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IDS Mission and Purpose


The mission of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program is for students to develop coherent and rigorous personal degree plans which address broad or complex questions by integrating multiple intellectual traditions.


Today’s world challenges or opportunities are frequently too broad or complex to be dealt with adequately by a single discipline.   Interdisciplinarians draw from the tools, approaches, and insights of relevant academic and professional disciplines to critically evaluate problems, and then work cooperatively across disciplinary boundaries to address them in a way that is useful, purposeful, and comprehensive.