About Purdue University Fort Wayne

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• About this catalog
• About the University
• Baccalaureate Framework
• Purdue University Fort Wayne Office Directory
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  • Helmke Library Hours (fall/spring)

About the Catalog

The online catalog gives you information about the university’s undergraduate programs, including courses, rules, and faculty of Purdue University Fort Wayne. Information about Purdue Fort Wayne’s graduate programs appears in a separate publication, the Purdue University Fort Wayne Graduate Catalog.

Use the information in this catalog to help make important choices about your education. Familiarize yourself with the many important services the university provides. Since the catalog is your primary resource for making decisions about a Purdue Fort Wayne education, it is important for you to refer to it throughout your time at the university.

Changes to this catalog occur as needs arise. Changes in rules and procedures generally become effective at the time of publishing. Also, new or changed academic program requirements may provide you with additional options. Because of this, you should review statements on the university’s services, policies, programs, and courses in each new edition of the catalog published while you are a student.

When you enter a degree or certificate program, you will have to fulfill the requirements published in the catalog (or its supplement or departmental regulation) that are current at the time of your most recent entry or reentry into the university. Only with the written acknowledgment of your academic advisor can you elect to fulfill the requirements in any subsequent catalog or supplement. Your academic advisor can assist you with this choice and ensure that such changes are officially recorded. (See Degrees in Regulations.)

NOTE: The information in this catalog is subject to change without notice. Actions by federal and state governments and the boards of trustees, administration, and faculty of the universities may produce such changes.

About the University

As the largest university in northeast Indiana and one of only two Metropolitan Universities in the state, Purdue University Fort Wayne serves as a crossroads of intellectual, social, economic, and cultural advancement.

More than 8,300 degree-seeking students of diverse ages, ethnicities, and nationalities pursue their education here. Over half are the first in their family to attend college and 15 percent come from underrepresented populations. Nearly three quarters of the student body receives some form of financial assistance to achieve their academic and career goals.

Purdue Fort Wayne students engage with challenging academics and hands-on experience in research, scholarship, and creative expression. Students enjoy unique opportunities to work directly with nearly 350 full-time faculty, earning Purdue University degrees and certificates recognized around the world for their value and prestige.

We have a commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and service. The university takes advantage of the latest technologies in order to enhance information exchange, classroom instruction, research, and communications, and we carry traditions of distinction in humanities, the arts, social sciences, engineering, technology, and computer science.

Purdue Fort Wayne provides an excellent education through academic diversity, flexibility, and affordability. You have access to superior research, academic, and extracurricular pursuits. The university commits every day to the continued educational, economic, and cultural development of northeast Indiana and beyond.

We offer undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as certificate options. Additionally, we have students who pursue noncredit continuing-education courses. While our diverse student body continues to grow, our average class size remains one of the smallest among Indiana public universities.

Each graduating class builds on more than 50 years of proud university history, with graduates taking their place in a growing alumni network of 59,000 fellow Mastodons. A majority of those alumni live and work in northeast Indiana, supporting successive generations of graduates and contributing to the region’s economy, vitality, and intellectual strength.

Purdue Fort Wayne is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Various schools, divisions, and programs have earned additional accreditation through professional societies.

History

Purdue Fort Wayne steadily evolved since the initial merger of the Indiana University and Purdue University regional campuses, in 1964. A gift of additional land by a consortium of local donors increased the size of the campus to 662 acres, including land on the east and west banks of the St. Joseph River. Physically, the university grew from a single building to a multicampus community cornerstone, offering an unparalleled range of educational and cultural opportunities.

Academic Programs

You will find your degree or certificate program of choice in one of our five colleges—Arts and Sciences; the Richard T. Doermer School of Business; Professional Studies; Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science; and Visual and Performing Arts—or one division, Continuing Studies, which offers credit and noncredit programs throughout northeast Indiana in cooperation with degree-granting schools and divisions. You also may choose to participate in our Military Science program (ROTC).

You will benefit from a constructive relationship between teaching and research. Most of our faculty members devote 25 percent of their effort to research, and they regularly acquire support for creative endeavors in the form of external grants and contracts. Some faculty members receive support from internally funded summer fellowships and grants-in-aid, and additional support is available through the Purdue system. Research activities reflect the research mission of Purdue University. However, projects tend to involve individuals or small groups of researchers rather than large staffs and facilities, and we place special emphasis on studies directly related to regional needs and interests. The university encourages faculty members to involve undergraduate students in research projects.

Core Mission

The core mission of the university is to provide quality postsecondary education in northeast Indiana by focusing on student learning while fostering intellectual exploration and attainment, and serving the region.

Goals

Our long-range goals include continued improvement of academic programs, expanded faculty-development programs, enhanced library collections and services, increased university and external support for research, attraction and retention of a more diverse student body, expansion of graduate programs to serve regional needs, active support for regional economic-development programs, and greater integration with the economic and cultural communities of the region.

