WSU Vancouver purpose and values statement

Purpose: The purpose of WSU Vancouver is to enhance the intellectual and practical capacities of students, other individuals, institutions and communities that we serve.

Values: The enactment of purpose through specific institutional decisions and actions is guided by a commitment to quality embodied in a set of core values that jointly give WSU Vancouver its distinctive identity.

Intellect: Academic freedom and intellectual growth are at the heart of the WSU Vancouver mission. The university strives to instill within students, faculty, staff, and those whom we serve, a love of learning. We are committed to fostering intellectual inquiry and developing the capacity for thoughtful reasoning, reflection and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Practice: We believe in the inherent value of students, faculty and staff applying knowledge and expertise to address complex issues that have a strong regional focus, and whose scope extends to encompass national and international concerns.

Character: WSU Vancouver aims to create, through our work and the relationships we develop among our students and partners, a context that cultivates individual virtues, institutional integrity, and the importance of communities.

Engagement: We are guided by an ethic of leadership and service that recognizes the importance of identifying, creating and responding to the interests and needs of WSU Vancouver's diverse constituencies. Engagement must occur in a reflective way, sensitive to the interplay of various interests and commitments among these constituencies.

At any point in time, one or more of these values may be tested or particular values given added emphasis. Three additional institutional values give needed balance and support to the challenging interweaving of intellect, practice, character and engagement.

Diversity: We embrace diversity and model inclusion by honoring racial, ethnic, gender, age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic, ideological and other differences.

Stewardship: Purpose and values are most likely to be achieved when faculty, staff and students at WSU Vancouver take ownership for upholding the full scope of values, and acknowledge the tensions created in fulfilling these values in light of financial and human resource limitations.

Caring & community: We recognize that in order to serve our diverse communities, we must first be a community within WSU Vancouver. As a community of students, faculty and staff, we demonstrate our concern and regard for each other through extending mutual respect and acknowledging the dignity of each individual.