Institutional Examples:Mission Statements

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The mission statement is the star that a college or university steers by -- a narrative summary of the institution's most basic beliefs, most passionately held values, and most clearly defined priorities.  These mission statements are as distinctive as the individual colleges and universities that form the mosaic of American private higher education.  We offer a small sampling below.  In many cases what appears below is a excerpt from the institution's full mission statement.  For more detailed information, click on its name.  

California:  The University of San Francisco

The core mission of the University is to promote learning in the Jesuit Catholic tradition. The University offers undergraduate, graduate and professional students the knowledge and skills needed to succeed as persons and professionals, and the values and sensitivity necessary to be men and women for others.

The University will distinguish itself as a diverse, socially responsible learning community of high quality scholarship and academic rigor sustained by a faith that does justice. The University will draw from the cultural, intellectual and economic resources of the San Francisco Bay Area and its location on the Pacific Rim to enrich and strengthen its educational programs.
 

Connecticut:  Saint Joseph College

Saint Joseph College, founded by the Sisters of Mercy in the Roman Catholic tradition, provides a rigorous liberal arts education for a diverse student population while maintaining a strong commitment to developing the potential of women.

The College is a community which promotes the growth of the whole person in a caring environment that encourages strong ethical values, personal integrity and a sense of responsibility to the needs of society.
 

Connecticut:  The University of Hartford

At the University of Hartford we provide a learning environment in which students may transform themselves intellectually, personally, and socially. We provide students with distinctive educational experiences that blend the feel of a small residential college with an array of academic programs and opportunities characteristic of a large university. Through relationships with faculty and staff dedicated to teaching, scholarship, research, the arts, and civic engagement, every student may prepare for a lifetime of learning and for personal and professional success.

District of Columbia:  Trinity University

Trinity is a comprehensive institution offering a broad range of educational programs that prepare students across the lifespan for the intellectual, ethical and spiritual dimensions of contemporary work, civic and family life. Trinity's core mission values and characteristics emphasize:

  • Commitment to the Education of Women in a particular way through the design and pedagogy of the historic undergraduate women's college, and by advancing principles of equity, justice and honor in the education of women and men in all other programs;
  • Foundation for Learning in the Liberal Arts through the curriculum design in all undergraduate degree programs and through emphasis on the knowledge, skills and values of liberal learning in all graduate and professional programs;
  • Integration of Liberal Learning with Professional Preparation through applied and experiential learning opportunities in all programs;
  • Grounding in the mission of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and the Catholic tradition, welcoming persons of all faiths, in order to achieve the larger purposes of learning in the human search for meaning and fulfillment.


Florida:  Carlos Abizu University

Carlos Albizu University is an institution of higher education dedicated to the study and understanding of human endeavors from a holistic, dynamic and integrated perspective through its programmatic offerings leading to certifications, undergraduate and graduate degrees. Our mission is achieved through advanced training, research, the dissemination of scientific and cultural information and the provision of professional services with sensitivity towards culturally diverse constituencies with special attention to Hispanic sectors, thereby contributing to the improvement in the quality of life of our society. A component of our mission is the recruitment of exceptionally qualified graduates for their development as professionals in the field of higher education.

Indiana:  Butler University

Butler's mission is to provide the highest quality of liberal and professional education and to integrate the liberal arts into professional education by creating and fostering a stimulating intellectual community built upon interactive dialogue and inquiry among faculty and students. 
 

Indiana:  Earlham College

The mission of Earlham College, an independent, residential college, is to provide the highest quality undergraduate education in the liberal arts, including the sciences, shaped by the distinctive perspectives of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). A basic faith of Friends is that all truth is God's truth; thus Earlham emphasizes: pursuit of truth, wherever that pursuit leads; lack of coercion, letting the evidence lead that search; respect for the consciences of others; openness to new truth and therefore the willingness to search; veracity, rigorous integrity in dealing with the facts; application of what is known to improving our world.

