For students in a program with a 2011 or later catalog year
General Education Mission Statement
The general education program promotes character, scholarship, culture, and service through broad-based study in the liberal arts disciplines. Attributes we seek to foster include an inquiring mind, effective communication, use of varied means of seeking truth and acquiring knowledge, a sense of global connectedness, understanding and evaluation of multiple perspectives, ethical reasoning, the exercise of civic responsibility, and the lifelong pursuit of personal growth.
Why You Should Care About General Education
When you embrace the general education program as something of value rather than merely a set of courses that you need to complete, you gain the knowledge and skills, and begin to develop dispositions that are the hallmarks of a college-educated person. You also begin to view the world and live your life differently because a general education program, well-constructed and conscientiously pursued, challenges you.
You learn to reason more clearly and communicate more effectively. You learn from the ideas of great thinkers over the centuries, the cumulative and constantly changing knowledge of human experience. You learn to evaluate multiple perspectives on difficult issues. You increase your awareness of cultural diversity and the global complexities and inter-connectedness of the modern world. You gain greater appreciation for the fine arts and beauty in its many forms. You learn to seek and find truth and to question conventional thinking. You become skilled at problem-solving. You gain a better scientific understanding of the natural world. And you begin to better understand yourself – your beliefs, your motivations, your relationships, your actions, your passions, and your humanity.
The breadth of study in the general education program supports and complements the in-depth study in your major program, and as such extends throughout your undergraduate experience. The general education program teaches you some of the varied ways of thinking, knowing, and seeing that are employed in a wide range of liberal arts disciplines. It imparts a sense that we are all connected to others in important ways and that our personal freedoms, talents, and advantages carry with them important responsibilities. Most of all, we hope that the general education program instills in you a love of lifelong learning and inspires you to do important things with your life that help make the world a better place.
Goals of General Education
The general education program at Mansfield University embraces our position as a public university guided by the liberal arts tradition. General education courses throughout their Mansfield University career challenge students to seek an understanding of the world through an exploration of intellectual frameworks including the natural and social sciences, the humanities, the arts, languages, and mathematics. Students grow in knowledge, skills, and dispositions through broad-based study in the liberal arts disciplines.
As a result of their engagement with the general education program, we want Mansfield University students to