ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

 To help men and women become all God intends them to be through an excellent learning experience that promotes intellectual inquiry, fosters spiritual maturity, equips for service, and mobilizes leaders whose lives transform their world through faith, knowledge, love and hope as they serve Jesus Christ and others.

Since its founding by The Wesleyan Church in 1906, Southern Wesleyan University has been a Christian community of learners that recognizes God as the source of all truth and wisdom. The university seeks to create an atmosphere in which members of the community work together toward wholeness by seeking to integrate faith, learning, and daily life.

Located in Central, South Carolina, the university is a half-way point between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia. It is thirty minutes from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and ten minutes from Clemson University, with whom it shares some cooperative programs. Southern Wesleyan welcomes persons with a wide variety of backgrounds and abilities. Younger and older, undergraduate and graduate, residential and commuting, and traditional and non-traditional students work and interact with a faculty guided by a Christian understanding of the liberal arts.

The university evolved from a small Bible institute and its first charter as Wesleyan Methodist College in 1909 into a four-year, private, liberal arts college, regionally accredited in 1973. Historically, the founders of the college understood linguistic, quantitative, and analytical skills to be the foundation of a liberal arts education. Further, they believed that the cultivation of this curriculum within the context of faith, worship, studies in religion, and service to others created a fertile soil for intellectual and spiritual growth. Thus, the college ensured that every student would be well grounded in these areas by developing a general education curriculum of liberal arts studies. That tradition is alive today. All undergraduate programs—traditional and non-traditional—contain a core curriculum in the liberal arts.

As a ministry of The Wesleyan Church and in service to the global Church, Southern Wesleyan prepares students for graduate study and leadership in such fields as religion, education, music, business, medicine, law, and a variety of civic and social service professions. Graduate programs are offered in fields in which the university has demonstrated particular strengths—religion, education and business. Although the university serves the Southeast, the student population is a wholesome blending of cultural, ethnic and regional diversity drawn from the entire United States and the international community encouraging broader understanding and development of Christian values.

Ideal graduates of Southern Wesleyan have a healthy respect for themselves and others as bearers of God’s image. Their respect encourages care for personal and social health—mentally, physically, and spiritually. They seek a biblical social awareness that cares for people and their environment. Through the completion of courses in world history, culture, and the arts (in traditional and non-traditional classes and in international settings), they are prepared to serve society with respect for the past and a vision for the future. Southern Wesleyan graduates are prepared to confront a rapidly changing world with skills in communication, information processing, analysis, synthesis, and problem-solving.

DOCTRINAL STATEMENT

We Believe:

The Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.  We do understand the books of the Old and New Testaments to constitute the Holy Scriptures.  These Scriptures we hold to be the inspired and infallibly written Word of God, fully inerrant in their original manuscripts and superior to all human authority.

That there is one God, eternally self-existent, and in the Unity of this Godhead there are three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

That Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, very God and very man; and the only and sufficient mediator between God and man, who by the sacrifice of Himself provides atonement for the whole human race, and that whosoever believeth in Him shall be saved.

That man was created in the image of God, but through transgression fell from that holy state, incurred spiritual death, became depraved, and is inclined to do evil and that continually.  But by the grace of God working in man and with man, he may by faith in the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be justified and regenerated in nature, so that he is delivered from the power of sin and thus through the grace of God enabled to love and serve Him with the will and affections of the heart.  All who reject the grace of God are lost.

That the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, the Executive of the Godhead, whose mission is to reveal Christ to man and to administer the Estate of Grace to all who truly believe; and that His special mission to the believer is to cleanse the heart from all sin, whether inherited or acquired, thus enabling him to love God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself.

That Jesus Christ rose from the dead, appeared on earth in a glorified bodily form; that He ascended to the right hand of God to occupy the Mediatorial Throne; that He will return to earth at God's appointed time; and that the blessed hope of His return is a powerful incentive to holy living and to world evangelism.

That there is a conscious existence after death, everlasting happiness for the saved, and everlasting woe for the lost.

Southern Wesleyan UniversityLearning Outcomes

 The learning community at Southern Wesleyan University fosters in participants

• biblically informed personal wholeness reflected in healthy, growth-enhancing relationships with God, themselves, and others;

• the ability to participate articulately in the significant conversations of the human race from a well-informed, reasonable, and distinctively Christian perspective; and 

• the ability to effect positive change through skillful, values-driven engagement with their world.

 Such that graduates . . .

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  1. Bear witness to a deepening relationship with God through Christ reflected in integrity of thought, affection, and action.

  2. Have established lifestyle habits that facilitate ongoing growth intellectually, spiritually, physically, socially and emotionally.

  3. Approach issues of both a theoretical and practical nature from a consistently biblical perspective, tempered by awareness of personal biases and divergent views.

  4. Lead positive change by seeking justice for, reconciliation with, and service to others in a manner that reflects understanding of social dynamics.

  5. Recognize and value truth and beauty in themselves and their surroundings as reflections of the Creator.

  6. Critically and creatively construct their own well-reasoned perspectives in discussing current trends, ideas and events, drawing on understanding of the breadth of human knowledge.

  7. Demonstrate skill in listening, reading, scholarship, writing, public speaking and the use of technology.

  8. Solve problems effectively using scientific research, critical thinking, and creativity.

  9. Work collaboratively in diverse cultural groups to achieve positive results.

  10. Master professional or discipline-specific knowledge and skills sufficient to be productive in the field to which they are called.