Contact Information:
Marcie Myers
Biology Department
111 Mendel Hall
(651) 690-8733

An Exploration of Integrated Liberal Arts Learning You are invited to be a part of the continuing process designed to engage our entire community in learning how to understand students’ needs, how a liberal arts education can best prepare them for their lives and work, and how to help them become intentional, reflective learners: empowered with intellectual skills, informed with a range of areas of knowledge, and committed to responsible, active civic participation. What is "Greater Expectations"? What is our Greatest Expectation? Claiming a Community of Connection at CSC Accomplishments So Far (new Liberal Arts Goals!)

Greater Expectations: Claiming a Community of Connection

"At the center of Greater Expectations is an analysis of the challenges facing higher education and an honest appraisal of our successes and failures in meeting them….The report challenges all stakeholders to unite for collective action, creating a coherent educational system designed to help all students achieve the greater expectations that are the hallmark of our time." p. iii-vi.


Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) National Panel Report Greater Expectations: A Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College.

The report is available at: http://www.greaterexpectations.org

...by engaging students within an integrated educational experience centered in interconnected liberal arts learning, reflective women will enter a complex world prepared to lead and influence in the global search for justice.

We are a community of learners and teachers, skilled in discovering, evaluating, analyzing, and creating new knowledge to guide our actions and address challenges. Ample resources exist that we can draw upon to improve learning at St. Kate’s. Central to these is a renewed understanding that a liberal arts education provides the very groundwork necessary for all our graduates to enter into meaningful and productive lives. To position St. Catherine’s to educate our students well, we must examine the role liberal arts learning plays in our students’ experiences, what we expect of our core requirements and co-curriculum, and how to strengthen, renew, and shape these experiences valuable to both professional and liberal arts majors.

• Articulating Goals:
  • A new statement of Liberal Arts Learning Goals common across all degree programs was developed and final ratification occurred in January 2005. The document was grounded in previous outcomes of all degree levels, the Intentional Learner model, and the college’s mission and leadership statements.
  • These goals were the product of deliberations by both faculty and student affairs staff. Activities at student affairs retreats have worked to embed these goals within co-curricular programming.
• Integrating Curriculum:
  • A Fall 2004 Core Curriculum Vision Committee (CCVD) discussed what is and isn’t working in the baccalaureate core and formulated guiding principles for revision. With those guidelines, volunteers from CCVC have analyzed options and drafted a proposal for EPC and faculty consideration this year.
• Enhancing Student Experiences:
  • The “Catherine Connection” was extended to the associate degree programs and is now in its second year.
  • “Learning communities” has come to the forefront in discussions of how to enhance student experiences and a taskforce will begin work this year.
• Developing Faculty & Staff:
  • Eight colloquia in the fall of 2003 explored liberal arts learning goals, current data on the student body, first-year classes in the liberal arts, and the liberal arts base of professional education. Colloquia were attended by 121 different faculty, staff, and students, representing 45 different programs or departments.
  • January 2004 TLN Conference had 16 workshops designed to respond to issues and ideas that had surfaced in the fall colloquia and were facilitated by faculty and staff from different degree programs.
  • A comprehensive website has been maintained.