Fordham University’s Board of Trustees approved a revised core curriculum last month, marking the culmination of a five-year, faculty-driven effort to update the University’s undergraduate education while maintaining a strong Jesuit tradition.
Set to launch in fall 2028 for the Class of 2032, the revisions to the core will reduce the number of required core courses from 17 to 12 while emphasizing interdisciplinary learning, reflection, ethics, and student choice. Current students will not be affected.
“This core really centers on students being able to articulate their desires—what they want when they come to a place like Fordham, and what kind of person they want to become,” said Michael Zampelli, SJ, associate professor of theatre history and a member of two committees that helped shape the revised curriculum.
Rooted in the Jesuit Tradition
Fordham President Tania Tetlow said the changes will enhance the University’s Jesuit mission while creating a more flexible and focused educational experience.
“The revised core curriculum is a profound expression of our Jesuit mission, even more purposeful in its expression of our proud heritage. It also responds boldly to the needs of today’s students and the world they will inherit,” said Tetlow. “We are giving students greater agency in their educational paths, and challenging them to think deeply about ethics, justice, and their responsibilities to others.”
A More Flexible Core
Fordham’s unified core curriculum for undergraduates was last updated in 2008. The new revisions to the curriculum shift away from a longer checklist of requirements and toward broader learning goals designed to help students connect knowledge across disciplines.
Students will choose nine core inquiry courses in subjects including philosophy, theology, history, arts and media, literature, and science. These courses ask students to reflect on and articulate the place that a particular “inquiry” has in their own education. The emphasis on student choice, along with the streamlined structure, is expected to make it easier for students to pursue double majors, minors, certificates, and STEM pathways, while also supporting transfer students.
Glenn Hendler, PhD, professor of English and American studies and chair of the Core Reconciliation Committee, said the changes to the core requirements are rooted in Jesuit principles such as discernment and integration.
“The revised core exposes students to an integrative approach to learning that they’ll carry with them into their major or minor requirements,” Hendler said. “It also gives students a lot more choices, which some may use to take those courses they’ve always wished they could take.”
Building Community Through Shared Experiences
A strengthened first-year experience is central to the new curriculum, Father Zampelli said.
In the first year, students will take a Fordham Core Seminar that introduces Jesuit education and pairs with a writing and rhetoric course, creating a cohort experience intended to foster community and belonging early in students’ college careers and to set the stage for future learning.
“We think of the first year as an overture,” Father Zampelli said. “The elements from this first year will make themselves felt throughout the rest of their time at Fordham.”
Students will also complete a New York City Experience requirement through the Center for Community Engaged Learning, internships, cultural institutions, or other sustained engagement with the city.
“Everyone who comes to Fordham will take our embeddedness in New York City seriously,” Father Zampelli said. “We see the city as a partner in education.”
The revised core maintains Fordham’s longstanding emphasis on Eloquentia Perfecta, the Jesuit ideal of effective and ethical communication. Updated communication courses will include engagement with digital communication and artificial intelligence alongside traditional writing instruction.
“The new core is very much about communication rather than just about writing,” Hendler said. “It includes artificial intelligence, electronic communication, and the kinds of communication students will engage with after graduation.”
Knowing, Being, and Doing
The revised core embeds Jesuit values throughout the curriculum rather than confining them to specific disciplines. The curriculum is organized around three overarching learning goals: knowing, being, and doing. Students will be encouraged throughout their undergraduate experience to reflect on what they want to learn, what kind of person they want to become, and what kind of work they hope to do, Father Zampelli said.
“The need to articulate their deep desires for their education is a very Jesuit thing,” Zampelli said. “The sense that God is moving in our deepest desires—not just our surface wants that change from minute to minute—is really the fundamental quality of our spirituality.”
Reflection and integration are recurring themes in the curriculum, culminating in a senior seminar that asks students to synthesize what they have learned across disciplines and experiences.
The revised core also places renewed emphasis on ethics and justice. Students will examine theories of justice and ethics and apply them in both U.S. and global contexts, reinforcing Fordham’s commitment to forming graduates prepared to confront complex social challenges.
Ultimately, Father Zampelli said the goal is to educate the whole person while preparing students to navigate an increasingly interconnected world.
“We live in a world where it is relatively impossible for one discipline to deal with all the urgent issues of the day,” he said. “The revised core reflects that reality.”
