by Dean Pat Mosto
In 1962, President Franklin F. Moore’s vision of transforming Rider from a business school to a liberal arts college became a reality with the creation of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences (SLAS). This was an extraordinary milestone that changed the face of the University forever.
SLAS started with a few programs (journalism, biology, behavioral sciences, English, history) and few students, less than 13% of the student body, and grew through the years with innovation to adapt to world changes. Today’s College of Liberal Arts, Education and Sciences (CLAES) is Rider’s largest academic division with more than 50% of the University’s students, preparing them for fruitful and successful careers. It offers programs in criminal justice, sustainability, global studies, gender and sexuality studies, graphic design, multi media, to name a few; and a Master’s in applied psychology and a Master’s in business communication.
Even more, the mission of the University has been shaped by CLAES. Faculty prepare students to live ethical, responsible, productive and creative lives in a dramatically changing world. The goal is to foster in students a disposition toward lifelong learning, a yearning for truth, the capacity to understand and express complex ideas, a capacious imagination, and a sense of responsibility for the ethical consequences of their actions.
CLAES continues to shape Rider University, transforming students by providing them with a fuller life of the mind, inspiring them to question goals and values, and helping them better understand themselves and their place in the world.
The College will continue to change the face of Rider University moving forward, creating habits of mind that provide our students with a road-map for how to learn and how to organize ideas, the capacity for a better understanding of the structures that determine organization of power in one’s community and in the world, and a sense of how justice and equity can be enhanced by one’s personal choices.