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Florida Gulf Coast University continuously pursues
academic excellence, practices and promotes environmental
sustainability, embraces diversity, nurtures community
partnerships, values public service, encourages
civic responsibility, cultivates habits of lifelong
learning, and keeps the advancement of knowledge
and pursuit of truth as noble ideals at the heart
of the university’s purpose.
Approved by the
FGCU Board of Trustees December 2, 2002.
Guiding Principles
The founding of Florida Gulf Coast University at
the advent of a new century is a signal event. It
comes at a moment in history when the conditions
that formed and sustained American higher education
are fundamentally changing, and at a time when rapid
shifts wrought by technology and social complexities
are altering the very nature of work, knowledge,
and human relationships. As a public institution,
Florida Gulf Coast University eagerly accepts the
leadership opportunity and obligation to adapt to
these changes and to meet the educational needs
of Southwest Florida. To do so, it will collaborate
with its various constituencies, listen to the calls
for change, build on the intellectual heritage of
the past, plan its evolution systematically for
the twenty-first century, and be guided by the following
principles:
Student success is at the center of all University
endeavors. The University is dedicated to the
highest quality education that develops the whole
person for success in life and work. Learner needs,
rather than institutional preferences, determine
priorities for academic planning, policies, and
programs. Acceleration methods and assessment of
prior and current learning are used to reduce time
to degree. Quality teaching is demanded, recognized,
and rewarded.
Academic freedom is the foundation for the transmission
and advancement of knowledge. The University
vigorously protects freedom of inquiry and expression
and categorically expects civility and mutual respect
to be practiced in all deliberations.
Diversity is a source of renewal and vitality.
The University is committed to developing capacities
for living together in a democracy whose hallmark
is individual, social, cultural, and intellectual
diversity. It fosters a climate and models a condition
of openness in which students, faculty, and staff
engage multiplicity and difference with tolerance
and equity.
Informed and engaged citizens are essential
to the creation of a civil and sustainable society.
The University values the development of the responsible
self grounded in honesty, courage, and compassion,
and committed to advancing democratic ideals. Through
service learning requirements, the University engages
students in community involvement with time for
formal reflection on their experiences. Integral
to the University's philosophy is instilling in
students an environmental consciousness that balances
their economic and social aspirations with the imperative
for ecological sustainability.
Service to Southwest Florida, including access
to the University, is a public trust. The University
is committed to forging partnerships and being responsive
to its region. It strives to make available its
knowledge resources, services, and educational offerings
at times, places, in forms and by methods that will
meet the needs of all its constituents. Access means
not only admittance to buildings and programs, but
also entrance into the spirit of intellectual and
cultural community that the University creates and
nourishes.
Technology is a fundamental tool in achieving
educational quality, efficiency, and distribution.
The University employs information technology in
creative, experimental, and practical ways for delivery
of instruction, for administrative and information
management, and for student access and support.
It promotes and provides distance and time free
learning. It requires and cultivates technological
literacy in its students and employees.
Connected knowing and collaborative learning
are basic to being well educated. The University
structures interdisciplinary learning experiences
throughout the curriculum to endow students with
the ability to think in whole systems and to understand
the interrelatedness of knowledge across disciplines.
Emphasis is placed on the development of teamwork
skills through collaborative opportunities. Overall,
the University practices the art of collective learning
and collaboration in governance, operations, and
planning.
Assessment of all functions is necessary for
improvement and continual renewal. The University
is committed to accounting for its effectiveness
through the use of comprehensive and systematic
assessment. Tradition is challenged; the status-quo
is questioned; change is implemented.
Approved by the Deans Council June 18, 1996
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