Mission, Values, and Goals
Mission Statement
The School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences provides a rigorous liberal arts education that draws connections across academic disciplines and links classroom learning to practical experience across diverse fields and sectors. As a faculty and staff, we inspire our students to engage creatively and ethically with the concerns of the region and the world. We dedicate ourselves to integrative research and creative practice, innovative and effective pedagogy, and dynamic curricula that prepare students to live and work in environments that are diverse and complex. We recognize, reflect on, and challenge unequal relations of power and privilege in our curriculum, scholarship and community partnerships. As part of a public university, we seek to build an inclusive and just community of students, faculty, and staff.
Values
- Interdisciplinary and Engaged Scholarship
- Integrative and Inquiry-Based Curriculum
- Student-Centered and Transformative Pedagogy
- Social Justice, Equity, and Diversity
- Institutional Access and Responsiveness
- Local and Global Engagement
Goals
Be a leading center for interdisciplinary and engaged scholarship and pedagogy with a research and creative culture that fosters the best work, and values the overall well-being, of its faculty, staff, and students.
Provide a student- and learning-centered education that attends to difference and power, and hones students’ abilities to think critically and creatively, seek knowledge in and across disciplines, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively and ethically.
Foster an inclusive educational environment that enhances the capacities of students, staff, and faculty members to work together across differences, to reflect on their practices, and to recognize and challenge unequal relations of power.
Build and sustain partnerships with individuals, communities, and organizations that seek the socially-just and environmentally-sustainable development of the region and can help students link classroom learning to their career and life ambitions.
Enhance our ability to build an institution that is responsive to the needs, demands, and capacities of diverse student populations and community groups, both locally and globally.