Message from Interim President Dr. Richard Kneedler

Dear friends:

Rockford College pledges to offer students a practical education grounded in the liberal arts. I can think of no better example of this than the Community Based Learning (CBL) courses taking place on our campus and throughout Rockford. CBL is our principal strategy for engaging our neighbors in a proactive way, as we work to achieve our goal to be “Jane Addams' College for the 21st Century.”

Miss Addams cautioned in her book “Twenty Years at Hull House” against what she called “the snare of preparation.” I understand this caution, in part, as a warning about stagnant learning environments, where young adults go to college filled with enthusiasm and ambition only to sit in classrooms for four years as their idealistic aspirations are drowned in dated and overly technical “preparation” for a world that will have disappeared before they graduate. The liberal arts tradition avoids this snare, in part, because its intellectual underpinnings are timeless. CBL complements that foundational work of the classroom and seminar with timely and dynamic learning opportunities outside of the classroom. CBL, critically, allows Rockford College's students apply the insights of the liberal arts in worthwhile work for community organizations as they accumulate invaluable, practical experience that will provide them tools for use during the rest of their lives.

We are excited about the relationships we have built with agencies in the community and we plan to reach out and build more. Thank you for taking the time to learn about Community Based Learning. We are proud that the College holds the ideal of engagement as a top priority and we look forward to your personal involvement in the ongoing challenge of making that ideal an educational and social reality.

Dr. Richard Kneedler
Interim President
Rockford College