The Faculty of Pacific Lutheran University establishes the
educational philosophy that shapes and supports the curriculum and
programs of study. This philosophy is reflected in statements of
educational goals, objectives and principles. Of particular
significance to all students are statements about learning objectives,
general education and writing throughout the curriculum.
The Integrative Learning Objectives (ILOs) provide a common
understanding of the PLU approach to undergraduate education. These
objectives offer a unifying framework for understanding how our
community defines the general skills or abilities that should be
exhibited by students who earn a PLU bachelor’s degree. Therefore, they
are integrative in nature. The ILOs are intended to provide a
conceptual reference for every department and program to build on and
reinforce in their own particular curricula the goals of the General
University Requirements. They also assist the university in such
assessment-related activities as student and alumni surveys. Not all
ILOs are dealt with equally by every program, much less by every
course. The ILOs do not represent, by themselves, all of our
understanding of education. Rather, they are a part of a more complex
statement of educational philosophy.
The ILOs are meant to serve as a useful framework that unifies education throughout the University, while disciplinary study provides students with the knowledge and understanding of a field that will allow them to function effectively in their chosen area.
These four statements describe the knowledge base expected of all PLU graduates:
In addition to the knowledge base described above, and an
awareness of how different disciplinary methodologies are used, every
student at Pacific Lutheran University is expected to develop the
following abilities:
Critical Reflection
Expression
Interaction with Others
Valuing
Multiple Frameworks
Adopted by the Faulty Assembly, November 11, 1999
The university’s mission is to “educate students for lives of
thoughtful inquiry, leadership, service, and care—for other people, for
their communities, and for the earth.” Emerging from the university’s
Lutheran heritage, our mission emphasizes both freedom of inquiry and a
life engaged in the world. Our location in the Pacific Northwest, and
our commitment to educate students for the complexities of life in the
21st century, also shape the university’s educational identity.
The university aims to produce global citizens, future leaders, and
whole, richly-informed persons. At the heart of the university is the
general education curriculum. Through this program of study, students
begin the process of shaping not only a career, but more importantly a
life of meaning and purpose. This general education, in which students
grapple with life’s most fundamental questions, is deepened and
complemented by the specialized work students undertake in their
majors. An education is a process, and the following three components
that inform the general university requirements are not discrete, but
interconnected and mutually supportive.
Values: The university sustains the Lutheran commitment
to the life of the mind, to engagement and service in the world, and to
nurturing the development of whole persons—in body, mind, and spirit.
As described in the university’s long-range plan PLU 2010, these values
are fundamental, and they are inseparable from each other. As
important, PLU offers an education not only in values, but in valuing.
Pacific Lutheran University helps students thoughtfully shape their
values and choices, realizing that imagination and decision give to a
human life its unique trajectory and purpose, and always understanding
that life gains meaning when dedicated to a good larger than oneself.
Located in the Pacific Northwest and on the Pacific Rim, the university
is well-situated to address global issues, social diversity and
justice, and care for the earth.
Knowledge: An education at Pacific Lutheran University
makes students the center of their own education. The best education
understands knowledge as saturated with value and meaning, as much
produced as acquired. It is a communal undertaking, involving both
knower and context. We understand academic disciplines, as well as
multi-disciplinary fields of inquiry, as ways of knowing. They do more
than organize knowledge. They define the questions, methods, and modes
of discourse by which knowledge is produced. Students are required to
study across a range of these disciplines to gain an understanding of
the ways in which educated people understand themselves and the
world.
Skills and Abilities: As described by the university’s
Integrative Learning Objectives, skills and abilities that characterize
an education at Pacific Lutheran University are essential for the
cultivation of the potentials of mind, heart, and hand. They are
inseparable from what it means to know and to value. They include the
ability to express oneself effectively and creatively, to think
critically, to discern and formulate values, to interact with others,
and to understand the world from various perspectives.
A general education at Pacific Lutheran University affirms the
relationships among rigorous academic inquiry, human flourishing in a
diverse world, and a healthy environment. Such an education requires
first and foremost a faculty of exceptional scholar-teachers, committed
to educating the whole student, and understanding that learning is
active, engaged, and in the best sense transformative.
Adopted by the Faculty Assembly, December 10, 2004
Pacific Lutheran University is a community of scholars, a community of readers and writers. Reading informs the intellect and liberates the imagination. Writing pervades our academic lives as teachers and students, both as a way of communicating what we learn and as a means of shaping thoughts and ideas.
All faculty members share the responsibility for improving the literacy of their students. Faculty in every department and school make writing an essential part of their courses and show students how to ask questions appropriate to the kinds of reading done in their fields. Students write both formal papers and reports and informal notes and essays in order to master the content and methods of the various disciplines. They are encouraged to prepare important papers in multiple drafts.