The teaching-learning process at Earlham is shaped by a view of education as a process of awakening the "teacher within," so that our students will become lifelong learners. Students at Earlham are encouraged to be active, involved learners. The College provides extensive opportunities for students and faculty to interact with each other as persons, to learn from each other in a cooperative community, an important aspect of which is collaborative student/faculty research.
 

Iowa:  AIB College of Business

AIB College of Business is dedicated to providing quality educational opportunities that prepare students to pursue careers in business.
 

Kentucky:  Bellarmine College

Mission:  Bellarmine University is an independent Catholic university serving the region, nation and world by educating talented, diverse students of all faiths and many ages, nations, and cultures, and with respect for each individual's intrinsic value and dignity. We educate our students through undergraduate and graduate programs in the liberal arts and professional studies, within which students develop the intellectual, moral, ethical and professional competencies for successful living, work, leadership and service to others.

We achieve these goals in an educational environment committed to excellence, academic freedom, and authentic conversations not dominated by particular political or other single perspective and thus to thoughtful, informed consideration of serious ideas, values, and issues, time-honored and contemporary, across a broad range of compelling regional, national and international matters. By these means, Bellarmine University seeks to benefit the public interest, to help create the future, and to improve the human condition.
 

Kentucky:  Kentucky Wesleyan College

Kentucky Wesleyan College, in partnership with the United Methodist Church, fosters a liberal arts education that nourishes, stimulates and prepares future leaders intellectually, spiritually and physically to achieve success in life.
 

Maine:  Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, nationally recognized for the qualities of the educational experience it provides. It is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to its programs and opportunities by qualified learners. Bates prizes both the inherent values of a demanding education and the profound usefulness of learning, teaching, and understanding. Moreover, throughout the history of the College, Bates' graduates have linked education with service, leadership, and obligations beyond themselves.

As a college of the liberal arts and sciences, Bates offers a curriculum and faculty that challenge students to attain intellectual achievements and to develop powers of critical assessment, analysis, expression, aesthetic sensibility, and independent thought. In addition, Bates recognizes that learning is not exclusively restricted to cognitive categories, and that the full range of human experience needs to be encouraged and cultivated. The College expects students to appreciate the discoveries and insights of established traditions of learners, as well as to participate in the resolution of what is unknown.


New York:  Bank Street College of Education

Bank Street College is a small, vibrant institution, passionately devoted to improving the education of children. We educate children, the educators who teach them in all settings, parents, school leaders, and those who make policy. The College is a rich source of innovative ideas and practices for all who care about children and their education.
 

New York:  The Jewish Theological Seminary

The Jewish Theological Seminary, the intellectual and religious center of Conservative Judaism:

1. serves as the preeminent center for the academic study of Judaica outside of Israel, as one of the preeminent centers world-wide and as a training center for scholars to advance that study;

2. educates Jewish professionals and lay leadership in the spirit of Conservative Judaism for the total community through academic and religious programs, both formal and informal.
 

New York:  Syracuse University

SU's Mission:  To promote learning through teaching, research, scholarship, creative accomplishment and service.

SU's Vision: 

  • To be a university whose five core values of quality, caring, diversity, innovation and service are pervasive and evident among all its members.
  • To have a workplace environment that attracts and retains a superior and diverse faculty and staff who motivate, educate and serve students.
  • To be a safe, secure, well-maintained campus readily accessible to all populations in both reality and perception.
  • To maintain a sound fiscal position through optimum enrollment and increased external support, and to allocate resources in a manner consistent with the university's mission and vision.
     


North Carolina:  Mount Olive College

To operate and maintain a private, church-affiliated college for the education of men and women that offers programs including professional studies, that are rooted in the liberal arts tradition and provided in an environment nurtured by Christian values;

To maintain and support academic excellence through higher learning and higher values in a community made up of persons dedicated to the practice and advancement of Biblically based Christian ideals and Christ centered living in all aspects of life;

To seek and require higher standards in providing relevant educational programs reflecting an emphasis on the personal growth of each student at places and times that enhance the possible.
 

