Developing Educated Persons
Southwest Missouri State University has a single purpose: to develop educated persons. It is thus committed to the search for knowledge. It recognizes that human curiosity explores unknown intellectual worlds as well as unknown physical worlds. In a world where knowledge can become outdated in less than a decade, the university is committed to the discovery and dissemination of knowledge that serves the future.
The characteristics of an educated person are clear, measurable, and recognizable:
- An educated person is someone who is literate in the broadest sense.
- An educated person has an appreciation for the beauty and complexities of citizenship in his or her community and in the world.
- An educated person has the skills and motivation to continue to learn after leaving the university.
- An educated person can solve problems through the mastery and use of one or more academic disciplines.
Educated persons are developed through the interaction of competent, caring faculty and capable, motivated students. The university brings a distinguished faculty to this task. A MacArthur Fellow, an anthropologist whose work has been featured in Time magazine, and a scientist working with NASA on the effects of weightlessness all illustrate the quality and strength of those who teach. Academic rigor is the price of worthy achievement in education. The university is committed to developing educated persons by challenging them academically while nurturing them through the process of personal growth.
The metropolitan context in which the university is located is a natural setting for academic achievement. The institutional themes of public affairs, teacher education, health care, business and economic development, and performing arts are the daily topics of this metropolitan conversation. The community itself is a laboratory where these themes are experienced and addressed.
The 47-member Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities, to which SMSU belongs, believe they are "major intellectual resources for their metropolitan regions," whose programs "respond to regional needs while striving for national excellence." This Coalition has committed their institutions "to be responsive to the needs of our metropolitan areas by seeking new ways of using our human and physical resources to provide leadership in addressing metropolitan problems, through teaching, research and professional service." SMSU subscribes to this metropolitan philosophy.
Special opportunities
An educated person is not developed exclusively in a classroom or a laboratory. An educated person is the result of a full university experience -- participation in co-curricular activities; interaction with faculty, staff and students; service to the university community and the community at-large; and leadership in any number of organizations.
Residence hall life and fraternities and sororities add a richness to the university environment that contributes to the educated person. Such living groups provide leadership opportunities and provide a context for developmental conversations. Because of this, the university has been aggressive in providing positive living/learning units on campus.
Debate, Marching Band, Tent Theatre and intercollegiate athletics are examples of special university programs for students with special talents. These activities and many others teach students to manage their lives and to participate in society, both of which are important traits for the truly educated person. The university seeks to achieve excellence in each of these areas.
Community service projects, from serving as a tutor in the SMSU/Southwestern Bell Literacy Center to building homes through Habitat for Humanity, provide unique opportunities for developing educated persons. For that reason, the university encourages students to be involved in the community.
Developing the educated person is the single purpose of the university. Its resources and efforts are organized to achieve that end.
Chart D
