Vision Statement

Liberal Arts Education

With its roots in classical Greek and Roman educational methods and a heritage that includes the medieval and modern university, liberal arts education has pursued a common goal throughout the centuries. In the many different forms that it has taken, liberal arts education seeks to fulfill the basic human drive to know by opening students to the dimensions of being, the achievements of human discovery, and the diverse areas of human interest. Liberal arts education does this with the conviction that such an education will truly liberate students from the narrow boundaries of ignorance, provincialism, social pressure, and false values. With such freedom, the liberal arts aim to transform students into persons capable of self-determination, self-criticism, and principled social participation throughout their lives.

Many universities and colleges promise such a liberal arts education. In the Catholic and Marianist context, a liberal arts education takes on a more specific meaning. At St. Mary's, the liberal arts are informed by the University's commitment to the education of the whole person, which addresses every dimension of human life (body, mind, and spirit) and which asks students to embody in their deepest self the transformations that such an education offers. For this reason, education of the whole person at St. Mary's embraces:

• the pursuit of truth and truthful action in a rigorous and critical fashion;
• the Catholic vision of a unity and integration of all knowledge, including the harmony between faith and reason;
• reflection on the ethical and moral implications of learning and discovery in all areas of knowledge;
• the formation of students in faith and in the practice of community;
• the preparation of students for a world of adaptation and change; and
• the service of the Church, and the causes of justice and peace in the human family.

In the light of these commitments, the liberal arts education at St. Mary's therefore strives to bring each person to the highest possible fruition and integration of all his or her spiritual and human powers in the contemporary world (Heritage and Innovation, 1984).

The Core Curriculum and Liberal Arts Education

The Core Curriculum at St. Mary's University has a privileged role in the education of its students in accord with its mission as a liberal arts institution. More than a set of disparate general education requirements, and in distinction (but not separation) from professional, major, and co-curricular education, the Core Curriculum has the specific purpose of explicitly engaging students with the perennial question at the heart of the liberal arts: who are we as human beings? This perennial question has many dimensions; the Core Curriculum at St. Mary's focuses on these five:

1. the question of self-identity;
2. the question of the self in relationship to others;
3. the question of the self in relationship to wider social structures;
4. the question of the self in relation to the natural world; and
5. the question of the self in relationship to God.

Answering these questions requires that students first enter a conversation between their own lived experience and the broad heritage of human learning and practice, both past and present. The Core Curriculum also asks students to take their answers from this conversation and embody them in their own lives of service to others and the common good. Finally, the Core Curriculum aims to enable students to take the necessary risk of asking and answering these questions again as their lives and circumstances change.