There are two main goals that the college aims to achieve. The first is to foster the intellectual development of students as individuals. We believe that college should provide students the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of both their world and themselves. The study of Western Civilization, in its moments of majesty and madness, glory and shame, provides a key to self-understanding, for this civilization has been largely responsible for shaping who and what we are, both in our social and in our more deeply personal selves. By acquiring an understanding of the development of Western Civilization students acquire a richer appreciation of the perennial questions that we all must ask even as we grow into the future.
Intellectual growth entails the development of academic skills.
The program requires rigorous discipline from students in their first two years of college. By acquiring an understanding of the development of Western Civilization, students acquire a basis for understanding themselves and shaping their future. They also acquire a basis for understanding other cultures and respecting their autonomous development. At a time when critics often decry the decline in higher education of fundamental knowledge and thought, Providence College continues in this program to stress students growth in understanding issues essential to an education in the humanities. The second goal of the program is to provide students with a basis for further study.