learning in the course to their own majors and areas of expertise.

"It´s new; it´s different; it´s very challenging, but students like learning that outlasts the course," says Medcalfe. "When we set the bar high, Brenau students always rise to the challenge."