Mission Statement

Goucher College is dedicated to a liberal arts education that prepares students within a broad, humane perspective for a life of inquiry, creativity, and critical and analytical thinking. The college's principal objectives are to help each student master significant areas of knowledge and skills while developing an appreciation for individual and cultural diversity, a sense of social responsibility and a system of personal and professional ethics.

Goucher believes these goals are best achieved in an environment that responds to students both as individuals and as members of multiple groups. Accordingly, education at Goucher is based on an expanding sense of community--a community where discourse is valued and practiced, where students attend small classes and interact closely with faculty and one another, and where students can participate in and lead extracurricular programs.

In undertaking this mission, Goucher recognizes the centrality of four curricular and extracurricular themes:

1. Scholarship and academic excellence in traditional disciplines in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences/Mathematics and the Arts.
2. An interdisciplinary approach to important areas that cross or transcend the boundaries of traditional disciplines, including world peace, the environment, and the nature of knowledge.
3. An international outlook extending liberal arts education beyond Western cultures to encompass the perspectives and achievements of other members of the world community.
4. Commitment to experiential learning on and off campus as well as abroad, requiring students to apply and extend what has been learned in the classroom.