The Liberal Arts

The curriculum and the academic experiences at Rockford University are founded on the liberal arts and extend into professional and experiential opportunities so that all majors are expansive, integrative and inclusive. We know that the liberal arts are the most practical form of education one can acquire, because it creates the power to learn, grow, and make choices throughout life. The liberal arts prepare students for their first and subsequent careers. We define liberal arts learning not by naming specific traditional disciplines, but by the breadth of knowledge, skills and values that is available to all students. Whatever one’s major, from accounting to the social sciences, students at Rockford University learn to connect different forms of learning to each other and to ask questions from both within and outside individual disciplines. At Rockford University we provide the resources to develop academic, social, civic and personal educational experiences in the liberal arts and academic disciplines of the University. Our liberal arts education gives students the knowledge and skills as well as values to be ethical; knowledge and values require skills to be effective; and values and skills without knowledge are at best empty, and at worst, destructive.