The current Core, which was launched in Fall 2012, introduces students to ten central Core Areas of university learning, with a consistent focus on learning outcomes for those Areas. In addition to the content of the specific Core Areas, Core courses integrate the understanding and promoting of values essential to a Loyola education, such as understanding diversity in the US or the world, understanding and promoting justice, and understanding spirituality or faith in action in the world.

With regard to understanding diversity in the US or world, many courses in the Core were specifically designed to address this important value and allow students to develop the specific competencies that are shown below.  

Demonstrate an understanding of diversity in the United States and the world.

Competencies: By way of example, Loyola graduates should be able to:

1. Recognize that human diversity is complex and variegated.
2. Distinguish the various factors that inform and impact individual identity formation.
3. Comprehend how group identities are formed in a heterogeneous society.
4. Identify distinctive patterns of thought and behavior that contribute to the formation of a culture different from one's own.
5. Perceive the interdependence of cultures in domestic and global terms.

Currently one-third of all courses in the University Core Curriculum are diversity-designated, including all Tier 1 Societal and Cultural Knowledge and Inquiry courses. Courses with a Diversity Designation are indicated with a (D) next the course titles listed under Core Areas and courses so that they can be easily identified.

The Loyola University Chicago Core Curriculum is a critical element in a student’s transformative education that serves as a framework for learning, reflecting and experiencing, as Loyola students prepare for lives seeking knowledge in the service of humanity.  The integration of diversity as a core value in this curriculum is an essential component of this enterprise.