General Education Mission Statement (revised 11/5/05)
SCSU's goals emphasize the foundation of culture and history, skills for responsible living, respect for
human dignity, life-long learning, an informed public, personal development, the value of diversity,
freedom of inquiry and collaborative relationships, among others. These goals are at the heart of what it
means to be liberally educated.
The General Education Program at SCSU is committed to the ideal of being liberally educated, that
is, being thoughtful, knowledgeable, creative, culturally aware, socially responsible, civically engaged
and responsible for our own educational and ethical development. The knowledge we derive from
General Education is fundamentally worthwhile to us as human beings.
General Education contributes to a liberal education, that is, an education that is liberating or freeing in that
it:
1. Promotes informed choices in both academia and life by cultivating knowledge and skills that provide
breadth of understanding and the capacity for life-long learning in the natural, social, and cultural areas.
2. Cultivates recognition of and therefore the ability to critique the values and assumptions embedded in
society or in areas of inquiry.
3. Fosters development and improvement of self and society.
Remark
The freedoms which contribute to human flourishing are diverse: being able to be moved by various forms
of literature, music and art; analyzing and critiquing power structures; understanding the effects of our
behavior and actions; recognizing quality in scientific research as well as in poetry; and in general taking
pleasure in learning. So “liberty” in the context of a “liberal education” is not the freedom or power to do
whatever one happens to choose. It is in part the ability and hence freedom to inquire about what one ought
to choose. It also fosters the habits of self-reflection and examination that are central to developing a
mature conception of ourselves as responsible human beings and global citizens. Such education is lifelong and never really complete. But essential to these endeavors are inquisitiveness and intellectual
curiosity: seeking understanding of why things are as they are (not merely knowledge that they are as they
are) and how they may be changed.
General Education Goals: Students who have completed SCSU’s General Education Program will be able
to:
1. approach issues from a global perspective
2. respect the values of a diverse society, and understand and critique power structures and systems of
domination relating race, gender and culture
3. demonstrate concern for individual worth and human rights, be socially, ethically and civically
responsible, and understand and promote just communities
4. understand our natural environment and critique conceptions of our relations to it
5. communicate well both orally and in writing and collaborate on ideas
6. appreciate aesthetic values in the visual arts, music, and literature; understand, analyze, and evaluate
systems of thought
7. understand mathematical techniques and reason quantitatively
8. discover and understand the natural world and reason scientifically by advancing hypotheses and testing
them
9. discover and understand social and historical structures of human society
10. identify, analyze, and critically evaluate reasoning
Note: This version follows one that was written on 10-31-2005, but includes goals for
possible consideration. In her email to the membership, GEC representative Carolyn
Hartz explains this version.
I've attached another version--it's pretty much the same as my last as
far as the mission part goes, but I've listed some possible goals as
well. I've done this to try to maintain a consistent level of
specificity in the mission itself. I think I agree with most of the
comments from the RIC and some others, but I think the level of
specificity in some of the suggested revisions of the mission is
inconsistent--I wanted to have (what I see as) the more specific stuff
in the goals, whether it has to do with social justice issues,
environmental issues, mathematical literacy, or whatever. I don't know
if others have worked on goals, and I'm sure mine need work. (You'll
notice they (magically!) align with the MTC's.) I also don't know if
we want to revisit the issue of sending them on at the same time as the
mission. Anyway, I'd like feedback from the RIC representatives (and
anyone
else!) on having some of these things included in goals rather than
mission. I'm not sure my version of mission maintains the sort of
consistency I'm after either, and I'd like help with this too.