Kirkpatrick Signature Series

At Bellevue University, we believe in a complete education for our students. While our programs offer a career-relevant value for our students as employees, our Kirkpatrick Signature Series allows them to grow as citizens.

The 9-credit hour series of courses, which is required of every bachelor's degree student at Bellevue University, provides you with a rich and engaging perspective. It's also an integral part of our Accelerated Bachelor's Degree Completion Program, where you can complete your bachelor's degree in as little as 15 months.

Many Americans have a passing knowledge of our history and culture. Through this learning platform, we hope to encourage an awareness and appreciation for the visions and values of our society.

That is why we are unabashedly committed to a core of beliefs that reflect the best in our culture:

• The efficacy of our Western intellectual tradition
• The ethical standards inherent in the Judeo-Christian heritage
• America's noble experiment of limited government and democracy
• The merit and dignity of the individual, and
• The prosperity, fairness, and productivity inherent in a free market, capitalist economic system

What's more, because we take these values so seriously, we're teaching them to all our undergraduates in a series of senior-level seminar style capstone courses. This learning platform encourages students to learn and discuss with their peers.

We are proud to incorporate these ideals into our degree programs to ensure that our graduates are not only productive at work, but that they leave as more informed citizens. Introducing the Kirkpatrick Signature Series, required courses for all Bellevue University undergraduates.

Course topics included:

• America's Founding Principles
• The U.S. Constitution, Federalism, and Originalism
• Limited Government and Individual Liberty
• Religion and America's Founding
• Moral and Cultural Relativism
• Women's Issues
• Race in America
• Marriage and Family
• Democratic Capitalism and Individual Liberty
• Democratic Capitalism and Morality
• Civil Society and Charitable Giving

Areas of investigation, analysis, and debate include:

• free political institutions and the conditions necessary for their establishment and maintenance;
• the relationship between political institutions and institutions of civil society, and between political liberty and civic virtue;
• the rule of law
• the moral bases of private property
• the constitutional separation of powers and checks and balances
• the limits of judicial power;
• America's role in the world
• the place of religion in American public life.

The Kirkpatrick Signature Series

(9 semester hours)

LA 400 American Vision and Values

Students explore the bedrock of American culture – formative events, art and literature, and charter documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Critical thought and lively discussion are encouraged in examining personal and political freedoms and democratic principles of individual worth, tolerance, and equality.Initiative, risk taking, and the work ethic are emphasized.

LA 410 Tradition and Change

Western values provide a stabilizing context for progress in a change environment. Continued success will require citizens who can draw upon their traditional ideology while taking risks to pioneer new endeavors. Students study American cultural traditions, historic societal changes, the interplay between the two, and how they affect society and the individual.

LA 420 Freedom and Responsibility

Free civilizations, historically, have been more successful than oppressive ones. But freedom must be won, defended, advocated, and used responsibly. Students explore implications and reasoned defenses of freedom in Western history and their responsibilities to assure a just and productive society.

There are no substitution, ELA, or transfer courses for the Kirkpatrick Signature Series.