Mission Statement
Engaging the Culture, Changing the World
Faith and Mission
Our Educational Philosophy
Our Christian Community
Our Location
History
Traditions
Accreditation and Affiliation
Resources for Learning

“Seattle Pacific University seeks to be a premier Christian University fully committed to engaging the culture and changing the world by graduating people of competence and character, becoming people of wisdom and modeling grace-filled community.”
– Mission Statement Seattle Pacific University

ENGAGING THE CULTURE, CHANGING THE WORLD
With a long and distinguished history in Christian higher education, Seattle Pacific University entered the new century positioned to engage the culture and influence the world for good. At a time when the legacy of the secularized modern university is under scrutiny, Seattle Pacific provides nearly 3,800 students with a highquality, comprehensive education grounded on the gospel of Jesus Christ. This combination of vital scholarship and thoughtful faith is a powerful one that brings about lasting change in the lives of our graduates, and in the people and communities they serve.

Located just minutes from downtown Seattle, the leading urban center in the Pacific Northwest, SPU is committed to engaging and serving in the modern city, cultivating a global consciousness, supporting the church, and addressing the crisis of meaning in our culture. These, we believe, will be some of the Christian university’s most important contributions in this century.

Guiding the work of Seattle Pacific University are these three preeminent goals:

We seek to graduate people of competence and character. At SPU, each student is profoundly important. We focus our curriculum and resources on shaping graduates who will be effective and positive change agents in the world. This means that we work to prepare individuals who understand their own giftedness, who are both liberally educated and skilled in their chosen field, who exhibit honesty and integrity, and who value serving others.

We seek to become people of wisdom. As a university, SPU believes that one vital means of transforming lives is through ideas: ideas that matter; ideas that can bring light and understanding where there is darkness and confusion; and ideas that lead to wisdom. We support our faculty in the pursuit of this kind of scholarship, and we educate our students to become thinking Christians who are able to speak clearly and intelligently about their convictions.

We seek to model a grace-filled community. As we serve our students and commit ourselves to the life of the mind, we believe our best work is done in community. In our life together at Seattle Pacific, we strive to treat each other and all people with respect, kindness and care. Recognizing and respecting differences among individuals, our goal is to become examples of grace, forgiveness, and civility in a culture that is too often polarized and contentious.
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FAITH AND MISSION
At Seattle Pacific University, we seek to ground everything we do on the transforming gospel of Jesus Christ. Such a claim is both personal, a commitment by each member of our community, and institutional, a corporate aspiration that has guided this institution from its founding. Even while we celebrate the rich diversity of the church throughout the world, we anchor our faith on the person of Jesus Christ, the authority of holy Scripture, and the tradition of the Christian church throughout history.

Our mission at Seattle Pacific University is to engage the culture and change the world, through competence, character, wisdom, and community. We believe our faith in Jesus Christ is the informing and sustaining power through which we fulfill this distinctive calling.

Our position of faith within the Christian Church is shaped in four ways:

1. We Are Historically Orthodox.
We affirm the historic Christian faith, as attested in the divinely inspired and authoritative Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and as summarized, for example, in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. We affirm that God is triune, and that the three divine Persons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — are coequal, coessential, and coeternal. We affirm that by the grace and power of God, the universe was brought into being, is continually sustained and governed, and will ultimately be brought to its promised consummation. We affirm, further, that we human beings are created by God in God’s own image to be stewards of creation, and that we are called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others as ourselves. In these divinely appointed tasks we have failed, so that we are now subject to judgment and death. Yet we rejoice that God’s grace is available to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and that through faith in Christ we are delivered from sin and death and empowered by the Holy Spirit for lives of joyful obedience to the Father. Finally, we respond to the Spirit’s call to participate in Christ’s body, the Church; to embrace Christ’s mission to the world; and to live in the hope and assurance that Christ’s return will bring to completion God’s saving work.

2. We Are Clearly Evangelical.
We stand within the broad evangelical tradition of Christianity and, as such, we joyfully accept the task of proclaiming the evangel — God’s good news — to the world. We understand this to mean that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior of the world and that he alone can liberate broken and fallen human beings from sin and death. We lift high the authority of holy Scripture as divinely inspired, embraced by the Church as central to our understanding and witness. We affirm that the Holy Spirit works in human hearts to kindle faith in Jesus Christ, to restore people to a right relationship with God and each other, and to begin transforming people into the likeness of Christ. And we believe the gospel promise that light, health, wholeness, and peace are abundantly available to everyone who asks. Yet we also believe that we are called to practice what we preach: first, by cultivating vital Christian piety; and second, by engaging the surrounding culture through public testimony and loving service.

