Goal statement

The goal of Reed College

(From the report of the Committee on Long Range Priorities, George Hay, chair; approved by the faculty and trustees, 1971)

The goal of Reed College is to provide an education in the liberal arts and sciences with emphasis on the highest intellectual and scholarly standards.

The Reed education pays particular attention to a balance between a broad study in the various areas of human knowledge and a close, in-depth study in a recognized academic discipline.

The general program is designed to provide a background of humanistic and scientific study which will give an understanding of cultural phenomena as they relate to each other and modes of thought as they bear on the problem of man's various attempts to understand himself and his world.

The advanced program provides opportunity for intensive examination of the subject matter and techniques of a more narrowly defined academic discipline.

The balance of a general and more specialized education is best achieved where students and faculty work closely together in an atmosphere of shared intellectual and scholarly concern, and where individual interests and disciplines must be pursued not in isolation, but with a sense of the larger intellectual life of which they are a part.

Operating principles and basic procedures of Reed College

In carrying out its goals the college has developed certain operating principles and procedures. Some are basic and unalterable, such as academic freedom. Some refer to tested and valued methods which gave the college some of its distinctive character. All are important to the present workings of the college and should guide its future development.

  1. The college fosters and defends academic freedom and avoids taking positions on political issues that do not affect the college or higher education directly.
  2. As a relatively small school, the college necessarily offers a limited number of subject areas, but by careful selection and judicious balance among these strives to offer each well and in effective relationship to the whole.
  3. The college provides an intense and demanding education regimen. As stated by the first president of the college: "only those who want to work and to work hard, and to gain the greatest possible benefit from their studies are welcomed."
  4. Each student exercises wide choice in constructing his program, but employs course requirements to ensure that proper attention is given to the goals of both general and advanced study.
  5. Most students complete their advanced study within a departmental major, but interdisciplinary programs are endorsed insofar as they represent carefully reasoned alternatives to a major within an academic discipline.
  6. Students are not divided by academic ability or promise, and there are neither "honors" degrees nor other such programs.
  7. The college program encourages a growing intellectual self-reliance. Independent study courses are available for students of proven ability, and each student writes a thesis and is examined on it during his final year.
  8. Much of a student's class work is conducted by the conference method or by active participation in the laboratory. Lectures and formal expository presentations are used where they are effective alternatives or supplements to the conference method.
  9. A faculty advisory system ensures that each student's program meets the requirements of both general and advanced study consistent with the student's goals and facilitates effective communication on matters such as the evaluation of student performance.
  10. Although student performance is closely and frequently evaluated and the grades are recorded, students are encouraged to consider intellectual growth more important than grades.
  11. The college provides an environment for student life in which unnecessary structuring and regulation are avoided. Areas of conduct not affected by college regulations are mediated by the honor principle.
  12. The affairs of the college are conducted under constitutional government. The campus is an area of the freest exchange and open discussion of ideas. The use of force or threat of force is intolerable in such a community.
  13. The college regularly seeks student advice on educational policy and other operating features of the college. But final decisions in certain spheres are made by the faculty, administrative officers and trustees.
  14. The college provides a variety of extracurricular offerings in cultural affairs, in public and international affairs, and in personal and recreational sports.
  15. The college supports and encourages scholarly research and the application of such scholarship to teaching.
  16. The college is not an "experimental school," but continues to seek more effective ways to present the subject matters of the liberal arts curriculum.

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