The document below includes both the originally proposed General Education Mission
from the Racial Issues Colloquium (see under II. below) and revisions presented by GEC
member Margaret Villanueva at the GEC meeting of 11/7/2005 (see under I. below).
I. Revisions submitted by Margaret V. that open with SCSU Mission Statement, Nov 7:
SCSU Mission
St. Cloud State University is committed to excellence in teaching,
learning, and service, fostering scholarship and enhancing
collaborative relationships in a global community.
The General Education Program at SCSU is committed to the ideal of a liberally
educated person, one who is thoughtful, knowledgeable, creative and socially
responsible. General Education promotes opportunities to develop critical thinking,
ethical values, and civic engagement in a diverse society. It provides an equitable
environment for individual responsibility and collaborative learning in a global
community.
General Education:
1. Cultivates knowledge and skills to foster a life-long capacity for learning about
society, culture, race, gender, politics, economics, global interdependence, and the
environment.
2.
Enhances recognition of and the ability to critique power structures, systems of
domination, values, and assumptions embedded in society or in areas of inquiry.
3.
Instills sensitivity and respect for the values of a diverse society and multicultural
world and a concern for individual worth and human rights.
4.
Develops skills in liberal arts and sciences for the critical evaluation of
information, technology, and methodology.
A liberal education enhances the ability and freedom to inquire and act responsibly for a
socially just world. It also fosters the habits of self-reflection and examination that are
central to developing a mature conception of ourselves in relation to our communities.
Such education is life-long and never really complete.
II. Original proposal, received via e-mail communication (10-24-2005) from Jeanne
Lacourt, Coordinator for Racial Issues Colloquium
Comments:
The Racial Issues Colloquium is gravely concerned that the (10/17/2005) draft of the
General Education mission statement is focused entirely on developing ways of thinking
within the individual, as though intellectual life existed in a vacuum, unconnected with
the world or other humans. This is both intellectually flawed and socially irresponsible.
The life of Thomas Jefferson is a glaring example of how a rich intellectual life may be
constructed out of the oppression of other people. During his lifetime, celebrating his
intellect while ignoring his slaveholding was part and parcel of maintaining his
oppression. For students in the present to do the same would be to misunderstand
Jefferson and potentially to support oppressive relationships in the present. The Racial
Issues Colloquium therefore requests the General Education Committee to fundamentally
revise the mission statement to include the goals of understanding power relationships,
social justice and injustice, racial relationships and the ways that these phenomena shape
and are shaped by ways of knowing and understanding. Specifically we suggest at least
the following changes:
The General Education Program at SCSU is committed to the ideal of a liberally educated
person, one who is thoughtful, knowledgeable, creative and socially responsible. General
Education provides opportunities to develop critical consciousness, ethical values and
civic engagement. It fosters individual responsibility and collaborative relationships in a
global community.
General Education:
1. Cultivates knowledge and skills that provide breadth of understanding and the
capacity for life-long learning about society, culture, race, politics, economics, the
environment and global interdependence.
2.
Fosters recognition of and the ability to critique power structures, systems of
domination, values, and assumptions embedded in society or in areas of inquiry.
3.
(add something here about academic skills and technological knowledge).
A liberal education enhances the ability and freedom to inquire and act responsibly for a
socially just world. It also fosters the habits of self-reflection and examination that are
central to developing a mature conception of ourselves in relation to our communities.
Such education is life-long and never really complete.