3. We Are Distinctively Wesleyan.
Standing within the Wesleyan holiness branch of historic and evangelical Christianity, and recognizing the Free Methodist Church as our founding denomination, Seattle Pacific University is informed by the theological legacy of John and Charles Wesley. We share their conviction that God’s saving purpose is the renewal of human hearts and lives in true holiness through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. We are shaped by their emphasis on the importance of the human response to the Spirit’s renewing work, including the vital role of the spiritual disciplines and practices — such as prayer, meditation, worship, Scripture study, charitable giving, public witness to Christ’s saving love, and service to those in need — all of which serve as means of God’s grace. Above all, we embrace the Wesleys’ hope that God’s transforming love is offered to all persons, addresses all areas of life, and will not rest content until it has redeemed the whole creation.

4. We Are Genuinely Ecumenical.
As heirs of John Wesley’s catholic-spirited Christianity, we seek to gather persons from many theological and ecclesial traditions who have experienced the transforming power of Jesus Christ. We believe that theological diversity, when grounded in historic orthodoxy and a common and vital faith in Christ, enriches learning and bears witness to our Lord’s call for unity within the church. We are also well aware of other dividing walls that separate people from one another, walls that Christ desires to break down — walls of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, and class. We believe that Christ calls us to value diversity and to seek ways for all persons in our University community to grow in their individual giftedness and to contribute in meaningful ways to our common life and work. Thus, in all of our diversity, we are centered in Christ, and called by him to shape, model, and participate together in grace-filled community.

Therefore, we commit ourselves to this faith, and to these shaping influences that define our community of faith, and we pledge ourselves, with humility and conviction, to live as best we know how in loving relationship with Jesus Christ and in faithful service to others. This we believe to be the defining center of our lives and the guiding aspiration of our life in community at Seattle Pacific University.

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OUR EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

A Vital Learning Community
We are a Christian university that prizes learning and seeks to be a vibrant learning community that grounds its intellectual activity in learning theory. Our faculty and staff are committed learners and are committed to mentoring learners. We are convinced that the best learning occurs within a relational context of the teacher, student, and subject matter, and we therefore prize the relationships between faculty, staff, and students.

We are committed to learning for cultural engagement. We seek to rigorously investigate the critical issues of our time and to offer thoughtful and Christian insight to these issues. We believe these issues can be investigated through a variety of academic disciplines; however, they cannot be fully understood through only one discipline. Therefore we are committed to interdisciplinary learning — learning that explores these critical issues through several disciplinary lenses in order to come to a clear view of the issue.

We are a learning community and all that we do is intended to support learning. Therefore our work with student life, residence life, student leadership, campus ministries, athletics, lectures, and symposia are all intended to contribute to learning along with the curriculum.

An Integrated Curriculum
As a comprehensive university, we offer learning opportunities in the humanities, arts, sciences, and professions and all of our programs are grounded in the liberal arts. The liberal arts include particular content areas but also imply a style of education that seeks to develop critical thinking, analytical thinking, and communication skills.

Research indicates that students do not see the connections between general education, majors, and their future. Through a three-part curriculum, we seek to integrate general education with the major in ways that help students make the connections.

We begin with a commitment to a very distinctive Christian Common Curriculum. In the first quarter of their freshman year, SPU students are enrolled in University Seminar, an intensive exploration of a special interdisciplinary topic. Twenty to 25 students enroll in each course to form a cohort and attend other freshman classes in the Common Curriculum together. Their University Seminar professor serves as their first-year academic advisor. The relationship between students in the cohort and their professor are intentional and support our belief that the best learning occurs within a relational context.

In their freshman, sophomore, and junior years at Seattle Pacific, students participate in two parallel sequences of required courses. Cumulative and developmental in nature, these classes are designed to support and enhance students’ learning in the majors.

The University Core sequence explores key human questions in three classes titled Character and Community; The West and the World; and Belief, Morality, and the Modern Mind. The University Foundations sequence looks at the basics of faith in Christian Formation; Christian Scriptures; and Christian Theology. A capstone senior course in the student’s major adds application and personal calling to the picture.

