Respect

The name of our school expresses our foundational commitments in the present and for the future. Respect for persons, ideas, and differences are essential for everything we do at our institution. Respect begins with relationships among students, faculty, and staff. We endeavor to center decisions, plans and actions on our students to stimulate their intellectual growth, personal well-being, social responsibility, and positive social interactions.

Respect Graduate School is to be an academic institution in which people of diverse backgrounds put their varying and at times opposing ideas into respectful dialogs. We are committed to providing equal educational opportunities to all persons in each program. Therefore, the school’s policies, and programs will be administered without discrimination against any person based on actual or perceived race, color, sex, religion, ancestry, genetic information, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, familial status, marital status, age, veteran status, mental or physical disability, use of guide or support animals and/or mechanical aids, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.

Graduate Level Education

Respect Graduate School provides a graduate level of education in Islamic Studies. RGS expects its faculty and students to engage successfully in the rigors of graduate level study and research, to be knowledgeable about traditional positions as well as recent developments in the relevant subject areas, and to communicate their understandings effectively. As freedom of expression is essential in stimulating genuine thought, our school encourages the exchange and critique of ideas as fundamental to a graduate education. The aims of our graduate education include gaining broad and deep knowledge of the central fields of Islamic studies, demonstrating capabilities in research and further learning, and formulating positions and perspectives that withstand analysis and critical engagement.