Core Commitments - 21st Century Chautauqua

James Madison College
Lyman Briggs College
Residential College in Arts and Humanities

In partnership with AAC&U’s Core Commitments initiative, we pledge to give particular attention to the following dimensions of personal and social responsibility:

1. Striving for excellence
2. Cultivating personal and academic integrity
3. Contributing to a larger community
4. Taking seriously the perspectives of others
5. Refining ethical and moral reasoning

While these five dimensions do not encompass all aspects of conscience and citizenship, they offer a compelling claim as the initial focus for a widespread reengagement with campus values and ethics. Each of these five shared responsibilities is already widely espoused across the academy.

If students are to be more accountable for pursuing excellence, integrity, and responsibility, we as campus leaders must also become more intentional and effective in articulating these expectations for student learning, in creating ongoing opportunities for students to engage and address them, in assessing how well they are acquiring these capacities, and in learning—together as an academic enterprise—from our shared progress.

We will work as a community toward these ends.

More Information.

Readings for Summer Seminars

I. Ethical and Moral Reasoning: Does It Belong in the Academy and What Does It Mean?

II. Taking Seriously the Perspectives of Others: Why Does It matter and How Do You Actually Do It?

III. Contributing to a Larger Community: The Intellectual Work of Civic Learning.