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 The mission statement feels more like a recruiting tool, stating how wonderful BMC already is. Out of three paragraphs only two sentences apply to what BMC aspires to be in the future. "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." and "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." The mission statement is too long and isn't actually a mission statement, only these two sentences. Therefor I will only count these two sentences as the mission statement. [Also I want to point out that on the mission statement there is a picture of a faculty member, not a student.]

In this mission statement the phrase pertaining to curriculum and academics is "provide a rigorous education" and "encourage the pursuit of knowledge as preparation for life and work. " I think all classes strive to provide a rigorous education with or without divisional requirements, so this is irrelevant while talking about them. I think what is relevant is the "pursuit of knowledge". Karen Tidmarsh talked in class how she and her committees wanted students to explore different fields besides what they took senior year of high school, or in other words, pursue. For Karen and her colleagues, the best way to enable this pursuit is to guide what courses people take through requirements. For others though, requirements may hinder students ability to take what the actually want to pursue, instead of what they need to "get over with."

I think the new divisional requirements are pretty much the same as the old ones. They sound more interesting though and seem to have decided that they have a point, so I think the school should adapt them. The divisional requirements now just seem to be there because they "have" to. The new ones now have a reason to exist.