Courses of Instruction
Mission
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.
Vision
As a college we are committed to the Vision for Undergraduate Education referenced earlier in this bulletin, which characterizes our work with students as follows:
Steeped in Dominican Ethos, Liberal Learning
Through Foundations, Breadth, Depth, and Integration
for Responsible Global Citizenship.
We educate one student at a time in the company of others, each unique yet all distinctly Dominican. In dialogue with a Dominican ethos, our students grow as liberal learners through creative and rigorous study marked by solid foundations, disciplinary breadth and depth, and ongoing integration as they aspire to become ethically responsible global citizens. Each student develops an emerging sense of personal and professional vocation through a variety of means, including thoughtful interaction with courses, professors, and other students, and intensive advising and mentoring. We encourage students to participate in internships, study away (international and domestic), community-based learning, and undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative investigations. Diverse insights coalesce in each student’s distinctive educational trajectory, purpose, and plan, as we inspire students to discern the big picture and name their place within it—to stand somewhere and to stand for something, conscientiously positioned in relationship to the world.
Dominican ethos describes the distinctive character of our university’s culture. It includes an environment of Caritas et Veritas, in which we contemplate the meaning of existence and strive collaboratively for a more just and humane world. It understands that study is at once contemplative and communal. It unites reflection and dialogue as we collaborate in the search for truth. It enables students to develop a sense of care and responsibility for oneself, one’s community, and the wider creation. It fosters trust, tolerance, mutual accountability, and belonging. Students enter into conversation with a Catholic intellectual tradition that affirms the compatibility of faith and reason, a universe marked by both intelligibility and mystery, the sacredness of all creation, the dignity of every living being, and concern for the common good. They acquire basic knowledge about Christianity in its various dimensions, and how it interacts with secular and other religious beliefs, practices, and worldviews.
Upon graduation, students educated at Dominican University possess character, knowledge, and skills to take informed, ethical action in the world and to influence others for the good.
Curriculum
Three overlapping elements make up the curriculum:
- Core: a sequence of courses that provide the student with secure foundations, breadth of intellectual vision and integration of the undergraduate academic experience;
- Major: an opportunity to pursue one area of knowledge or discipline in greater depth; and
- Electives: special forays into that zone of freedom that characterizes liberal learning.
Courses of Instruction
