Missouri State > Public Affairs Support > Public Affairs Mission
Public Affairs Mission
On June 15, 1995, Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan signed into law Senate Bill 340 which gave Missouri State University a statewide mission in Public Affairs. This mission defines a primary way in which a Missouri State education is different from that of other universities and one way by which we educate our students to imagine the future.
The three broad themes of the public affairs mission can be articulated as:
1) Community Engagement - our students should learn to appreciate, participate in, and impact the community and world around them. Our graduates should have a thirst and hunger for meaningful involvement, and the skills to make a difference.
2) Cultural Competence – our recruiting efforts have clearly achieved a more diverse and international mix of students and faculty than in the past. But our efforts must go further, working to:
Recruit – efforts are well underway but by no means achieved
Include – create an inclusive environment for all our students
Connect – connect majority to non majority students and others – in the classroom, through campus activities, in the community – if learning and understanding is to be achieved.
Enable – ensure that our students learn how to be effective among diverse populations at work and interpersonally in this “global village.”
3) Ethical Leadership –
Missouri State has turned out a large number of leaders in our history, and the values of those graduates and the positive impact they have made on the world is one of our greatest assets. Ethical leadership is written into our long range plan and the signs of this focus are evident throughout campus – in our classrooms, labs and studios, in student affairs, in our alumni. Missouri State has prided itself on being the kind of place where students could come and find themselves – find that they had strengths and abilities beyond their realization – and discover their passion. That passion can produce excellence in achievement and leadership in action. The conduct of the leaders we develop may well be as important to us as the accomplishments they achieve.
As a public, comprehensive university system with a mission in Public Affairs, Missouri State University’s purpose is to develop educated persons while achieving five goals: democratizing society, incubating new ideas, imagining Missouri’s future, making Missouri’s future, and modeling ethical and effective behavior.
The public affairs mission at Missouri State seeks to:
- Develop an increasing awareness of the public dimension of life.
- Produce a broad literacy in the primary public issues.
- Establish a campus environment where the awareness of public questions is nurtured and their discussion is encouraged.
- Create the capacity for and the interest in doing voluntary public work.
- Provide community service learning opportunities as a significant component of disciplinary instruction.
Our Public Affairs Mission
(Excerpt from Provost Belinda McCarthy’s Spring 2008 Update)The three broad themes of the public affairs mission can be articulated as:
1) Community Engagement - our students should learn to appreciate, participate in, and impact the community and world around them. Our graduates should have a thirst and hunger for meaningful involvement, and the skills to make a difference.
2) Cultural Competence – our recruiting efforts have clearly achieved a more diverse and international mix of students and faculty than in the past. But our efforts must go further, working to:
Recruit – efforts are well underway but by no means achieved
Include – create an inclusive environment for all our students
Connect – connect majority to non majority students and others – in the classroom, through campus activities, in the community – if learning and understanding is to be achieved.
Enable – ensure that our students learn how to be effective among diverse populations at work and interpersonally in this “global village.”
3) Ethical Leadership –
Missouri State has turned out a large number of leaders in our history, and the values of those graduates and the positive impact they have made on the world is one of our greatest assets. Ethical leadership is written into our long range plan and the signs of this focus are evident throughout campus – in our classrooms, labs and studios, in student affairs, in our alumni. Missouri State has prided itself on being the kind of place where students could come and find themselves – find that they had strengths and abilities beyond their realization – and discover their passion. That passion can produce excellence in achievement and leadership in action. The conduct of the leaders we develop may well be as important to us as the accomplishments they achieve.