We encourage and promote intellectual curiosity and confidence, as well as tolerance and fair-mindedness. The student s achievement of the aforementioned goals is measured by such course-embedded instruments as quizzes and examinations, class participation, oral and written reports, and term papers, as well as by a senior thesis. Beyond the classroom, the knowledge, initiative, and creativity which our students display when organizing public lectures and discussions in conjunction with our chapter of HSF provide further indication of their success. We also routinely, but alas informally, discuss with individual students their progress in the major. More on several of these practices below.
External recognition is another important means of assessment.
We note in particular the success of two of our recent students in regional and national scholarship competitions. An equally important gauge of student achievement is the degree of interest which our students attract from prospective employers and from various programs of study. As regards the latter, we note in particular the quality of the graduate programs to which our students apply and the degree and quality of support they are offered. Thus, two of our students have received multi-year fellowships to U. North Carolina and Wisconsin, giving them the liberty to decline fellowship offers at equally prestigious universities. Another went to Yale Divinity School on fellowship, and a fourth was appointed to a teaching assistantship in Philosophy at SUNY Binghamton.