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Birmingham-Southern College Catalog 2017-2018
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GENERAL INFORMATION
MISSION OF THE COLLEGE
Birmingham-Southern College prepares men and women for lives of significance. The
College fosters intellectual and personal development through excellence in teaching and
scholarship and by challenging students to engage their community and the greater world,
to examine diverse perspectives, and to live with integrity. A residential, baccalaureate
liberal arts institution, Birmingham-Southern honors its Methodist heritage of informed
inquiry and meaningful service.
OUR COMMITMENT TO EDUCATION
At Birmingham-Southern College we believe the best educational experiences we can
provide students are those that encourage the development of skills and interests that will
serve graduates well throughout a lifetime of learning. Toward that end we offer a
curriculum founded upon a rich liberal arts tradition.
All of our degree programs include a common foundation of general education
requirements designed to support the educational goals of the College. Known as the
Explorations curriculum, our general education program has been purposefully designed
to foster five learning outcomes that the College expects all of its graduates to exhibit:
effective communication, creative problem solving, civic engagement, the ability to
connect disparate areas of thought, and self-directed teaching and learning.
In addition to completing general education requirements, students may choose a major
offered by the College or, in consultation with a faculty committee, may design their own
majors in order to pursue another specific academic interest or goal. We feel that
allowing students to participate in the design of their own academic program encourages
enthusiasm and responsibility, and adds to the intellectual vitality of the College.
We work hard to keep our programs flexible, our courses up to date, and our outlook
toward education innovative. We value diversity in all of its senses. Experiential learning,
to which the College has a strong commitment, complements classroom work. A number
of learning experience formats are available to all students, including internships,
international study-travel, service learning, and faculty-student research collaborations.
We also provide for tutorials and independent study through which students may pursue
topics of special interest in close cooperation with a faculty member.
Our obligation as a liberal arts college is to help students develop the capacity to make
and communicate responsible decisions based on information accurately gathered and
astutely analyzed. Faculty take this responsibility seriously and work to direct students
toward developing skills in reading, writing, and speaking; in understanding the methods
and principles of the sciences and their significance in the modern world; in cultivating