Faculty were encouraged to develop a major curriculum that followed a sequenced rationale and culminated in a capstone experience to tie together the major. In 1986, Truman's Faculty Senate adopted a requirement for capstone experiences in all major programs. The goals for capstone courses ranged from providing a checkpoint for faculty and students at the end of a student's program to providing a link to the next point in a student's career such as graduate school or traditional employment.

Over the last decade, capstone courses have evolved. Faculty have developed many approaches to capstones and have discovered numerous benefits beyond the initial expectations. Capstone courses help students to integrate the subfields, skills, and perspectives of the major. They prompt faculty discussion, contributing to increased coherence of the major's course of study. The courses create opportunities for multiple assessments to be made of the major and liberal arts and sciences objectives by the faculty themselves. It is the faculty's direct analysis of the students' cumulative learning that makes this method of assessment potentially so beneficial.