September 25-26, 2003
ITEM 120-2019-R0903��������������� Authorization to Establish a Bachelor of Liberal Studies; Montana State University-Bozeman
THAT:�������������������������������������� The Board of Regents of Higher Education Authorizes Montana State University-Bozeman to Establish a Bachelor of Liberal Studies at Montana State University-Bozeman
EXPLANATION:����������������������� Montana State University - Bozeman is one of the very few institutions in this region that does not offer a general education degree designed specifically to meet the needs of students, including non-traditional majors and lifelong learners, wanting to pursue a broad and flexible educational program, which is not as prescriptive as traditional curricula.� Additionally, some of the most exciting and innovative advances in human knowledge are occurring at the intersections of traditional academic disciplines, which demands a flexible curricular structure that can allow motivated students to explore these emerging areas.�
A Bachelor of Liberal Studies would be in keeping both with the university�s mission and with the terms of the Morrill Act of 1862, which made land-grant colleges responsible for �the liberal and practical education of the people in the several pursuits and professions of life.�� The proposed Bachelor of Liberal Studies would be built around the current strengths of MSU B Bozeman�s instructional programs by providing an overall scaffolding, including newly-developed integrative seminars, to ensure academic rigor while at the same time permitting sufficient latitude to allow students to pursue individual interests.�
All students would be required to choose one of two program options, either the Quaternity (option I), which would offer the more traditional broad-based liberal arts education, or a cross-disciplinary cluster of thematically related courses (option II), such as the Environmental Studies and the Global and Multicultural Studies options included within this proposal.� It is anticipated that interested faculty would develop additional cross-disciplinary clusters in the future.