Ohio:  The College of Wooster

The College of Wooster is an independent residential liberal arts college offering a rigorous and comprehensive education to students with the capacity and motivation to become educated leaders in a complex society. Nationally recognized for its focus on independent learning, Wooster has for more than 50 years required every graduate to complete a significant Independent Study project. Wooster values co-education, diversity in its many forms, a global perspective, and the heritage arising from its origin as a college founded by Presbyterians.
 

Ohio:  The University of Rio Grande

The University of Rio Grande provides programs in the liberal arts, sciences, business, teacher education, fine and performing arts, nursing, and technologies. URG has a diverse curriculum and offers a range of educational opportunities with open access at a reasonable cost.  Historically, URG's primary focus has been students from the Appalachian region.  URG is now more cosmopolitan with enrollments from states outside the region and foreign countries.

The University emphasizes learning that prepares students for the many occupations and professions necessary to live and work in a global community.
 

Pennsylvania:  Allegheny College

Allegheny's undergraduate residential education prepares young adults for successful, meaningful lives by promoting students' intellectual, moral and social development and encouraging personal and civic responsibility. Allegheny's faculty and staff are passionate about their work and combine high academic standards with a supportive approach to learning. Graduates are equipped to think critically and creatively, write clearly, speak persuasively and meet challenges in a diverse, interconnected world.
 

Pennsylvania:  The University of Scranton

The University of Scranton is a Catholic and Jesuit university animated by the spiritual vision and the tradition of excellence characteristic of the Society of Jesus and those who share in its way of proceeding. The University is a community dedicated to the freedom of inquiry and personal development fundamental to the growth in wisdom and integrity of all who share in its life.
 

Rhode Island:  Rhode Island School of Design

RISD fulfills its contemporary mission by providing the highest quality instruction in the visual arts, design, architecture and art education to prepare its students and the broader community to be creative and responsive to the needs of a global society.
 

Tennessee:  Crichton College

Crichton College educates students in a Christ-centered, liberal arts community to think critically, grow spiritually, and change our world.

Crichton seeks to be recognized as a center of excellence in leadership development where students gain life experiences that equip them for responsible positions in their communities, to become civic and professional leaders, and to honor God in their chosen fields. Crichton strives to set the standard among Christian colleges as a place where students are mentored by a strong and caring Christian faculty. And, Christian area leaders learn that knowledge and faith can transform communities and advance God’s purposes in the world.
 

Tennessee:  Fisk University

To provide liberal arts education of the highest quality. The ultimate goal is to prepare students to be skilled, resourceful, and imaginative leaders who will address effectively the challenges of life in a technological society, a pluralistic nation, and a multicultural world.
 

Virginia:  Bridgewater College

The mission of Bridgewater College is to educate and develop the whole person. Our graduates will be equipped to become leaders, living ethical, healthy, useful and fulfilling lives with a strong sense of personal accountability and civic responsibility. This mission is carried out in a learning community, with Christian values, high standards of integrity and excellence, affirming and challenging each member.
 

Washington:  Saint Martin's College

To know, to care, to serve, to educate: the commitment of Saint Martin’s College to the student, the community, and the world.
 

Washington:  Whitworth College

Whitworth College is a private, residential, liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Whitworth's mission is to provide its diverse student body an education of the mind and heart, equipping its graduates to honor God, follow Christ, and serve humanity. This mission is carried out by a community of Christian scholars committed to excellent teaching and the integration of faith and learning.
 

Wisconsin:  Marquette University

Marquette University is a Catholic, Jesuit university dedicated to serving God by serving our students and contributing to the advancement of knowledge. Our mission, therefore, is the search for truth, the discovery and sharing of knowledge, the fostering of personal and professional excellence, the promotion of a life of faith, and the development of leadership expressed in service to others.