University Mission
Missouri State University is a public, comprehensive university system with a mission in public affairs, whose purpose is to develop educated persons. The University is committed to achieving five major goals: 1) democratizing society, 2) incubating new ideas, 3) imagining Missouri’s future, 4) making Missouri’s future, and 5) modeling ethical and effective behavior as a public institution.
The University’s statewide mission in public affairs, requiring a campus-wide commitment to foster competence and responsibility in the common vocation of citizenship, distinguishes its identity. The academic experience is grounded in a general education curriculum that draws heavily from the liberal arts and sciences. This foundation provides the basis for mastery of focused disciplinary and professional studies, as well as enables critical, independent and intellectual judgment about the culture, values and institutions of the larger society.
The task of developing educated persons obligates the University to expand its store of human understanding through research, scholarship and creative endeavor, and drawing from that store of understanding, to provide service to the communities that support it. In all of its programs, the University uses the most effective methods of discovering and imparting knowledge and the appropriate use of technology in support of these activities.
The University functions through a multi-campus system that is integrated to address the needs of its constituents.
On June 15, 1995, Senate Bill 340 was signed into law, giving Missouri State University a statewide mission in public affairs. The focus on public affairs grew out of mission-review discussions with the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education beginning in 1994. That mission review focused the institution’s efforts in six primary areas: professional (teacher) education, business and economic development, science and the environment, the human dimension, health care and the performing arts. The public affairs focus is the integrating theme that cuts across and informs all disciplines in their relation to society.
Declaration of University Community Principles
Our core beliefs are the equivalent of an institutional soul, our common cause without which we will find consensus, progress, and change to be all but impossible. Missouri State’s core values are expressed in our "University Community Principles."
These principles, many of which have been cherished by the academy for centuries, have served the institution well and will continue to structure the foundation upon which our planning and practice should be based. The University Community Principles statement follows.
The community of scholars that is Missouri State University is committed to developing educated persons. It is believed that educated persons will accept responsibility to act in accordance with the following principles:
- Practicing personal and academic integrity
- Being a full participant in the educational process, and respecting the right of all to contribute to the "Marketplace of Ideas"
- Treating all persons with civility, while understanding that tolerating an idea is not the same as supporting it
- Being a steward of the shared resources of the community of scholars
Choosing to accept these principles suggests that each participant of the community refrains from and discourages behavior that threatens the freedom and respect each member deserves.
