Program mission statement
The mission of the political science department is to seek to understand
the basis of power in society, how that power is organized and exercised and
its impact on people’s lives. The department therefore seeks to help its
students engage in critical analysis of society and power structures. In
keeping with the Benedictine values of service, community, and diversity,
political science students will seek to understand the significance of
class, race, gender, property relations, and other identities in shaping
political structures and political behavior. Toward that goal, the
department will strive to promote social justice and to encourage students
to be active, thoughtful members of their community.
Program goals, objectives and outcomes
A student completing the political science major will meet the following
goals, which will evince their understanding of Saint Martin’s University’s core
themes:
Faith
- Engage in a rigorous study of the discipline of political science,
one designed to enlighten and inform one’s understanding of the field.
- Demonstrate knowledge of theories, approaches, and/or methodologies
in political science that attempt to explain power in society and the
world.
- Demonstrate an understanding of race, gender, property, and class in
relations to power in society and/or the world.
Reason
- Gain the capacity to develop a systematic critical analysis of
prevailing political ideas and systems.
- Strive for academic excellence as demonstrated by critical
analysis and research in the major areas of political science.
Service
- To take those understandings of power and act upon them, serving
as agents of social change.
- Serve the mission of Benedictine values by acting in the
interests of those who have been economically exploited, politically
and socially disenfranchised, and otherwise oppressed by the
prevailing power structures.
Community
- Demonstrate a historical and contemporary place of the commons
in American and global society, and the need to defend them against
private interests that seek to monopolize them in the interest of
individual, rather than common, good.