Statement of Purpose 1964

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Part of Davidson College Statement of Purpose

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Statement of Purpose 1964

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Davidson College
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Davidson College is an institution of higher learning established by the Presbyterians of North Carolina in 1837. Since its founding the ties which bind the College to the Presbyterian Church have remained close and strong. It is the desire of all concerned that this vital relationship be continued in the future, to the mutual advantage of church and school.
The primary loyalty of the College extends beyond the bounds of denomination to the Christian Community as a whole, through which medium it would seek to serve the world.
Davidson recognizes God as the source of all truth. As a college committed to the historic Christian faith, it sees Jesus Christ as the central fact of history, giving purpose, order, and value to the whole life. Davidson is dedicated to the quest for truth and would set no limits to the adventures of the mind. Hence, it encourages teachers and students to explore the facts of the universe through the full and dedicated use of their intellectual powers. Faith and reason must work together in mutual respect if Davidson is to realize and maintain her vision of excellence in the field of Christian higher education.
In implementing its purpose to promote higher learning, Davidson has chosen to be a college, to maintain itself as a small community of learners, to emphasize the teaching responsibility of all professors, and to ensure the opportunity for personal relationships between students and teachers. It is vital that all students, freshmen as well as upperclass-men, know and study under mature and scholarly teachers who are able and eager to provide for each of them stimulus, instruction and guidance.
In meeting its responsibilities, the College must constantly endeavor to provide adequate physical facilities, and to increase its financial re-sources; but more important, it must seek persons of the highest caliber for student body and faculty alike. Davidson must always seek students of character, of general as well as academic ability, of loyalty to the ideals of the College, and of promise for future usefulness. In the selection of teachers, it must seek individuals of genuine spirituality who are outstanding intellectually, who have the best training available in their fields of study, and whose interest in the students and in teaching is unfeigned and profound. It must also provide these teachers with the time and opportunity for creative scholarship which is fundamental to the best teaching.
Davidson is a college of liberal arts. As such it emphasizes those studies, disciplines and activities which liberate mankind physically, mentally and spiritually. Although its curriculum prepares students adequately for graduate study, Davidson's primary purpose is to develop persons of humane instincts, of disciplined and creative minds, and of
-Christian character for full lives of leadership, of service, and of self-fulfillment. The College requires physical education, provides for competitive athletics, and encourages varied social and cultural activities.
It endeavors to teach students to think clearly and accurately, to make relevant and valid judgments, to discriminate among values, and to communicate freely with others in the realm of ideas. Since this can be significantly realized only on the basis of an appreciative knowledge of the past and a working acquaintanceship with current theory, Davidson concentrates upon the study of history, literature, music and the arts, the physical, natural and social sciences, languages, mathematics, philosophy and religion.
As body and mind require exercise and nourishment for healthy growth, so does the spirit. Davidson maintains, therefore, that a college must be a worshipping as well as a studying community, if it is to nurture the whole person and is to be genuinely Christian. Hence, religious services and activities, as well as courses in religion, form an integral part of its program.
Davidson College possesses a priceless heritage bequeathed by those who have given their lives and their possessions for its welfare. To it much has been entrusted, and of it much is required. In gratitude for what has been accomplished, but in humble recognition that it has not fully measured up to its own ideals either in learning or in life, its trustees, its faculty, its students and its friends must constantly rededicate themselves to their task. Only with divine guidance and through ceaseless effort can Davidson attain its goals and be what it ought to be.