Statement of Purpose

The Humanities Division has one purpose: to open the minds of students and faculty to critical appraisal of the past and to the possibility of change. We encourage the process of careful evaluation and judgment through our use of study, persuasion, debate, and, to some extent, example.  All other functions of the Division support this overarching purpose.

We strive to achieve this goal through the use of time-tested challenges to thought.

Examples:

• The universe is more complex than it appears.
• Mind and matter are inextricably linked.
• Connect.
• Read.
• Pull at a thread and the whole tapestry may unravel.
• If you don't like it, change it, but make it better in the process.
• Listen.
• Don't take just any answer for an answer.
• Job? What job? Did you ever see a cat starve in a tree?
• Love your neighbor as yourself.
• Treat the world as if you had to live in it.
• Think.
• Interpret.
• Speak up.
• Pray.
• Learn another language.
• Take your masks off.
• Yes, it does matter.
• The universe is simpler than it appears.
• Our most difficult tasks are to say "I don't know" when we don't know, to stick to the topic, to diverge from the topic, and to stop when it's over.