WESTERN NEW MEXICO UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ARTS
& SCIENCES

To: Dr. Faye Vowell, Provost
From: Louis Ollivier, Chairman
Subject: Formation of a WNMU Liberal Arts School 
Date: July 20, 2000

WNMU has built a reputation over the years as a fine college of education and more recently of having a strong business/justice program. In addition to these programs, WNMU possesses a strong core of disciplines that currently lack cohesion but comprise a de facto liberal arts program. In view of this existing reality, I propose that the administration, in conjunction with the faculty, review our strong, albeit small, program in arts and sciences and formulate a liberal arts identity (possibly to be called a School of Arts and Sciences) which would be more appealing to an academically inclined student demography than are our current programs of education and business.

The departments of Expressive Arts, Humanities, Math & Computer Sciences, Natural Sciences, Social Science and Wellness and Movement Science form a corps of disciplines that naturally comprise a School of Arts and Sciences. This school would play a central role in the academic structure and philosophy of WNMU in offering students a broad education, which would lay a durable foundation for critical and independent thinking. Through the traditional liberal arts disciplines, the School of Arts and Sciences would provide coherence and unity to the entire college curriculum.

The WNMU Mission Statement should state that the liberal arts inform and enrich all areas of learning because they foster the intellectual skills and habits of mind that liberate students to probe deeply and live authentically in response to the truths they discover. WNMU believes that liberation is achieved as faculty and students, led by wonder, ask why as they seek not merely facts but fundamental principles, strive for an integration of all knowledge, and express themselves precisely and eloquently.

In American higher education, we are becoming increasingly aware that a liberal education is the ideal preparation for citizen leaders of the next millennium. As knowledge rapidly changes, the intellectual habits of integrative thinking, articulate expression, and informed conviction will serve students well in dealing with the many complex personal and professional challenges ahead. Because of its uncommon commitment to liberal education and large numbers of Ph.D.'s in its classrooms, WNMU could offer an undergraduate education that would be unique in New Mexico.