Mission & Philosophy
Mission, purpose, values, character, and commitment to diversity.
Our Mission
Hartwick College, an engaged community striving toward inclusion and equity while increasing diversity, integrates a liberal arts education with experiential learning to inspire curiosity, critical thinking, creativity, personal courage, and an enduring passion for learning.
Approved by the Board of Trustees, May 6, 2022
Our Purpose
Our purpose as a college of the liberal arts and sciences is to educate people who will thrive in and contribute to the world of the future; people who are prepared to meet the personal, intellectual, and social challenges of a rapidly changing and increasingly interdependent world.
Hartwick graduates will be noted as being able to thrive in a world of global interdependence in which people of the broadest range of national, ethnic, social, and personal backgrounds will interact personally and technologically.
To thrive in this context will require that Hartwick students learn to: understand the world from a variety of perspectives; work constructively with people from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences; be avid learners and critical thinkers; communicate effectively and have a well-developed personal presence; be purposeful in their actions and value-based in their decisions; and know how to use information technology resources as a routine tool to enhance effectiveness.
Our Values - We Are:
- a college of the liberal arts and sciences, focusing on the development of the disciplines of thinking, learning, analyzing, communicating, and values-based judgment;
- a relationship college, focusing on the development of a 24 hour per day, seven day per week, residential educational experience characterized by personal responsibility and collaborative relationships among faculty, students, and staff; and
- a future-directed college, focusing on educating people in ways that will make them effective and contributing citizens to the world of their future.
Our Character
By being intentional in fulfilling our values—taking those actions that help us better be what we believe we should be—we are a college of both quality and distinctiveness. We are a future-directed community of learners where students, faculty, and staff are mutually engaged in intellectual, social, and personal learning inside and outside of the classroom. Our curricular and co-curricular educational experience emphasizes: shared and interdependent learning; a balance of challenge and support; a caring commitment to the individual; intellectual, social, and individual rigor; the development of personal responsibility; and approaches that link theory and practice, what we term “The Liberal Arts in Practice.”
Our Diversity Statement
We value pluralism, a state in which diverse groups co-exist and interact without necessarily losing their individual identities. We seek to critically address and reduce all forms of prejudice, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, economic class, sexual orientation, gender, country of origin, learning differences, religious preference, disability and age, and work to foster mutual respect among all people. Our goal is to increase the presence and support for these and other underrepresented groups on campus, and to broaden the understanding, awareness, respect for, appreciation of, and dialogue about different aspects of diversity among all members of the Hartwick community.
Our community is dedicated to discovering and overcoming the conditions that undermine an inclusive and pluralistic society. We strive to foster inclusive values and responsible local, national, and global citizenship. Through valuing our own diversity and the diversity of others we strive to create a climate that maximizes each individual’s capacity to learn and, in turn, creates an institution in which diversity is embraced, valued, celebrated, and welcomed.
We recognize that diversity is not an end result, but a means of achieving a set of evolving objectives. Accordingly, the College shall periodically review its diversity-related policies, practices, and programs to determine their achievements, and to adjust them as necessary to further these objectives.