Brooklyn College Mission statement

Brooklyn College is one of the eighteen units of the City University of New York (CUNY), one of the four comprehensive campuses, a public urban college and the premier senior college for higher learning in the borough of Brooklyn, a culturally and ethnically diverse community of 2.5 million residents. Its location in Brooklyn and its easy access to Manhattan are attractive to students and faculty. Both the borough and the city are major centers of intellectual and cultural stimuli. The Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and the NYZS/Aquarium for Wildlife Preservation are among the notable local attractions. The city itself has numerous institutions of arts and learning, all of which serve our faculty and students.

Our college is committed to access and excellence and will continue to serve the borough and the region by providing affordable, high-quality education for their diverse populations, thus contributing to the welfare of the community, the state, and the society at large.

As one of CUNY'S main teaching and research campuses, Brooklyn College must remain empowered to provide a solid liberal arts education as well as career oriented programs at the baccalaureate and master's level. Therefore, all major disciplines in the arts, humanities, social sciences must be represented on campus if our students are to have high-quality academic programs. The college sees a program in general education (the Core Curriculum) as the foundation for programs within the disciplines, and for programs across the disciplines.

We will continue to participate in the doctoral programs offered by CUNY and provide post-baccalaureate education, both liberal and professional, to meet the needs of students for specialized training and intellectual growth.

The undergraduate curriculum will continue to focus on critical, quantitative, and imaginative thinking; the acquisition and organization of knowledge; the expansion of its examination of Western and non-Western ideas and values; and writing and speaking with intelligence and precision. The curriculum is both diverse and interconnected, encouraging students to draw from their individuality but to transcend their diversity.

The core curriculum, required of all students, consists of courses in disciplines from the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences that build on each other or interface with each other. It aims to infuse students with the values and concepts of the liberal arts and sciences, and provides the foundation for their work in a major field of study and in elective courses.

The college seeks to develop and support its faculty by promoting excellence in teaching, stimulating research and scholarship, and providing opportunities for artistic creativity and intellectual growth.

The primary commitment of the college is to educate a student body representative of its location, deserving of success as well as access. Aware that the quality of life of our students is crucial to their success, the college is dedicated to fostering a hospitable campus environment, responsive to multicultural interests and activities, and to developing in students a sense of personal and social responsibility. As an urban institution wishing to be part of the larger community and ready to serve it, the college encourages students and faculty to be involved in community and public service, and to benefit from the dynamic interaction with the city, whose wealth of resources can enhance their educational objectives.

Recognizing that our students must be prepared for an interdependent world and that they will be called upon to contribute to the communities that support and depend upon them, Brooklyn College seeks to provide them with the necessary knowledge and skills.