Learning Outcomes
Our learning outcomes are our educational goals for our students and are directly derived from our University’s mission statement. Following are the outcomes we seek for our undergraduate students:

Competence
SPU graduates will articulate discipline specific knowledge and apply essential skills enlivened by the liberal arts.

• Demonstrates knowledge of Christian narrative and beliefs.
• Demonstrates knowledge in disciplinary field.
• Integrates liberal arts and disciplinary knowledge.
• Applies knowledge, inquiry, and critical-thinking skills in problem solving.
• Demonstrates a global perspective.
• Communicates effectively.

Model Grace-Filled Community
SPU graduates will cultivate a life of friendship, civility, and community through responsible discourse and respect for each other.

• Demonstrates interpersonal skills necessary for effective personal and professional relationships.
• Engages with diverse others.

Character Formation
SPU graduates will embody personal and professional integrity by serving the public good in doing what is right and doing so with an awareness of consequences.

• Reflects upon ideas and actions through the lens of Christian faith and ethics.
• Balances interests of self, others, and the community in pursuit of the common good.

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OUR CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

Christian Faith Exploration

Vision
Study in a Christian university provides a unique opportunity to explore answers to life’s ultimate questions. While honoring the diversity of the members of our campus community, Seattle Pacific University embraces the commitment that all faculty, staff, and students will explore the meaning and implications of the Christian faith for our academic disciplines, our personal and corporate lives, and for the complex issues we face in our society and world. This involves the integration of academic programs, residential and campus life, personal and corporate reflection, co-curricular activities, and community service. Programs seek to contribute to our vision to be a grace-filled community that nurtures people of competence and character, cultivates the scholarship of wisdom, and equips people to engage our culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Commitment
Our campus community is enriched by the diverse faith traditions within our student body, and is therefore committed to honoring and respecting these traditions. We are also committed to the lifetransforming gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we seek to do the following:

• Develop outstanding curricular and co-curricular Christian faith exploration and discipleship programs that contribute to the fulfillment of our mission and vision as a Christian university.
• Give all students the opportunity to explore the meaning and implications of the Christian faith while at the same time honoring the diversity of our student body.
• Encourage students’ responsibility for their own spiritual accountability.
• Provide abundant opportunities for the development of an informed and thoughtful faith, a vibrant worship life, engagement in a grace-filled community life, holistic discipleship, and culture-engaging local and global service.
• Facilitate students’ growth in leadership abilities through student-led programs.

Program Opportunities

All-Campus Convocations
All-campus convocations are a rich and vibrant tradition at Seattle Pacific University. Beginning with Opening Convocation at the start of the academic year and extending to Honors Convocation in the spring, these events provide an opportunity to celebrate together as a community and to reflect together around common themes and issues.

Worship
Worship is a vital component of our life as a grace-filled Christian academic community. Though participation in worship services is not required, and students are encouraged to participate in churches from their own traditions, a broad variety of opportunities are available on campus. Corporate worship provides the opportunity for our community to worship together; to grow in our understanding and appreciation of the rich variety of Christian worship traditions; and, through faculty and guest speakers, to provide opportunities for growth in discipleship, leadership, and service.

Students, faculty and staff can participate in different weekly worship services, including:

• Morning Chapel. A worship service using various worship styles, usually led by the student Chapel Worship Team, with outstanding faculty and guest speakers.
• group. A late-night, celebrative, student-led worship service.
• Morning Prayer and Communion. An early morning liturgical service of prayer and Holy Communion.

In addition, semi-silent, guided Reflection Retreats are occasionally offered to students and staff. These retreats provide the opportunity for personal reflection and worship, or workshops on issues of faith, personhood, and community.

Faith/Learning Forums
In addition to regular discussions incorporated into classes, faculty and students frequently lead weekly Faith/Learning Forums that address various contemporary topics from the perspective of the Christian faith.

Small-Group Fellowship and Discussions
One of the distinct resources provided by Seattle Pacific University is the opportunity to meet in small groups of students, staff, and faculty for discussion, fellowship, and discipleship. These take many forms:

• Cadres. Faculty and staff lead more than 30 discussion groups each week with students. Some explore insights the Christian faith brings to contemporary issues; others gather around a particular interest of the participants. Many of these groups meet within specific academic departments and examine in depth the relationship of the Christian faith, academic disciplines, and vocations.
• Hall Fellowships and SMC-Led Studies. More than 40 student ministry coordinators (SMCs) serve in the residence halls to provide support and encouragement. The SMCs lead a prayer or Bible study group on each floor of the residence halls.
• Sharpen. The Sharpen ministry facilitates discipleship group and mentoring relationships for off-campus and campusapartment residents.

