Last updated June 2000 Brenau University is a private comprehensive university that includes the Women's College and the Evening and Weekend College. These divisions offer diverse educational opportunities founded in the liberal arts which lead to intellectual and global understanding in an environment that encourages awareness of and participation in a world characterized by pluralism. Brenau maintains an academically qualified faculty who provide personalized instruction to offer students a liberal arts education which encourages creativity and fosters critical thinking in a nonsectarian academic institution with a Christian-Judaic heritage and encourages an understanding and appreciation of the diverse cultures of the World.
Students engage in the ancient search for self-knowledge and love for wisdom.
Means of assessment include essay examinations, papers, and class participation. Criteria for assessment are the incisive nature of student answers, how well they communicated their understanding of the material, and the ability to concisely and grammatically express their understanding. For participation the criteria are how engaged students are in the class, whether they raise questions, venture explanations, how well they understand the readings and how insightful their understanding is. Assessment results are used to improve the philosophy component of the general education curriculum in an ongoing manner. Innovations for 1999-2000 include focusing more on small group discussion to encourage more participation from those students who are reluctant to get involved, revising the paper assignment to spell out more specifically what the instructor is looking for in terms of form and structure, and permitting outlines to be used during class exams to diminish anxiety and permit more psychological space to enter thoughtfully if critically into the task.