Mission and Vision

Position

The College of Liberal Arts comprises 17 highly selective departments offering programs in the arts, humanities, communications and social sciences. These diverse disciplines share a focus on human experience and expression. Providing nearly one-third of the university’s instruction, the CLA serves as an essential component of liberal education for all students at Cal Poly.

The CLA fosters excellence within its cutting-edge disciplinary and interdisciplinary courses of study while diversifying, extending and enriching the broader polytechnic environment. Its rich history of teaching excellence, active research and creative endeavors, and the breadth and depth of its course offerings position the CLA as central to the Cal Poly educational experience.

Mission

The College of Liberal Arts promotes excellence through teaching, scholarship and service in the arts, humanities, communications and social sciences. The CLA encourages intellectual discovery and individual growth by promoting diversity, social responsibility, and life-long Learn by Doing in both the local and the global communities.

CLA occupies a pivotal position in the comprehensive university, providing Cal Poly students with a broad and substantive understanding of culture, social and political organizations, and the individual; developing their capacity for critical inquiry and discourse; fostering intellectual curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge; promoting creative thought and aesthetic appreciation; and integrating technology into a broader, human context.

Values

The College of Liberal Arts upholds open and critical disciplinary and interdisciplinary inquiry, effective communication, creative thinking, aesthetic endeavor, and their application to contemporary issues. We advocate cultural and intellectual diversity, sustainability, professional ethics, self-awareness and responsible citizenship. We espouse the integration of humane and aesthetic values with technological proficiency in support of the university’s mission.

As essential and engaged members of our comprehensive polytechnic university, we embrace the university’s commitment to the Learn by Doing philosophy through our research, theory and practice.

Vision

The College of Liberal Arts will be indispensable to Cal Poly’s achieving national recognition as a premier comprehensive polytechnic university. Its emphasis on creative thinking, human understanding and innovative action will empower our graduates to confront challenges responsibly by understanding the historical, cultural, social, ethical, aesthetic, technological and philosophical complexities of global and local communities.

Through its programs, research and scholarship, the CLA will exemplify the values required to create a robust, vibrant, diverse and responsible culture that sustains progress, beauty and justice for the larger society.