Local Community Service
Service is basic to leadership, life in society, and Christian discipleship. Therefore, all students are expected to engage in community service. This can be done in many different ways:

• Leadership in campus-based organizations
• Participation on one of SPU’s 13 different student-led Urban Involvement teams through which students tutor children, staff homeless shelters, visit with people in nursing homes, or provide recreational activities for people with physical and developmental disabilities
• Leadership in a church group
• Leadership in a parachurch ministry
• Involvement in Urban Plunge, a simulated experience of homelessness
• Participation in the Refugee Project, a World Relief program exploring the refugee experience
• Service through Latreia, a referral resource that provides immediate care for individuals and organizations requiring special assistance
• Participation in Service Learning Projects organized as part of a student’s courses or academic program

Global Community Service
SPRINT (Seattle Pacific Reach Out International) is a student-led program to encourage cross-cultural education, service, and global awareness. During academic breaks, more than 15 teams of students engage in cross-cultural service-learning programs across the United States in inner cities and in over a dozen countries, typically including locations such as Honduras, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Ireland, Jackson, Nampa, Los Angeles, Malawi, China, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Russia. Prior to departure, students receive training (summer team members participate in a Spring Quarter course), and upon return participate in extensive debriefing and reflection.

SPRINT Beyond offers individual service-learning opportunities for students who desire an experience focused around their discipline. Usually a SPRINT Beyond experience is set up with the SPRINT advisor and a faculty advisor. The student is responsible to propose the location, the host, and the type of work. For more information, contact the SPRINT advisor at (206) 281-2258.

SPRINT for Credit is a program that moves students out of the classroom and into the real world. By joining a SPRINT for Credit team, students can earn academic credit in a cross-cultural context. SPRINT for Credit is usually organized collaboratively by a faculty member who is passionate about teaching in a service-learning setting in conjunction with SPRINT. The faculty member works with the SPRINT coordinator and the SPRINT advisor to arrange a trip with specific educational and ministry goals. Students who are accepted on a SPRINT for Credit team participate in SPRINT training and debriefing meetings, and they register for credit through SPU’s registration office. In the past, SPRINT has sent trips with many different foci, including an engineering trip to Dominican Republic, a global and urban ministry trip to Nicaragua, a sociology trip to Brazil, and nursing trips to Honduras and Costa Rica.

These programs provide all students with abundant opportunities to grow in their understanding of the Christian faith and its implications for our life and world.
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Christian Faith Exploration Requirement
To promote the University’s commitment that all students will explore the relationship of the Christian faith to academic disciplines, life and society, and to provide opportunities for corporate worship and growth in discipleship and leadership, the University maintains a mandatory Christian Faith Exploration (CFE) requirement. Though students are not required to worship or profess a particular faith, all students do select programs to further their own understanding and growth.

Each quarter, students will design their own CFE plan outlining their intended involvement. A student’s signature on the application for admission signifies the acceptance of these educational expectations and the agreement to fulfill this requirement. Specifically:

• All undergraduate students enrolled in 12 credits or more are required to participate in 15 hours per quarter of co-curricular activities exploring the meaning of the Christian faith and its implications for life, academic disciplines, and society.
• Ten of the 15 hours per quarter will be spent in campus-based faith exploration activities such as chapel, group, and other worship services; and/or nonworship-based programs such as faculty- and staff-led discussion groups (cadres) and campus forums on contemporary issues. The 10 CFE campusbased events each quarter must include two community events.
• Five hours per quarter will be spent in community service.
• Students may petition for a reduction in the requirement due to special circumstances.
• Participation is on an honor basis, and students will monitor their own attendance. Students will record their participation electronically and submit a quarterly CFE Reflection Report.
• Students who do not submit their CFE Reflection Report will have a hold placed on their registration.

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Summary of the Requirement
CFE Campus-Based Events. For a list of the specific events that fulfill the 10 CFE campus-based requirements, go to www.spu.edu/depts/ocm/campusevents.asp.

Community Service. Full-time undergraduate students are required to participate in five hours of community service per quarter.

