Mission Statement

Course Catalog

Bucknell University is a highly selective, primarily undergraduate institution offering a broad curriculum of studies in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, as well as professional studies in engineering, education, and management. Bucknell benefits from its focus on the liberal arts and the professions, its modest size, its location, and the large number of qualified applicants attracted by the competitive environment of the private colleges along the East Coast. The university’s primary responsibility is to provide wide educational opportunities within a collegiate setting to a controlled number of talented men and women.

Bucknell expects its students to be concerned with two closely related types of development: that of the productive citizen and that of the person working toward intellectual maturity and self-awareness. Bucknell’s educational program stresses the preparation of its students for the exercise of high responsibility in all phases of society. The undergraduate experience serves as a catalyst for the student’s intellectual development and as a means of fostering the growth of each individual’s capacity for self-awareness and sustained commitment to learning.

Because our society presents continuing challenges to values, students are encouraged to cultivate respect for other individuals and cultures, enhancing in the course of this pursuit their own moral sensitivity, personal creativity, and emotional stability. At the same time, Bucknell’s residential character provides a matrix within which institutional programs and practices that exemplify compassion, civility, and a sense of justice form an aspect of the educational experience.