We promote the students' acquisition of knowledge, and we develop their ability to think critically and constructively about peoples, ideas, institutions and cultures. We work to maintain an environment in and out of the classroom that promotes close relationships between faculty and students. To attain that goal we have established limits on the number of students in any class. Outside the classroom, we encourage the informal discussions among faculty and students that have long been a hallmark of Washington and Lee. We believe that learning often occurs during discussions with students in our offices, but also at lectures, concerts and athletic events.
Libraries are as important to history as laboratories are to science.
Members of the Department have worked for many years to build the University's library collection of primary and secondary materials. The extensive holdings in American history, for example, allow the Department to require students who concentrate in that field to work extensively with primary materials and develop their powers of historical synthesis. The members of the Department stay abreast of the latest developments in historical study. We engage in many activities such as attending professional conventions, summer institutes and seminars, and individual study and reading. Departmental funds help to support faculty visits to the historic sites about which we teach.