Learning Liberty at Saint Anselm College began as a campus-wide initiative in the fall of 2003, at the direction of Father Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., the college’s president. It was conceived as a response to two urgent problems facing higher education. One is a political and moral concern for the education of engaged and active citizens, an education that aims at developing habits of political liberty; the other is an intellectual and spiritual concern for developing the curiosity and understanding that constitute liberty of the mind, an essential goal of a liberal arts education.

The first, a “crisis of civic disengagement,” has been well-documented. [1] Saint Anselm has recently renewed its commitment to addressing this crisis. The vision statement of the college’s recent strategic plan, Aspirations in Liberal Arts Education, states that “The college continues to strengthen its commitment to developing well-educated students with the skills to live as virtuous citizens and principled leaders.” In support of this renewed commitment, one guiding insight for Learning Liberty is this: liberty must be preserved, defended, and enhanced, and this work requires the participation of educated and engaged citizens exercising their rights, in community with one another, for a common good.  In Learning Liberty, Saint Anselm College recognizes that it must help young minds learn how to be responsible members of their families, towns, cities, and nation. From this perspective, a liberal and civic education is essential to a life of political engagement; citizens must learn to use their liberty.

Where this first impetus for Learning Liberty may be described as at once civic, moral, and political, the second concern may be characterized as intellectual, ethical, and spiritual. In its recent report on Liberal Education and America’s Promise, the American Association of Colleges and Universities declares that because of its potential to “enrich every sphere of life,” a “liberating college education” should be the aim of all institutions of higher learning. [2] In Saint Anselm’s mission statement we declare that the college “challenges its students to engage in the fullest experience of a liberal arts education, to free themselves from the strictures of ignorance, illiteracy and indecision, and to dedicate themselves to an active and enthusiastic pursuit of truth.” The Learning Liberty Steering Committee responded to a conviction on the part of faculty and administrators at the college that we can do more to develop and encourage curiosity and intellectual engagement on the part of our students, and that a Catholic liberal arts college should open the soul to a deep and free experience of the richness of human life. Our mission statement describes liberty in a way that may very well transcend political life -- as freedom from ignorance and dedication to truth.   

These two tracks – the civic and the academic - complement and reinforce one another. On the one hand, a liberal arts education is an important foundation for a life of engaged citizenship: a good citizen is capable of thinking critically, and is free from the taint of ignorance, illiteracy and indecision. On the other hand, the experience of citizenship helps us confront deeper questions about the meaning of our actions and our lives, and about our understandings of nobility, justice, and liberty. To address these concerns, over the last three years the Learning Liberty Initiative has proceeded along three paths, which we describe as Curriculum and Pedagogy, Campus Life and Engagement, and Student Voice. These three paths describe a reinvigorated approach to Saint Anselm’s traditional mission as a Catholic liberal arts college in the Benedictine tradition.