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Urban Study Requirement

LaGuardia Community College is proud of its unique urban study graduation requirement. It reflects the College’s commitment to the communities it serves and to its students as future leaders of those communities. Urban study courses promote a multi- disciplinary understanding of the urban environment enriched by a hands-on, experiential approach to learning in and through the city.

At least one urban study course must be completed by each degree candidate for graduation. A course taken at an accredited college in New York City that fulfills the criteria for the urban study course and is the equivalent of an existing LaGuardia urban study course may fulfill the urban study requirement. Some urban study courses will be offered each semester. Some urban study courses also fulfill the liberal arts elective requirement. Others fulfill only the unrestricted elective requirement.

Urban study courses:

  • Focus primarily on aspects of urban life that help students understand the dynamics of cities and related controversies

  • Explore systematically the resources of New York City in order to reinforce and expand upon course concepts. Students will be required to participate in at least two field trips or hands-on, out-of-classroom research projects

  • Are scheduled in a mode that promotes using the city as a learning laboratory and that permits follow-through of conceptual material taught in the classroom

  • Are designated as Writing Intensive courses

  • Are designated as ePortfolio courses

The following is a list, by department, of urban study courses (any course with a three-letter designation ending in “N” is an Urban Study course; e.g., “XXN”):

Business and Technology

BTN195 Profile and Prospects of Business in New York City BTN211 Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Marketing

Education and Language Acquisition

ELN101 Introduction to Bilingualism

ELN120 Foundations of American Education

ELN194 Puerto Rican Community: Minority Group Experience

English

ENN191 Art, Politics and Protest

ENN/SSN193 Ideal Societies

ENN195 Violence in American Art and Culture ENN198 Creative Writing

ENN240 Literature of the City

Health Sciences:

SCN194 HIV/AIDS, Science & Society

SCN195 Community Health

SCN240 Food and Culture

Humanities

HUN191 Photojournalism: An Introduction

HUN192 Art and Society

HUN195 Art in New York

HUN196 Film and New York City

HUN245 The New York Theatre Experience

Library Media Resources Center

LBN105 InfoCity: Informed Citizens in the Information Age

Natural Science

SCN140 Wild New York

Social Science

SSN103 Introduction to Labor and Community Organizing

SSN/HUN180 Introduction to Intercultural Communication

SSN182 Urban Anthropology

SSN183 History of Minorities

SSN184 Environmental Psychology

SSN186 Sociology of the Black Community

SSN187 Urban Sociology

SSN189 The Urban Economy

SSN190 Leadership

SSN192 Practical Politics in New York City

SSN/ENN193 Ideal Societies

SSN194 Religion and Social Change

SSN202 Environmental Sociology

SSN204 Crime and Justice in Urban Society

SSN210 The Politics of Sexuality

SSN240 History of New York City

SSN280 Urban Black Psychology

Capstone Course

A capstone course is a requirement within the major that offers students nearing graduation the opportunity to summarize, evaluate, and integrate some or all of their college experience. It is a class where a student demonstrates all that has been learned in previous coursework. The course will be evaluated through a capstone project that may take a wide variety of forms, but most are investigative projects that culminate in a final product, presentation, or performance.

Writing Intensive Courses

All Urban Study and Capstone courses are writing intensive. In writing-intensive (WI) courses, writing is used to help students gain a deeper understanding of the material they are studying. The variety of formal and informal writing activities with which students engage serves as a means for students to become better writers as a result of instructional support and guidance. Students in writing-intensive courses are required to write both in and outside of class regularly, and written assignments must count for at least 20% of the final course grade. Class size in WI courses is limited to 25 students. For WI guidelines, please see the WID website, www.lagcc.cuny.edu/wac.

Experiential Learning

As part of the requirements for some LaGuardia degrees, students are required to complete successfully internships or experiential learning courses. In addition, all students in the following specialized curricular areas are also required to complete fieldwork courses or their equivalent: Human Services, Occupational Therapy Assistant, Veterinary Technology, Education Associate: The Bilingual Child, Physical Therapist Assistant, Nursing, LPN, Radiology Tech, Secondary Education, Childhood Education, Early Childhood, Nutrition and Culinary Management. Students in these specialized curricular areas should consult with their departments for specific guidelines regarding their requirements.

Honors Option Policy

The Honors Option is a program that permits qualifying LaGuardia students to enroll in a regular section of a course, while receiving the Honors distinction on their transcripts for this course. In order to receive the Honors distinction, students will engage in additional research, similar to the kind of work that students in Honors sections engage in. This advanced work is to be determined and approved by the course instructor, in consultation with Honors Program Co-Directors. Courses available for the Honors Option will be determined by the Honors Programs Co-Directors.

Courses that are designated “Honors Option” will receive a reduction in course enrollment cap by one student for every student who enrolls in the Honors Option. Thus, a course that has an enrollment cap of 28, would be capped at 27 with one participating Honors Option student, 26 with two such students, 25 with three such students, and 24, with 4. The registrar will indicate for such courses, “Honors Option Available” on the College class schedule. The Honors Program will maintain records of students who are enrolled in courses in this way, and will transmit this information to the registrar at the end of each semester. The registrar will then indicate this information on students’ transcripts.

Eligibility Requirements:

Students with at least 12 completed credits and a minimum GPA of 3.2 are eligible to register for Honors courses. There are two ways to participate in the Program:

1. Enroll in an Honors course and get an “Honors course designation” on your transcript after completing the course and a “Certificate of Completion” at the annual Honors Ceremony.

2. Participate in the Honors Program Concentration. If you are a Liberal Arts (AA or AS) or Business (AS or AAS) student, you may take fuller advantage of the Program by completing 7 Honors courses (20-22 credits) to receive an Honors concentration transcript notation.

Revised Nursing Programs Admission Policy (As Of June 24, 2020)

Effective immediately, all CUNY nursing programs will consider applicants for admission who are eligible for licensing in New York under the regulations of the New York State Education Department. The regulation provides eligibility for citizens and non-citizens who are “not unlawfully present,” including those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and those permanently residing in the United States under color of law (PRUCOL).

Applicants may demonstrate eligibility through documents that verify that they meet the required criteria. The most common documents include:

  • Proof of U.S. citizenship through a birth certificate, U.S. passport, naturalization certificate, or a certificate of citizenship.

  • Proof of legal permanent resident status with what is known as a “Green Card”.

  • Proof of various eligible categories, listed below, generally through an employment authorization document (EAD) or other satisfactory documentation.

Eligible Immigration Categories:

  1. International student with F-1 status

  2. Asylee

  3. Refugee

  4. Temporary Protected Status (TPS)

  5. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

  6. Individuals paroled into the United States whose parole has not expired

  7. Persons residing in the U.S. pursuant to an Order of Supervision

  8. Persons granted a stay of deportation/removal

  9. Persons granted an indefinite voluntary departure

  10. Persons on whose behalf an immediate relative petition has been approved

  11. Persons who have filed an application for adjustment of status to permanent resident

  12. Persons granted Deferred Action Status

  13. Persons who entered and have continuously residency in the U.S. before 01/01/1972

  14. Persons granted suspension of deportation or cancellation of removal

  15. Cuban/Haitian entrants

  16. Persons with a pending application for asylum, withholding of removal or deportation, protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), cancellation of removal, or TPS

  17. Persons in T or U non-immigrant status

  18. Self-petitioner under the Violence Against Women Act

  19. Other persons living in the U.S. who are not unlawfully present