Detailed descriptions of all aspects of the requirement and of all program opportunities are available through the Office of Campus Ministries. The University reserves the right to alter these requirements and programs as deemed appropriate..
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OUR LOCATION

Urban Center
Seattle Pacific University’s location in a thriving, world-class city is a tremendous asset for students. Seattle is a major trade center, popular tourist destination, and gateway to Canada and the Pacific Rim. The city is surrounded, by water and mountains, making seagulls, bridges, ferryboats, and snow-capped peaks part of everyday life.

The region is also home to corporate giants such as Microsoft, Boeing, and Nintendo, as well as home to the headquarters of World Relief and WorldVision, and site of the renowned Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. A strong multicultural flavor is the result of business ties and exchanges with nations including Japan, Korea, and Russia.

Known as an “arts” town, Seattle has the highest live-theatre attendance per capita of any major city. It is also the only Northwest city to field teams in all three major league sports: the Seattle Sonics, regular NBA playoff contenders; the Seattle Mariners, American League West baseball pennant winners; and the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.

Combining classroom education with practical experience is often the best way to master a discipline – and Seattle’s urban opportunities offer students that critical link. As part of their educational program, many SPU students work 10 to 20 hours per week for a wide array of businesses and organizations such as Microsoft, Boeing, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, KING TV, the Empty Space Theatre, the State Attorney General’s Office, the Seattle Opera, The Children’s Project, and elsewhere.
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Pacific Northwest
Because of its natural assets, the Pacific Northwest offers unparalleled recreational opportunities: hiking, skiing, boating, fishing, and scuba diving, to name a few. One of the most popular ways to tour the 2,000 miles of Puget Sound shoreline is by ferryboat. And day trips from campus can lead you to waterfalls, ice caves, steam trains, totem poles, tide pools, and floating bridges.

At SPU’s two island campuses, the beauty of the Pacific Northwest provides rest and research possibilities. At seaside Camp Casey on Whidbey Island, retreats and workshops are conducted in the rustic setting of a former military fort. On a 965-acre environmental preserve on Blakely Island, students study life above and below the sea.

OUR HISTORY
In 1891, delegates to the Oregon and Washington Conference of the Free Methodist Church voted to establish a school in Seattle where students would be educated and trained for missionary service by teachers whose lives represented the highest in Christian values. Nils Peterson, a homesteader living on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill, deeded five acres of his property to begin what would be called Seattle Seminary. Hiram Pease, another Queen Anne resident, volunteered most of the capital and much hard work to erect the school’s first structure, the four-story “red brick building” later to be named Alexander Hall after the school’s first principal (and later president) Alexander Beers.

Seattle Seminary opened with two faculty members, Alexander Beers and his wife, Adelaide. In the first term of operation, the seminary registered 34 students in a college preparatory curriculum that included primary and intermediate grades. In 1905, a new administration building was added, later named Peterson Hall after founder Nils Peterson. College-level courses for freshmen entered the curriculum in 1910, and the school’s name was expanded to “The Seattle Seminary and College” in 1913. Two years later the name was changed again to Seattle Pacific College, with five students comprising SPC’s first graduating class.

In the 1920s, the College established a normal school for teacher training. During this time, the College began to look beyond its campus into the city to communicate its programs to a wider audience, anticipating its role as a liberal arts college. Enrollment climbed from 40 to more than 400.

Efforts to raise the standards and stature of the College were the focus of the 1930s. The first summer school program opened in 1931, and SPC’s three-year normal school was accredited in 1933. Full accreditation of the College’s four-year liberal arts program came in 1936 by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.

Following World War II, the College grew from about 400 students to 1,400. In 1949, a School of Recreational Leadership was launched, paving the way for increased physical education programs and ultimately intercollegiate sports. During this time, the building of Royal Brougham Pavilion was begun, built to serve not only College interests but also used as a means of outreach to city youth as well. From its founding to 1944, the school had built only four permanent buildings; between 1944–59, five more were constructed for academic purposes. In 1955, SPC acquired 155 acres on Whidbey Island called Camp Casey. It provided new opportunities for field study and outdoor education.

The 1960s became the College’s golden age of expansion, especially in terms of facilities. In nine years, 15 new buildings and/or facilities were completed; major remodeling to 10 existing buildings created new, usable space; more than 70 real estate acquisitions were recorded; and improvements were made to Camp Casey, including a new swimming pool.

