Statement of Purpose

Haverford College is committed to providing a liberal arts education in the broadest sense. This education, based on a rich academic curriculum at its core, is distinguished by a commitment to excellence and a concern for individual growth. Haverford has chosen to remain small and to foster close student/faculty relationships to achieve these objectives.

The College’s rigorous academic program is flexible in form and content to meet the needs of individual students, and rests on the assumption that the able students who come here will use their capacities fully. Haverford’s faculty is noted for its strength in both scholarship and teaching, and its members expect to transmit to students their enthusiasm and high standards. The faculty members are teaching at an undergraduate college of arts and sciences by choice and they expect to learn, as well as to teach, in this close relationship with undergraduates.

The full resources of the College, in and out of the classroom, are designed to promote the personal and intellectual growth of students. Through an ambitious program of visiting lecturers and cultural activities, a conscious effort to recruit faculty and students representing diverse backgrounds and perspectives, student self-governance and service programs, an athletic program focused on participation and the scholar-athlete, and through day-to-day living in a residential community, the College seeks to broaden and enrich each person’s development. Students are asked to give of themselves, even as they draw new strength from others. We seek to foster the pursuit of excellence and a sense of individual and collective responsibility throughout the entire environment.

Haverford strives to be a college in which integrity, honesty, and concern for others are dominant forces. The College does not have as many formal rules or as much formal supervision as most other colleges; rather, it offers an opportunity for students to govern their affairs and conduct themselves with respect and concern for others. Each student is expected to adhere to the Honor Code as it is adopted each year by the Students’ Association.

Haverford College, while a non-sectarian institution, has Quaker origins that inform many aspects of the life of the College. They help to make Haverford the special college that it is, where the excellence of its academic program is deepened by its spiritual, moral, and ethical dimensions. These show most clearly in the close relationship among members of the campus community, in the emphasis on integrity, in the interaction of the individual and the community, and in the College’s concern for the uses to which its students put their expanding knowledge.

For an interactive look at Haverford’s history, visit https://www.haverford.edu/about.

Academic Leadership

President
Wendy Raymond

Provost
Linda Strong-Leek

Dean of the College
John McKnight

For detailed biographies and a full list of Senior Staff, please visit https://www.haverford.edu/president/governance/senior-staff.