Rosary College of Arts and Sciences

Mission Statement

In keeping with Dominican University’s mission of preparing students to pursue truth, to give compassionate service, and to participate in the creation of a more just and humane world, the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences strives to embody a community of learners seeking truth through free and open inquiry and dialogue with a diverse array of persons, places, texts, objects, ideas, and events, past and present, supportive of each learner’s development, and committed to using our talents to make a positive contribution to the world. We strive to produce graduates of a liberal arts and sciences program who can think critically; communicate ideas well, orally and in writing; and achieve both breadth of understanding across fields and depth of knowledge in one field.

Goals

As a college we are committed to each of the essential learning goals for undergraduates referenced earlier in this bulletin:

Foundational proficiencies: A specified level of proficiency, normally by the end of the first year at Dominican, in designated foundational skills and abilities (including critical reading, writing, speaking, visual literacy, foreign language, quantitative reasoning, computer applications, information literacy, and research methods), and enhanced through subsequent course work.
Areas of study: An appreciation of and a growing ability to show how key areas of study including philosophy, theology, history, social sciences, literature, fine arts, and natural sciences, individually and/or together, contribute to the pursuit of truth, the offer of compassionate service, and the creation of a more just and humane world.
Catholic, Dominican, and other religious traditions: Sustained critical study of and engagement with Catholic and Dominican traditions, broadly understood, along with other religious traditions and dimensions of culture.
Diverse perspectives: An increasing capacity to engage diverse perspectives and to bring diverse modes of inquiry to the critical investigation of significant questions, topics, or issues, and to adjudicate between them in a deliberate and reflective manner.
Major field: A significant level of mastery in a major field of specialization, demonstrated through successful achievement of each of the essential learning goals outlined by that discipline, including a significant research project or creative investigation in the major.
Connecting major and core: An increasing capacity to discern and articulate connections between information and ideas across the curriculum, including a capacity to situate one’s major field within the larger field of liberal learning represented especially by the core curriculum.
Experiential learning: Sustained direct experience and critical, respectful engagement with diverse ideas, practices, and contexts, especially through study abroad, domestic study, and community-based course work.
Connecting experience and course work: An enhanced capacity to integrate experience outside the university with academic course work, especially through service learning and internships in one’s major field.
A personal stance: An increasing capacity to develop and articulate a coherent, informed, and ethically responsible personal stance; able to meet significant challenges likely to be encountered in one’s studies and in one’s personal, career, and civic life.
Participation: An ability to contribute to the college and university as communities of intellectual and moral discourse and decision-making, in preparation for lifelong learning and participation in communities beyond Dominican.