Our Mission

As Aristotle states: "The end and purpose of a polis [a civic community] is the good life, and the institutions of social life are means to that end."

Through the courses it offers, the research its members conduct and the events it sponsors, the Department of Political Science stimulates examination of questions like "What is the good life?" and "How can members of the civic community be effective creators of a good life characterized by justice?"

The department is committed to the education of the whole student, to the scholarly life, and to an approach which is not "ivory tower," but rather which reaches out in service to society. The primary focus of the discipline of Political Science is the good life. Within the context of St. Mary's University, the mission of the Department of Political Science, the civic conscience of the university community, is to foster the building of the good life.

Our goal is that St. Mary's Political Science graduates apply the answers they formulate in their private lives and in their careers-careers that may take them into public service, the law, teaching, journalism, business and further graduate studies, among other options.

In addition to the traditional four-year bachelor's degree program in Political Science, the department offers an innovative five-year BA/MA program that allows the student to begin graduate study in his/her senior year.