Five Dimensions of Personal and Social Responsibility:

1. Striving for excellence >>
2. Cultivating personal and academic integrity >>
3. Contributing to a larger community >>
4. Taking seriously the perspectives of others >>
5. Developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning >>

1. Striving for Excellence: BGeX encourages students to become active learners, develop a strong work ethic, and strive for academic and personal excellence.  During the Introduction weekend the lively sessions convey to students that learning goes well beyond receiving and memorizing information.  These classes are limited to 25 students, as this provides more contact with the instructor and feedback on student work.  Regular interaction with BGeX peer facilitators—highly motivated students who have made the most of what the University has to offer—helps first-year students understand how to succeed in college.
   
   
2. Cultivating Personal and Academic Integrity:  BGeX is designed to help students develop the skills and dispositions necessary to think critically about values, including the values that inform their personal conduct and relationships with others.  Sessions in the Introduction weekend encourage students to reflect on what they value, why they value it, and why others might disagree with them.  This includes discussion about the University’s Academic Honesty Policy.  Moreover, many sessions in the First-Year Student Success Series enable students to reflect on the role of values in personal decisions they face daily.
   
   
3. Contributing to a Larger Community:  By encouraging students to grapple with the moral and ethical dimensions of politics, society, science, culture, and the professions, BGeX encourages them to take a stand on important issues.  These courses also help them develop the critical thinking skills essential to make thoughtful, well-informed judgments and encourages them to act on their values and judgments.  Our Office of Campus Involvement and BGSU’s AmeriCorps Program provide opportunities to work with a variety of community partners to address community needs.  Our efforts to integrate service-learning into general education courses and discipline-based majors will encourage students to learn by becoming actively involved in the community and to understand the importance and satisfaction of working on behalf of the common good.
   
   
4. Taking Seriously the Perspectives of Others:  BGeX rests on the idea that students should not close their minds to the beliefs of others – nor blindly follow those whose beliefs they share. Indeed, by insisting that students understand the values that inform the ideas and choices of those with whom they disagree, we seek to encourage empathy, foster open-mindedness, and discourage students from assuming that those who disagree with them lack values.  Service-Learning courses will reinforce and deepen experience with and respect for diverse points of view by involving students in projects that connect them with other students and community partners who represent a wide array of perspectives and values.  BGeX and service-learning complement existing general education requirements, which require BGSU students to take one course on cultural diversity in the U.S. and one focusing on non-U.S. perspectives on global issues.
   
   
5. Developing Competence in Ethical and Moral Reasoning:  BGeX’s “values across the curriculum and co-curriculum” is a holistic approach that conveys to students the centrality of values to their intellectual and personal development and helps them develop the skills and dispositions necessary to make thoughtful moral and ethical judgments.  Because students explore the role of values in making decisions in their personal lives, in a wide range of academic disciplines, and in the community through service projects and service-learning experiences, they come to understand that value choices and conflicts among competing values are ubiquitous and that negotiating these conflicts and choices is part of being thoughtful, responsible citizens.  By integrating values into the first-year academic experience of students, into co-curricular programming, and service-learning opportunities, we have developed a unique approach to developing personal responsibility and ethical reasoning.