The nontechnical requirement enhances the Engineering curriculum. The Committee on Instruction established the School’s nontechnical requirement so that students would learn perspectives and principles of the humanities and social sciences as part of a well-rounded and multiperspective education. Through discussion, debate, and writing, students improve their ability to engage in ethical, analytic, discursive, and imaginative thinking. Columbia Engineering undergraduates explore the humanities and social sciences with Columbia College students through intellectually challenging Core Curriculum courses taught by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. These courses in art, literature, music, political philosophy, and economics, among others, provide students with a broad, intellectually disciplined, cultural perspective on the times they live in and the work they do.