The Mission Statement of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) affirms our collective commitment to providing our students with a transformational education.  This Mission Statement also articulates the main principles and purposes of such an education: 

“As a liberal arts college within a Catholic and Jesuit University, The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Scranton offers a wide range of academic programs based upon an understanding of transformational education as a means to academic excellence, personal and spiritual fulfillment, and thoughtful service to the human community. The College is a community of learners dedicated to providing a liberal arts education for all of the University’s students, to the pursuit of wisdom and the dissemination of knowledge, and to addressing the critical problems of the world.”

The CAS Passport Program has been designed to introduce students enrolled in the College’s academic programs to this educational ideal through a series of required co-curricular activities. In this way, the Passport Program links a University of Scranton education with its roots in the liberal arts tradition, with the core values of our community, and with our students’ lives beyond the classroom.

The required Passport Program activities for all first-year students enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences in 2012-13 are the following:

1. Group Advising Sessions. Every first-year student with a declared major will attend an advising session offered by the major department. These sessions will be offered before the students begin registration through the College Advising Center. Departments might also invite potential majors, including those undeclared students who have expressed an interest. The CAS Advising Center will help identify these students. Students without declared majors (CAS Common Curriculum) will attend an advising program designed and organized by the CAS Dean’s Office.
2. Introduction to the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE). Students will complete an introduction to the CTLE in conjunction with their first-year seminar.
3. Ignatian Values in Action Lecture. In the fall semester, every first-year student will attend this convocation-style lecture, in which the featured speaker will discuss some of the ways that Ignatian values have shaped his or her life and work. Faculty teaching the first-year seminar will be encouraged to require students to complete an assignment involving reflection upon this lecture and its connection to the course.
4. The Life of the Mind. During the fall semester, every first-year student will attend at least two events from a calendar of “CAS Passport Events.”