In the 1970s, curricular renewal and reorganization took center stage. A new curriculum focused on the individual and the learning process, and the “scholar-servant” model soon took form. The SPIRAL program was launched in 1975, which would grow to be the model program in the state for in-service teacher education. In 1976, Seattle Pacific received a gift of 965 acres on Blakely Island in the San Juans, which would become the site for an innovative research station. Overall, faculty developed higher professional levels of competence through an academic reorganization that followed a university model. Ultimately, on June 5, 1977, the College officially became Seattle Pacific University.

During the 1980s, Seattle Pacific sought to focus on building a sense of community on campus and in the surrounding community while strengthening its ties with the Free Methodist Church and the evangelical community at large. An Intercultural Institute of Missions was established in 1984 to refocus the University’s historic missionary emphasis.

The 1990s saw Seattle Pacific University grow into a premier Christian university of arts, sciences, and professional studies. In 1991, SPU celebrated the Centennial of its founding in 1891. Academic strength was high with 85 percent of full-time faculty members holding doctorates or the highest degree in their field. In 1994, as part of its successful $25 million capital campaign, SPU opened a $10 million Library that now serves as the heart of the academic program. A unique “Common Curriculum,” an innovative approach to general education, was launched in Autumn Quarter 1998.

By 2000, the University had put into effect a Comprehensive Plan for the 21st Century. That plan brings together planning streams for education, enrollment, endowment and facilities to ensure the Seattle Pacific’s success for its second hundred years.

In Autumn Quarter 2003, a 64,000-square-foot Science Building opened, and the Otto Miller Hall (formerly the Miller Science Learning Center) underwent a major renovation. Both now enable undergraduate students to conduct research with faculty members in state-of-the-art facilities.

Today, SPU offers 55 undergraduate majors, 12 master’s degree programs, and three doctoral programs.The University remains as committed as ever before to graduating students who demonstrate both academic competence and personal character — and who will change the world.

OUR TRADITIONS
New Student Convocation. This academic ceremony has its roots in a 1932 convocation where new students and faculty gathered to celebrate the opportunities and challenges of the new academic year that lays ahead. Today’s New Student Convocation has a similar thrust, with faculty, family, and friends gathering in the Tiffany Loop prior to the beginning of the academic year to support new students as they embark on their SPU journey.

Christian Faith Exploration. Community worship, concerts, presentations on special topics, and evensong services are all part of Seattle Pacific University’s extensive Christian Faith Exploration program. Evensong is Monday evenings; Chapels – featuring a variety of leading Christian speakers – are Tuesdays; the studentled service, group is on Wednesday nights; forums are on Thursdays; and cadres/small groups typically meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Homecoming. The first official Seattle Pacific “Homecoming” was instituted in 1935 at the school’s 42nd Commencement. Since then, Homecoming has moved to early Winter Quarter, separated from graduation weekend. Class reunions, athletic events, drama and music productions, a student talent show, and a variety of other gatherings between alumni, students, faculty, and staff make this weekend a highlight on the University’s yearly calendar.

Tradition. Begun in the late 1980s, Tradition is a campus and communitywide event that takes place in the Tiffany Loop during the first week of December. In addition to the Christmas treelighting, activities include carol singing, sleigh rides, readings of the Christmas story, and other traditions designed to focus attention on the season of Christ’s birth.

Graduate Hooding Ceremony. Master’s degree recipients are invited to participate in the Hooding Ceremony before the Ivy Cutting Ceremony. Master’s students are recognized for the completion of their advance degrees and are hooded by their school dean and the graduate faculty. Master’s students then take their place behind the faculty for the Ivy Cutting procession. Doctoral students may attend but are hooded during Commencement.

Ivy Cutting. Ivy Cutting has been a part of spring graduation rites since 1922, when the first Ivy Planting ceremony was introduced. Now, more than 80 years later, graduates participate in an Ivy Cutting ceremony where each senior receives a cutting from a long, connected ring of ivy. The ceremony symbolizes the senior’s tie to the University and its many alumni, as well as a newfound independence that comes with becoming a graduate.

Baccalaureate. The Baccalaureate service is one of worship and reflection, planned by members of the senior graduating class and featuring student speakers. It occurs the day before Commencement and held in Royal Brougham Pavilion.

