About the College

PURPOSE
The College of Arts and Sciences is an intellectual community that nurtures student learning, fosters faculty research and creative activity, and provides service to the larger community.

MISSION STATEMENT
The College of Arts and Sciences brings together disciplines in the arts, humanities, mathematics, natural sciences, and social sciences to form the intellectual heart of Bowling Green State University. It is the mission of the College to foster liberal education, to encourage the generation of knowledge, and to contribute to the good of the community. The College promotes lifelong learning, research, creative activity, social and professional responsibility and growth. To these ends, the College challenges students to think critically and intuitively, to cross disciplinary boundaries, to recognize and value diverse perspectives, and to solve problems creatively and with perseverance.

VISION STATEMENT
The College of Arts and Sciences is dedicated to national distinction as an intellectual community that fosters personal commitment to lifelong learning, to intellectual, creative and personal growth, and to enduring values of a liberal education. To that end, the College is helping undergraduate and graduate students achieve their potential intellectually, culturally and personally and to become global citizens.

VALUES
The College of Arts and Sciences values:

• Excellence in teaching, research and creative activity, service and support activities
• Creating and disseminating new knowledge and creative expression
• Preparing individuals for leadership, professions, citizenship, and lifelong learning
• Promoting critical thinking and clear communication; scientific, mathematical and technological literacy; sensitivity to literature, culture and the arts; and appreciation of different ways of knowing
• An environment of mutual respect and collaboration
• Human dignity, pluralism, and cultural diversity

By choosing a major in the College of Arts and Sciences, you’ve chosen to embrace your curiosity, your desire to explain and understand those curiosities, your creative spirit, your commitment to acting ethically and responsibly, and your dedication to self-improvement and growth. As you progress in your undergraduate career, you’ll find that realizing those values will result in the emergence of important intellectual and social skills that will serve you throughout your life. Your curiosity will develop into learning how to ask good questions and think critically. Your desire to seek explanations will evolve in recognizing the importance of evidence; tolerating ambiguity and perspectives that differ from yours; appreciating complexity; communicating clearly and effectively; considering social, physical, and cultural contexts; and working creatively and collaboratively with others. The development of these skills from deeply held values is a transformative process that characterizes a liberal arts education; the continuing practice of these skills leads to the acquisition of Habits of Mind.

You’ve set yourself on intertwined paths: toward deep knowledge in your particular major and wide-ranging experience with the habits of mind unique to the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics. As you acquire knowledge and experiences, your ability to ask questions, think critically about them, and produce answers will be refined and renewed by what you learn in your field and across the curriculum, which in turn transforms your understanding of your major, your minor, and the ways of thinking you encounter. As you progress, you’ll find that the solutions to problems often lead to new questions. This trajectory takes you to a new place where you will be better able to embrace complexity and make even greater achievements. By engaging with the liberal arts and sciences, you will develop the Habits of Mind to continue this cycle of intellectual and personal growth for the rest of your life.