The mission of the College of Liberal Arts is to provide a learning community wherein students are provided both broad-based and specialized education and to vitalize the educational process by creating and transmitting knowledge through research, scholarship and creative activity.

The college is characterized by a diversity of intellectual styles and interests. Departments and programs cluster into social sciences, humanities and fine arts. Liberal Arts disciplines address the rich meanings of human experience and expression and liberate the imagination.

The traditional objectives of liberal arts in the University are: (1) to develop the tools for analysis, appreciation and communication; for written and oral expression; for comprehension, interpretation, and analysis of textual material; for analytic reasoning and scientific method; and for appreciation of aesthetic experience; (2) to prepare students for a range of careers in academia and public and private sector organizations. Graduates of the college contribute to the region, the state and the nation as college and university professors, elementary and secondary teachers, legal professionals, in government agencies, social services, international business and industry, media and advertising, health and recreation, and cultural and entertainment industries; and (3) to promote understanding and critical evaluation of the cultural milieux of the attitudes and the ideas that shape institutions and strategies in societies.

A liberal arts education prepares the student for leadership in whatever profession or vocation he or she chooses and is designed to help students live enlightened, purposeful, and effective lives in a challenging, complex, and global technological environment.

A center of learning and scholarship, the College of Liberal Arts and its departments and programs help students achieve an understanding and knowledge of the past, a comprehension of the realities of the present, and a sense of the vision and potential of the future. Our courses of study not only develop habits of mind (such as mastery in reading, communication, and critical thinking skills), but also address the meaning of human experience and expression.

The college promotes these goals in the following ways:

• By enabling students to develop the tools for analysis, appreciation and communication; for written and oral expression; for comprehension, interpretation, and analysis of textual material; for analytic reasoning and scientific method; and for appreciation of aesthetic experience;
• By enabling students to prepare for professions or careers by offering specialized major programs; and
• By enabling students to understand and evaluate critically the attitudes and ideas that shape contemporary society.

Because they deal with the meanings of human experience, the Liberal Arts are the oldest and most central study in higher education, with a past that reaches back to the origins of the university in the Middle Ages. The disciplinary units of the college provide current perspectives on the individual, society, culture, and the cosmos; the various courses of study taken together offer students a range of approaches to the human condition. Through their research and teaching, the faculty of the college seek to prepare students to achieve success in many different professions, to contribute to the community, and to lead enriched and enlightened lives.