Commencement. Commencement is a time-honored ceremony that recognizes the scholarship, service, and Christian growth of graduating seniors. It is a celebratory service, where students, faculty, staff, parents, relatives, and friends congratulate the graduates on their “new beginning.” Degrees are awarded to graduates who have successfully completed the requirements to obtain their baccalaureate or graduate diplomas. The number of SPU graduates has grown from five in 1915 to more than 800 in recent years.
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ACCREDITATION AND AFFILIATION

The history of the growth of Seattle Pacific University is linked to the educational community of which it is a part. In successive steps from 1921 to 1937, the University was accredited by the Washington State Board of Education. Since 1936, the University has been fully accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. It is on the approved list of the American Council on Education and Board of Regents of the State of New York, and its credits are recognized by members of the various regional associations and by leading graduate schools throughout the country. SPU is a charter member of the Christian College Consortium and is also a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

The University is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) at both basic (undergraduate) and advanced (graduate) levels. The University is a member of the Association of American Colleges and of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. It is fully accredited by the Washington State Board of Education for preparation of elementary and secondary teachers.

The dietetics specialization in the food and nutritional sciences program is granted approval by the Commission on Accreditation/ Approval for Dietetics Education of the American Dietetic Association, 216 West Jackson Boulevard Chicago, Illinois, 60606-6995, (312) 899-4876. This means a graduate of SPU with dietetic specialization is eligible to apply for a dietetic internship in another institution. After the dietetic internship taken elsewhere, the student is “RD Eligible.” The student can then take the registration examination. If passed, the student becomes a registered dietitian.

The Marriage and Family Therapy Program is nationally recognized and accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education, one of the only two programs so accredited in Washington state.

The undergraduate nursing curriculum is approved by the Washington State Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission, and both the undergraduate and graduate programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).

Seattle Pacific University is a full member of the National Association of Schools of Music.

The electrical engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.

Seattle Pacific meets the requirements of the Commission on Christian Education of the Free Methodist Church for preparation of ministers and missionaries and is also approved by the Department of Christian Education of the Free Methodist Church and other denominations for the collegiate preparation of ministers.

The School of Business and Economics is accredited by AACSB International — the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

The University is approved by the U.S. government for education of veterans and their dependents under the applicable public laws.
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OUR RESOURCES FOR LEARNING

Seattle Pacific University students enjoy aesthetically pleasing learning spaces. Spread over the 45-acre Seattle campus, the buildings, recognized by their traditional brick or modern faces, are also known for the many ways in which they meet students’ educational needs.

The Library
Completed in 1994, the Seattle Pacific Library is a spacious fourlevel facility that serves as the center for academic endeavors outside the classroom. It provides collections, services, technology, and space for study and research, with over 190,000 volumes arranged on open shelves for easy access to readers. The collection grows by some 6,000 new titles each year, including more than 1,300 current print periodical titles and an ever-expanding microfiche collection numbering more than 500,000 items. The collection is accessible online in the Library and through the campus computer network via its automated catalog. In addition, fundamental library processes of circulation, reserves, acquisitions, cataloging, and serials control are also facilitated through the same integrated automation system. Microfilm and microfiche reader-printers, lowcost duplicating facilities, and audiovisual listening and viewing stations are available as well.

In addition to standard printed reference sources, the Library makes available an increasing number of electronic information resources, including abstracts/indexes from ProQuest Direct, EBSCOHost, First Search, and other online products. In order to provide the utmost in convenience, access to more than 8,000 fulltext journal titles is available from every computer on campus. Most of these resources are also available to off-campus students who have Internet access. An interlibrary borrowing service is available to students, faculty, and staff. As a member of OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), the Learning Resources Center Library can provide access to library holdings throughout the Northwest, across the nation, and beyond. In addition, students have library borrowing privileges at Northwest University and Pacific Lutheran University through a cooperative agreement. Since Autumn Quarter 2003, students also have access to 31 million items held in 26 Washington and Oregon academic libraries through the Orbis Cascade Alliance and Summit.

The Center for Learning
Located in Lower Moyer Hall, the Center for Learning offers four computers for student use, a Writing Center that provides assistance with writing class papers, services and support for students with disabilities, tutoring for many General Education courses, and academic consultation and referrals. Learning seminars and classes are offered every quarter.

Student Computer Labs
Student computer labs are located across the campus. Some of the computer labs are highly specialized for specific academic programs while other labs are more general purpose. In most of the student labs, a standard set of academic software tools are provided that include word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, statistical software, programming languages, and database software. All of the general-purpose computer labs also provide full access to the Internet, color laser printers, and other local and remote networked resources.

