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Crookston

Duluth

Morris

Rochester

Framing Concepts: Goal, Vision, Mission, and Values

There are certain framing concepts that define our heritage and our aspirations for the future. We will remain true to these framing concepts throughout this period of transformation. We start where we intend to end. Our goal is to be one of the three best public research universities in the world.

In reaching toward our goal, we continually will advance our vision, which is to improve the human condition through the advancement of knowledge. We aspire to do this through excellence and innovation in teaching, research, and outreach, in order to create new knowledge for the world, to drive economic development in the State of Minnesota, to train a talented work force, and to educate an engaged citizenry for a diverse democracy. Our path-breaking research and teaching spans the arts and humanities, the sciences and social sciences.

As one of the few comprehensive universities around the world that engages in responsibilities that range broadly from medicine to land grant-oriented agriculture and extension services, our vision is to continue our preeminent role as a publicly engaged university that integrates research, teaching, and public engagement. We will continue to be responsive to the needs of our state and our country while we also recognize our responsibilities to the world and our commitment to world-class standards. Our land grant mission combined with our research mission causes a rhythmic pulse here that keeps driving us to solve real-world problems; our comprehensiveness enables us to create synergies among disciplines to better understand and grapple with the problems we try to solve. Our graduates, whatever their course of studies, will be equipped to lead and to promote democratic values and the search for wisdom and understanding in our multiracial, multicultural society. The University will encourage economic, cultural, and educational development within the state and beyond.

Our mission, as articulated by the Board of Regents, January 14, 1994, is built on the philosophy that people are enriched by understanding, and that the University should be dedicated to the advancement of learning and the search for truth; to the sharing of this knowledge through education for a diverse community; and to the application of this knowledge to benefit the people of the state, the nation, and the world.

• Research and Discovery: To generate and preserve knowledge, understanding, and creativity by conducting high-quality research, scholarship, and artistic activity that benefit students, scholars, and communities across the state, the nation, and the world.
• Teaching and Learning: To share that knowledge, understanding, and creativity by providing a broad range of educational programs in a strong and diverse community of learners and teachers, and prepare graduate, professional, and undergraduate students, as well as non-degree-seeking students interested in continuing education and lifelong learning, for active roles in a multiracial and multicultural world.
• Outreach and Public Service: To extend, apply, and exchange knowledge between the University and society by applying scholarly expertise to community problems, by helping organizations and individuals respond to their changing environments, and by making the knowledge and resources created and preserved at the University accessible to the citizens of the state, the nation, and the world.

As a University community we value: excellence; innovation; discovery and the search for truth; diversity of community; diversity of ideas; integrity; academic freedom; collaboration; stewardship and accountability of resources and relationships; sharing knowledge in a learning environment; application of knowledge and discovery to advance the quality of life and economy of the region and the world; and service as a land grant institution to Minnesota, the nation, and the world.

The University of Minnesota aspires to be a community with an organizational culture that demands excellence in research and discovery, teaching and learning, and public outreach and civic engagement; fosters high achievement, innovation, and inspirational energy; attracts top faculty and bright, curious students; supports academic freedom; invests in physical environments and technological infrastructures to support excellence in research, creative work, and learning; produces knowledge for the people of Minnesota, the country, and the world; embraces a diversity of ideas and community and promotes mutual respect; operates with integrity and complies with ethical practices; practices individual accountability and stewardship of resources in order to operate efficiently and effectively, seeking constantly to improve; appropriately balances centralization with decentralized autonomy; and respects Minnesota’s history and cultures, and supports the University’s historic and continuing role in the state.

The University should continually aim to: create and nurture world-class research and information centers; function as an academic and economic talent magnet; support a diversity of ideas and communities; strategically align resources with intellectual and academic goals; serve as a catalyst for economic and cultural growth in Minnesota; and improve the quality of life for Minnesotans.

When we consider the characteristics of a world-class public research university, we include: serving the public good through nationally and internationally recognized research, teaching, and engagement; producing the next generation of national and international leaders in the sciences and social sciences, the arts and humanities, and the professions; integrating research, teaching, and outreach, including across disciplines and among the professions; encouraging diversity of ideas and academic freedom and actively creating a diverse community of faculty, students, and staff; renewing itself regularly to ensure that it continues to be responsive to the most compelling intellectual and social issues.

Of central importance to our status as a world-class public research university is the offering of exceptional professional and graduate and professional programs and a distinguished, challenging undergraduate education focusing on those areas where students can experience teaching and research of national and international quality. Our incoming students should be intellectually curious, ambitious, motivated to learn, prepared to achieve in a challenging academic environment, and expect to graduate in a timely fashion. Our graduates should be able to research and evaluate information, think critically, solve problems, master knowledge, communicate effectively both orally and through written expression, understand research methodologies, understand the roots of civilization in order to function effectively as a global citizen in a continually transforming global society, and be prepared to become engaged citizens and life-long learners.