Kenyon College Goals and Objectives

I. General Liberal Arts Education

Kenyon is institutionally committed to promoting a liberal arts education. Skills are promoted and developed that are not only useful to any career but essential for a fulfilling and valuable life.

a) Students acquire knowledge and understanding of fine arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.

b) Students learn to gather information from a variety of sources and evaluate its quality.

c) Students learn to formulate ideas rigorously and communicate them effectively, in speaking and in writing.

d) Students learn languages and engage with diverse cultures.

e) Students address ethical questions and make informed qualitative judgments.

f) Students acquire quantitative skills and analyze data.

g) Students develop an aesthetic sensibility through practice and critical examination of the fine, performing, and literary arts.

h) Students learn to work creatively.

i) Students learn to work collaboratively and across disciplines

j) Prepare for leadership and for civic and community engagement

II. Overall Academic and Major Program

The academic program provides freedom within a common structure to promote balance and coherence, so students design truly liberal educations which are focused, expansive, and useful in the future.

a) Students develop expertise in at least one discipline or area.

b) Students organize courses so that study of one subject illuminates and is illuminated by study of another.

III. Relationships, Community and Security

Fundamental to the Kenyon experience is that students and professors develop personal and long-term relationships. The personal contact between students and faculty that characterizes Kenyon stands as central to the Kenyon undergraduate experience. The consequence of student-faculty interaction is that student experience is not one of anonymity. The scale and rural location of the residential community heighten the importance of these relationships. Kenyon provides an environment that is aesthetically conducive to study and is safe and secure, so that students may direct their attentions to their academic life and extracurricular activities unhindered.

IV. Participation and Involvement

The opportunity to participate in campus life and the ease and comfort of participation are characteristic of Kenyon. The atmosphere at Kenyon promotes student involvement. Discourse among students is frequent, on both academic and nonacademic issues, and that discourse is enriched by the diversity of the faculty and student body. Students are active in producing their own experience, rather than being primarily receivers or observers. Doing, by oneself and with others, is Kenyon's recipe for learning.

V. Satisfaction and Accomplishment

Accomplishment of the first four goals translates into high levels of student satisfaction both at Kenyon and years later when former students reflect back on their Kenyon experience. It also translates into high levels of accomplishment for Kenyon graduates.