Art Center: This lab has 11 high-end Macintosh computers for instructional use in visual communication and fine arts. Peripherals include a data projector, flatbed and slide scanners, as well as printers.

Library: There are presently two computer labs in the Library – an instructional classroom with 20 PC computers and an open lab with 22 PC computers and two Macintosh computers with digital video-editing capabilities. The Library also has computers for database searching, as well as a number of computers for special and assisted use. In addition, there are a number of network ports for students to use their own computers in the Library, and the building is a “hot spot” with wireless capability.

McKenna Lab: The Qwest Computer Lab in the School of Business and Economics contains 25 computers for open-lab and business-class use. A small networking lab is attached. An instructional classroom has 24 computers.

Otto Miller Hall: Numerous computer labs are located in Miller Hall serving the specialized needs of the departments of computer science, engineering, math and physics. A computer science lab contains 30 current-technology (FY03-04: P4/2.2 GHz) Windows® workstations for general student use. Students may also bring their own laptops into the building and connect them to the campus Ethernet using either a wired or wireless (802.11b) connection.

Music Keyboard Lab: The Music Technology Lab in Beegle Hall is equipped with eight high-end Macintosh computers connected to Roland RD-600 multi-timbre MIDI keyboards. In addition, the lab contains another high-end Macintosh computer capable of 16-track digital recording, using a Yamaha O2R Digital Recording Console, ADATs, Kurzweil K2500XS keyboard, and the industry standard ProTools software.

Student Union Building: Several computers are now available for student use in kiosks in the SUB.

Weter Hall: Ten computers are available for student use on the first floor of Weter Hall, and the building is a “hot spot” with wireless capability.
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Classroom Technology
Faculty have a wide range of technology available in the classrooms to enhance student learning from “low-tech” equipment such as TVs and VCRs (available in nearly all classrooms), to “hightech” resources such as large-screen projectors and Windowsbased PCs (installed in 12 classrooms), to fully equipped electronic classrooms (three on campus). Computer and Information Systems also provides a wide range of circulating computer, audio-visual, and technology resources including video cameras; data projectors; and audio equipment. This equipment is available for use in instructional classrooms. In the near future, many classrooms will also be equipped with wireless access points for connection to the campus network.

Internet Access/Electronic Mail
Network connectivity and access to the Internet is available throughout campus. All students, faculty and staff use email and other electronic communication tools. Access to campus resources and databases through the Web is widespread. Many courses make use of an online course management system (Blackboard) for document repository, electronic grade books, online discussion and online assessments. The Internet also provides access to libraries, databases and information resources throughout the world. All faculty are provided late-model computers and high-speed network connections. Students can get access to the Internet from student computer labs, from their residence hall rooms, or from wireless “hot spots” in major common/study areas. Off-campus students have access to email from campus-provided modem connections. Many routine student transactions (registration, class schedules and access to grades) can be completed via the Web at an individual student’s time and convenience.

Instructional Technology Services
Located on the lower level of the Library, Instructional Technology Services (ITS) helps faculty produce Web-based and multimedia learning resources. It also manages the Library’s computer labs and satellite downlinks. With digital, audio, and video equipment, ITS helps bring new learning adventures to the SPU campus.

Technology Services in the Residence Halls
All of the campus residence hall units are provided a full complement of technology resources that include network connections to the local campus network and the Internet (a connection for each student), cable TV connections in each room, and telephone/ voicemail services.

Technology Instruction and Assistance
The use of computers and networked resources is an important part of the academic program at SPU. Resources available to students include free antivirus software; discount software through the Microsoft-campus license agreement; the GetConnected program offering assistance in the first week of Autumn Quarter; and the Help@Home service, which provides assistance on an ongoing basis to students living in residence halls. Student assistants are available in all of the computer labs; and Computer and Information Systems provides a central computer HelpDesk and comprehensive Web-support site at www.spu.edu/CISHelpDesk.

Computer Ownership
The University provides a wide range of general purpose and specialized computer resources on campus, but for the most effective learning and use of computers, students are strongly encouraged to purchase their own computer. Seattle Pacific University supports both Windows and Apple Macintosh computers in our student lab environments and the residence halls. The choice of computers and software is left to the individual student.
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