Goals and Objectives of the Undergraduate Program

Through all its undergraduate programs, curricular and cocurricular, Mount St. Mary’s strives to graduate students who have developed:

1. An understanding of the Western humanist tradition, including its American expression, particularly as that tradition has been interpreted in Catholic thought and practice (primarily a goal of the core curriculum)

To fulfill this goal, Mount St. Mary’s expects students to:

• complete a sequenced and integrated core curriculum rooted in the Western humanist tradition and the Catholic contribution to it;
• cultivate an active understanding of the Christian humanist dialogue of faith and reason;
• deepen their understanding of the major developments of Western history and culture, including the methods of inquiry and verification practiced in the humanities and sciences.
• deepen their understanding of the created universe and of the human role within it;
• deepen their understanding of the creative arts;
• deepen their understanding of how the culture of the U.S. has emerged from and influenced the Western tradition;
• achieve perspective on the Western humanist tradition by investigating at least one culture that has developed outside or beyond the dominant traditions of the West.

2. The skills of analysis, communication, and problem solving that enable them to appreciate, critique and contribute to that tradition (primarily a goal of the core, supplemented by the major and other studies)

To fulfill this goal, Mount St. Mary’s expects students to:

• become skilled readers, writers and speakers;
• comprehend and skillfully employ quantitative reasoning;
• demonstrate proficiency through the first-year college level in a foreign language;
• skillfully employ contemporary research methods, including the resources of information technology;
• recognize and evaluate claims of intellectual authority.

3. An understanding of the purposes, methods, and substance of a particular intellectual discipline (primarily a goal of the major supplemented by the core and other studies)

To fulfill this goal, Mount St. Mary’s expects students to:

• complete an undergraduate major;
• connect study in that major with learning in the core curriculum and electives;
• understand the relationship of that study to civic and professional life; for example, by participating in internships, community service, intercultural experiences, or study abroad.

4. An understanding of the nature of the good and a commitment to its practice, particularly in regard to justice, dignity, and freedom and responsibility in human communities (a goal of the full curriculum and cocurriculum

To fulfill this goal, Mount St. Mary’s expects students to

• develop this understanding of the good as presented in classical, Christian, and modern thought;
• honor the dignity and worth of persons of different racial and cultural heritages;
• honor their human nature — body, mind, and spirit — as a gift to be nurtured individually as well as in honest, responsible, and compassionate relationships;
• address the pressing questions of social justice and human need.

5. The personal synthesis of learning and the capacity for lifelong inquiry that constitute the ultimate goal of a liberal education. (a goal of the full curriculum and cocurriculum)

To fulfill this goal, Mount St. Mary’s expects students to:

• seek to integrate learning across courses and disciplines within the core curriculum;
• connect core learning with learning in the major;
• explore and extend their own intellectual and vocational strengths and interests through study and cocurricular activities beyond the core and major;
• connect the whole of their learning, in class and out, to their lives as scholars, professionals, citizens, and people of faith.