About Us

The Core Curriculum is designed for all undergraduate students at USF and falls under the Office of the Provost, with direct oversight from Vice Provost Rebecca Hong. The Core curriculum is delivered by the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Management, and the School of Nursing and Health Professions. The Faculty Director of the Core, Dr. Josh Gamson, and the Initial-Year Faculty Fellow, Dr. Cathy Gabor, provide day-to-day management of the Core curriculum, supported by faculty / staff subcommittees. The three-phase Core Redesign process was conducted by the Core Curriculum Redesign Task Force, comprised of faculty, staff, and administrators from across the University.

THE CORE CURRICULUM LEADERSHIP TEAM

THE CORE CURRICULUM AT USF

USF's Core Curriculum, adopted in 2002, has long operated as a distributive model of parallel requirements across four years. A two-year review tied to the 2027 Strategic Plan found the Core functioned more as a checklist than a coherent sequence, carried a heavier effective credit burden than its official 44 credits suggested, and didn't always make its ties to USF's Jesuit mission explicit.

A three-phase redesign (Discovery 2023–24, Design 2024–25, Implementation 2025–27), led by a ~30-person task force, was unanimously approved by the Joint University Curriculum Committee in May 2025. The resulting hybrid Core pairs a distinctive first-year experience and a culminating applied capstone with a broad distributive foundation in between, with a start date of Fall 2027 for the entering class and Fall 2028 for transfer students. It leans more deliberately into USF's Jesuit mission and reduces effective credit burden—freeing up space for study abroad and internships.

The new Core is a “hybrid” model: a distinctive cross-disciplinary first-year experience, six distributive courses spanning the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences, and a culminating course centered on applied problem-solving. It leans into USF's Jesuit mission, both through learning outcomes threaded across each stage and through direct engagement with Jesuit concepts embedded in the Core's five Learning Goals: Communication and Collaborative Engagement (eloquentia perfecta), Scientific Reasoning/Information Literacy/Data-Driven Problem Solving, Critical Inquiry/Reflection/Ethics (cura personalis), Global and Local Citizenship (“people for others”), and Creative Expression and Innovation (magis). Four cross-cutting proficiencies, Community-Engaged Learning, Cultural Diversity, AI and Digital Proficiency, and Entrepreneurship for All Skills, run throughout the curriculum as well. The new Core comes in at 40 credits total.

For more detailed information, see this 2026 report on the Core redesign and the FAQ section.