St. Bonaventure University is a Catholic university dedicated to educational excellence in the Franciscan tradition. We enhance the lives of our students and help them prepare for their futures by providing experiences that build knowledge, skills, and character.
Our university has its roots in the traditional liberal arts and sciences, and the general education curriculum values that tradition within the context of the Catholic and Franciscan intellectual heritage. Its aim is to provide students with foundational knowledge for all majors that aligns with the university’s six student learning goals:
- Basic knowledge of the liberal arts and sciences, specialized knowledge in a particular area of study, and the ability to integrate knowledge from different academic disciplines.
- The ability to think constructively, critically, and creatively, including competencies in analytic inquiry, quantitative literacy, information literacy, evidential reasoning, and problem solving.
- Competence in multimodal communication with special emphasis on oral, written, and digital communication, including an understanding of key issues relating to their use.
- A disposition to understand societal issues, seek solutions, and become responsible citizens.
- An ability to engage with ultimate questions of a metaphysical, theological, and philosophical nature.
- A basic understanding of the Catholic tradition and an appreciation of the intellectual and moral virtues expressed in the Franciscan movement (e.g., humility, compassion, justice with peace, love of wisdom, and the inherent goodness of all creation).
Within the framework of these goals and the university’s mission, the general education curriculum offers students an educational experience that encourages them to examine critically their own cultural assumptions and to explore openly and fairly other perspectives and cultures. This deepening appreciation of their own heritage and sensitive openness to alternative frameworks should prepare students to take their place as thinking, moral individuals in a global community.