BRYN MAWR COLLEGE
Office of the Provost
Mission statement
The mission of Bryn Mawr College is to provide a rigorous education and to encourage the pursuit of knowledge as preparation for life and work. Bryn Mawr teaches and values critical, creative, and independent habits of thought and expression in an undergraduate liberal arts curriculum for women and in coeducational graduate programs in Arts and Sciences and Social Work and Social Research. Bryn Mawr seeks to sustain a community diverse in nature and democratic in practice, for we believe that only through considering many perspectives do we gain a deeper understanding of each other and the world.Since its founding in 1885, the College has maintained its character as a small residential community which fosters close working relationships between faculty and students. The faculty of teacher/scholars emphasizes learning through conversation and collaboration, primary reading, original research and experimentation. Our cooperative relationship with Haverford College enlarges the academic opportunities for students and their social community. Our active ties to Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania, and the proximity of the city of Philadelphia further extend the opportunities available at Bryn Mawr.
Living and working together in a community based on mutual respect, personal integrity and the standards of a social and academic Honor Code, each generation of students experiments with creating and sustaining a self-governing society within the College. The academic and co-curricular experiences fostered by Bryn Mawr, both on campus and in the College's wider setting, encourage students to be responsible citizens who provide service to and leadership for an increasingly interdependent world.
The College held its first classes in the fall of 1885, and awarded its first degrees--one A.B. and one Ph.D.--in 1888. The Graduate School of School of Social Work and Social Research was founded in 1915. Since 1931 graduate programs have been coeducational. Further information on the College's history and our mission statement are available elsewhere. The College has a special relationship with Haverford College at the undergraduate level, including course exchanges, a common calendar and course guide, some joint academic departments and programs, and cooperative arrangements for student residential life. The College has cooperative exchanges for undergraduates with Swarthmore College, the University of Pennsylvania, and Villanova University; and at the graduate level, reciprocal agreements with the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, the University of Delaware, Temple University, and Princeton.
The Plan for the New Century sets forth the College's future directions.
Programs of Study
The College offers undergraduates the opportunity to major and/or minor in Anthropology, Archaeology; Astronomy (at Haverford); Biology; Chemisty; Comparative Literature; Computer Science; the Growth and Structure of Cities; East Asian Studies; Economics; English; Film Studies, Fine Arts (at Haverford); French; Geology; German; Greek, Latin and Classical Studies; History; History of Art; Italian; Mathematics; Music (at Haverford); Philosophy; Physics; Political Science; Psychology; Religion (at Haverford); Russian; Sociology; and Spanish. Students may also pursue interdepartmental and independent majors. The College has interdisciplinary programs--for the most part on a bi-college basis--in Africana Studies; Arts; Education; Environmental Sciences; Gender and Sexuality; Hispanic and Hispanic-American Studies; International Studies; Linguistics; Neural and Behavioral Sciences; and Peace and Conflict Studies. In addition, four interdisciplinary centers complement the curricular offerings. They are the Center for Science in Society, the Center for Visual Culture, the Center for Ethnicities, Communities and Social Policy, and the Center for International Studies. More on these centers may be found in the Plan or via the Centers' website.
The College offers graduate programs in two schools:
Student Numbers and Degrees Granted
In Fall 2004 there were 1228.63[to be updated for fall 2005] full-time equivalent undergraduates, 61.31 [to be updated] FTE Arts & Sciences graduate students, and 204.9 FTE [to be updated] Social Work graduate students. Undergraduates come to the College from 49 [to be updated] states and 42 [to be updated] foreign countries. More than 58% of undergraduates receive College financial aid, as did 60%[to be updated] of Arts & Sciences graduate students, and 70%[to be updated] of Social Work graduate students. The Fall 2005 freshman class has 355 students, of whom [to be updated] are foreign citizens or hold dual nationality and [to be updated] are American minorities. [to be updated] are from public high schools and [to be updated] from private schools.
In the Spring of 2005, the College conferred [to be updated] Bachelor's degrees, [to be updated] Master of Arts degrees, [to be updated] Master of Social Services degrees, [to be updated] Master of Law and Social Policy degrees and and [to be updated] Ph.Ds. The most popular majors for Bryn Mawr students majoring at Bryn Mawr were [to be updated] .
Faculty Facts
The College has 126 faculty in tenured/tenure-track positions (65 professors, 30 associate professors and 31 assistant professors), another 15.3 FTE on continuing non-tenure track appointment, and a number of interim faculty on part- and full-time appointment. Of the 126 ranked members of the faculty, 95 have tenure and the remainder are on tenure track; 22 are members of underepresented minority groups; and 61 are female. For full-time continuing members of the faculty, the course load is 5 courses; for interim faculty, the course load for full-time status is 6. The laboratory component of science courses is calculated in the teaching load. The base salary for assistant professors beginning September 2005 is $51,000.
Benefits
The College offers a full range of benefits to full-time members of the ranked and continuing non-tenure track faculty, including pension contribution equivalent to 10% of salary, an array of health coverage plans, a parental leave plan, a tuition benefit for spouses and children, a mortgage plan, and relocation support. Candidates in tenure track positions may postpone reappointment decisions when maternity, infant- or eldercare obligations impede their professional activity. The College offers coverage for domestic partners. For further information on College benefits, consult the Faculty Handbook.
Faculty Professional Support Programs Support
The College offers a multi-faceted program to support faculty research and professional development. Tenure track faculty who have been appointed to a second term are eligible to take a year-long junior faculty research leave at full pay. Members of the faculty who have received notification of a reappointment that carries with it tenure and have six years of service at the College are eligible to apply for a sabbatical leave. The College's newly revised sabbatical plan offers a semester's leave after six semesters of full-time teaching or a year's leave after twelve semesters of full-time teaching. Further details are available in the Faculty Handbook .
Funds are available to support research activities, course development and certain types of professional travel; consult the Provost's website.
Academic and other Support Services
The College's teaching and research mission are supported by the Department of Information Services, which includes Libraries, Computing Services, the Language Learning Center, the Audio-Visual department, and the Digital Media and Visual Resource Center. The Libraries are open-stack facilities, housing more than one million volumes in four locations. Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges share an on-line automated library system, providing access to over two million holdings at the three colleges and employing user-friendly searching from terminals in the libraries or through office desktop computers via the colleges' LANs. Links to these services are available via the Provost's website.
The Diversity Leadership Group represents the interests of members of the community from minority groups. Furthermore, a number of formal and informal tri-college groups enhance and support the curricular and extracurricular programs and interests of members of the community from minority groups.
Other Information
Bryn Mawr is located eleven miles west of Philadelphia. The Bryn Mawr College campus comprises some 136 acres and some 57 buildings, including 15 student residences. Almost all undergraduates live on campus; most of our student rooms are networked, and plans are in place to extend the network for student residential spaces. Ten of our buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places; one is also a National Historic Landmark.
The College's educational and general budget for the current year is $83,347,000. Tuition and fees account for more than 33% of income, endowment another 28%. Undergraduate tuition for the current year is $29,570; room and board $10,080. We estimate that 51% of the cost of educating a student is covered by tuition. As of May 31, 2005 the market value of the endowment was $495,210,000.