Hildegard College exists to form young people for lives of faith, virtue, and extraordinary work.
Our founding principles represent the values upheld by Hildegard faculty, staff, and Fellows in this endeavor.
Union with God is the end of all moral activity.
At heart, the faith identity of a Christian institution of higher education resides in the acknowledgment of a highest good that orders all moral actions, including those of teaching and learning. Hildegard College recognizes union with God the creator as the highest good. Such union is safeguarded and advanced by the church and attained by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and it is practiced through love of God and of one’s neighbor. Hildegard College is established upon the conviction that an education ordered toward the highest end of divine communion requires maintaining an environment conducive to the exercise of faith, hope, and charity.
The Liberal Arts empower the mind to grasp the truth that directs our action.
The aim of liberal arts education is freedom of mind and action. Studied as a whole, the liberal arts reveal the order of the world across fields of knowledge. Comprehending this unity liberates the mind to see what is true universally and not in service of personal gain and temporary reprieve. Liberal education is an orientation of the part to the whole, and it enables the human will to choose to act for the good.
A complete education entails intellectual, moral, and spiritual formation.
A complete education forms a person through truth, in goodness, and for acts of service. Hildegard College’s motto is Quaerere (to seek), Amare (to love), Aedificare (to create and edify). We view education as formation in a threefold process. Students discover through seeking knowledge of those things that ought to be sought after and loved. They become, through habit and virtue, the kinds of people who desire and seek to further those things that are worthy of our love. And they acquire the practical knowledge and experience required to pursue those things that they love.
Civil discourse is based in mutual respect and the freedom to disagree.
One person cannot learn on behalf of another. Learning is something that is done for oneself. True understanding occurs in discovery, synthesis, and recreation. It is essential that students approach conversation with intellectual freedom, without fear of academic or discursive repercussions. Hildegard College rejects indoctrination as a teaching method, and it upholds student-driven conversation as the most conducive to authentic learning. Members of the Hildegard community likewise renounce censorship, both ideological and social. Instead, Hildegard upraises respect, charity, and honesty in the classroom and rejects discrimination of individuals because of race, religion, ability, sex, or social class.
Free inquiry requires financial stewardship and independence.
To maintain its commitment to the formation of students in faith, virtue, and extraordinary work, and to preserve the conditions of non-discrimination and free inquiry conducive to this mission, Hildegard College values its independence from the federal government or any coercive institution. Hildegard College does not and will not accept federally funded loans and grants.
We are an ecumenical Christian organization.
Hildegard College recognizes a historical and orthodox Christian faith, including the definitive doctrines of creation; the Holy Trinity; the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus; original sin; human dependence on divine grace for salvation; and the life of the world to come. As an ecumenical Christian college, we are unaffiliated with any specific tradition or denomination within Christian orthodoxy. And as an organization that exists to teach and form students in the knowledge and love of the truth, and recognizing that Fellows join our community from a variety of faith traditions, we choose not to compose an organizational faith statement but instead use the traditional creeds of the church.
The Hildegard College Motto
QUAERERE
In the study of the Liberal Arts — Great Texts and Quadrivial Arts — students seek to discover what is true and good.
to seek
AMARE
AEDIFICARE
to love
It is not enough merely to know what is true and good. We must also become, through Formation, people who love what is true and good, people of conviction and self-governed will.
to create
Finally, we work to acquire the practical knowledge needed to advance what is true and good in the communities to which we are called.
Honor Code
Hildegard College exists to form students for lives of faith, virtue, and extraordinary work. Each year, Hildegard students will affirm their agreement to the following pledge. It is the social foundation whereupon we create an environment conducive to scholarship, formation, and service for the common good.
We are foremost a community of fellow learners, seeking the truth in honesty and mutual respect of one another. We recognize that all persons, regardless of race, sex, ability, or religion, possess inalienable human dignity and the right to pursue what is true and good through self-governance within the bounds of law and the college Code of Ethics. Furthermore, Hildegard College views the ends of education within the highest ends of all human moral activity: communion with God as practiced through love of God and of one’s neighbor. As an institution of the liberal arts, we seek to form students in liberty of mind and spirit and charge them with the freedom to act for the good.
To safeguard and further this mission, all members of our community affirm this Honor voluntarily pledge to conduct themselves with honor, honesty, and common decency in matters moral, academic, social, and spiritual.
Fellows/students pledge to honor the moral integrity of all members of the Hildegard College community. To the best of their ability, they will treat one another with charity, modesty, and respect, and they will refrain from behavior that is personally discriminatory, belittling, or coercive. Members of the Hildegard College community will not impede another’s endeavors of individual piety, learning, civil discourse, or work, nor infringe upon another’s right to self-governance or self-care where it does not obstruct one’s own pursuit of the same.
Fellows/students pledge to act with integrity in academic affairs. Violations of academic honesty include cheating, plagiarism, falsification, identity fraud, malicious interference, and aiding in another’s dishonest activity. Plagiarism is the use of an idea, phrase, or other materials from a source without proper acknowledgment of that source. The false representation of one’s ideas in scholarship and academic discourse inhibits the common pursuit of excellence in knowledge and virtue.
Fellows/students pledge to represent themselves and the College with honor in society. Members of Hildegard College are expected to behave with charity, modesty, and respect at College events as well as in their places of residence, with Civic Partners, and in their social networks.
Fellows/students recognize that Hildegard College is founded on orthodox Christian beliefs. As expressed in the Founding Principles, Hildegard College submits its curricula, pedagogy, formation, and community standards to the light of the Christian gospel. We encourage honest inquiry while also upholding the fundamental disposition of faith seeking understanding that has long motivated Christian learning. Furthermore, above individual instances of scholarship and conduct, the Hildegard community accepts its ultimate accountability for contributing to lives well-lived for the glory of God.
Education oriented toward the highest ends of Christian freedom is rigorous and disciplined yet also voluntary, honest, and conducive of a spirit of peace. Liberal education seeks to further the goods of human society for its own flourishing and for the sake of the kingdom of God. All members of Hildegard College will honor the integrity of our estimable pursuit together.