Purdue Fort Wayne has grown without sacrificing its commitment to faculty-student interaction. Quality of teaching continues to be a major criterion for faculty compensation and promotion-and-tenure decisions, and we recognize this quality through awards for distinguished teaching. To attract and retain outstanding teachers, which, in turn, leads to outstanding students, the university continues its effort to provide competitive levels of faculty compensation.

We also sustain and enhance the support of faculty research and will expand opportunities for students to participate in research projects. The university promotes the use of technology as a feature of university education across the curriculum.

Purdue Fort Wayne has a commitment to preparing you for productive lives in a multicultural, changing world. We also give special attention to bringing a university education to nontraditional students. We will expand efforts to increase matriculation and retention of minority students, and, in a related effort, to hire and retain minority faculty.

The university continues to build programs—including those intended for students of outstanding ability—of academic support for all students. Because the diversity of the student body and staff is an essential component of the university experience, we intend to attract a somewhat larger number of students from outside the region.

Purdue Fort Wayne—to your benefit—plays an important role in the cultural and economic life of northeast Indiana. We continue to encourage faculty community service. The university maintains and expects to strengthen relationships with community arts organizations and seeks additional opportunities to serve as a vital resource for business, industry, public and private education, and government in northeast Indiana. Retraining of the workforce and response to changes in the economy will be important priorities in years to come, as will efforts to improve services for an increasingly diverse student body. The university seeks to organize its efforts and relationships with Purdue in ways that will enhance its ability to anticipate and respond to regional needs. The continued development of the campus, with community support engendered by this development, will allow us to meet the increasing demand for higher education in northeast Indiana.

Assessment of Student Learning

The university has a commitment to providing quality education and to assuring that you gain the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful. Assessment of student learning provides the information we need to make improvements in program structure, course content, and pedagogy. To this end, we collect information at the classroom, department, and institution levels. For example, we may ask you to submit examples of your course work and to engage in focus groups. We may also ask you to complete questionnaires assessing the quality of academic services. These activities help us determine the extent to which students demonstrate competency in the baccalaureate-framework areas, in their major fields of study, and in general education.

Statements on Diversity

In 1994, former Chancellor Michael Wartell established the following campus statement on diversity:

Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne recognizes, affirms, and celebrates the diversity in its campus, local, state, and national communities. Each member of these communities represents varied and different cultures and attributes simultaneously, yet because of these differences, many have been systematically excluded from full, fair, and respected participation in higher education. Therefore, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne seeks to demonstrate through its curriculum, support systems, and policies that it values these differences, creating and maintaining a campus environment that welcomes diverse characteristics, backgrounds, and experiences, and identifying such diversity as a vital source of the intellectual, social, and personal growth essential to a university education.

To implement the above statement, Chancellor Wartell appointed the campus Diversity Council, which, in 1995, published the following definition of diversity:

The Diversity Council is committed to creating an environment that enhances learning by recognizing the inherent worth of all individuals at the university. It is our conviction that diversity stimulates creativity, promotes the exchange of ideas, and enriches campus life. Diversity involves the differences among individuals that reflect the cultures from which the university draws strength, including, but not necessarily limited to, differences of race, ethnicity, color, gender, sexual orientation, class, age, and disabilities, as well as political and religious affiliation, and socioeconomic status increasing demand for higher education in northeast Indiana.

Baccalaureate Framework

Students who earn a baccalaureate degree at Purdue University Fort Wayne will be able to apply their knowledge to the needs of an increasingly diverse, complex, and dynamic world. To that end, Purdue Fort Wayne continually develops and enhances curricula and educational experiences that provide all students with a holistic and integrative education.

The Framework

The Purdue University Fort Wayne faculty has identified six foundations of baccalaureate education.

Acquisition of Knowledge

Students will demonstrate breadth of knowledge across disciplines and depth of knowledge in their chosen discipline. In order to do so, students must demonstrate the requisite information- seeking skills and technological competencies.

Application of Knowledge

Students will demonstrate the ability to integrate and apply that knowledge, and, in so doing, demonstrate the skills necessary for life-long learning.

Personal and Professional Values

Students will demonstrate the highest levels of personal integrity and professional ethics.

A Sense of Community

Students will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to be productive and responsible citizens and leaders in local, regional, national, and international communities. In so doing, students will demonstrate a commitment to free and open inquiry and mutual respect across multiple cultures and perspectives.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Students will demonstrate facility and adaptability in their approach to problem solving. In so doing, students will demonstrate critical-thinking abilities and familiarity with quantitative and qualitative reasoning.

Communication

Students will demonstrate the written, oral, and multimedia skills necessary to communicate effectively in diverse settings.

These foundations provide the framework for all baccalaureate degree programs. The foundations are interdependent, with each one contributing to the integrative and holistic education offered at Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Approved by the Purdue University Fort Wayne Faculty Senate April 10, 2006

Purdue University Fort Wayne Office Directory