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Rollins Curriculum website: Rollins College 4C

Rollins Mission and the Core Commitments

The Core Commitments is a project of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the national organization of colleges and universities. Rollins was selected as one of 18 colleges and universities for the Leadership Consortium (subsequently expanded to 22 schools).

The Core Commitments is a national movement aimed at emphasizing a central component of the liberal arts: educating students for personal and social responsibility . The five dimensions of core commitments are:

• striving for excellence,
• cultivating personal and academic integrity,
• contributing to a larger community,
• taking seriously the perspective of others, and
• developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning .

Over the last several years, Rollins has begun the process of defining itself, crafting a Vision, creating a Mission Statement, developing a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), and adopting Guiding Commitments. When examined closely, these documents point to the centrality of the Core Commitments in defining who we are and who we want to be. Further, the Citizenship curricular summer work group emphasized the centrality of Core Commitments, and the Development work group incorporated a number of these ideas.

The Vision says that Rollins emphasizes academic excellence, global citizenship, personal growth, and responsible leadership . The important phase from the Mission Statement ,  “educating students for global citizenship and responsible leadership ,” highlights these same values and further notes that our guiding principles are excellence, innovation, and community . Further, Rollins Guiding Commitments notes that we are committed to integrity, citizenship and leadership, and students' intellectual, social, emotional, physical, and moral development and well-being . The QEP focuses on integrity, strength of character, respect for others, leadership, and global citizenship . Persistent themes in these statements to which we have committed ourselves as an institution are personal and social responsibility in educating for  citizenship . In the next year or two as we move forward as a college not only in developing a new curriculum but more importantly in creating a comprehensive plan for student learning—both inside and outside of the classroom—we urge the college to commit itself to an intentional, comprehensive program integrating the Core Commitments into the academic and social life of Rollins.