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Mission Statments for [ UMD Campus | U of MN | Colleges | Other UMD Units ]

University of Minnesota Duluth Mission

UMD serves northern Minnesota, the state, and the nation as a medium-sized comprehensive university dedicated to excellence in all of its programs and operations. As a university community in which knowledge is sought as well as taught, its faculty recognizes the importance of scholarship and service, the intrinsic value of research, and the significance of a primary commitment to quality instruction.

At UMD, a firm liberal arts foundation anchors a variety of traditional degree programs, outreach offerings, and selected professional and graduate studies. Active learning through internships, honors programs, research, and community service promotes the development of skills, critical thinking, and maturity sought by society. Demanding standards of performance for students, faculty, and staff make UMD attractive to students with strong academic potential.

The campus contributes to meeting the cultural needs of the region and serves as a focal point for the economic development of the region through community outreach and through an emphasis on the sea-grant and land-grant components of its program.

UMD significantly contributes to enhancing the national stature of the University of Minnesota by emphasizing quality programs central to the University and the distinctive mission of UMD within the University system.

Providing an alternative to both a large research-oriented university and to a small liberal arts college, UMD seeks students looking for programs that emphasize personalized living and learning experiences on a medium-sized campus of a major university.

University of Minnesota Mission Statement

The University of Minnesota, founded in the belief that all people are enriched by understanding, is 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.

The University's mission, carried out on multiple campuses and throughout the state, is threefold:

Research and Discovery - 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 - 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 - 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.

In all of its activities, the University strives to sustain an open exchange of ideas in an environment that embodies the values of academic freedom, responsibility, integrity, and cooperation; that provides an atmosphere of mutual respect, free from racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice and intolerance; that assists individuals, institutions, and communities in responding to a continuously changing world; that is conscious of and responsive to the needs of the many communities it is committed to serving; that creates and supports partnerships within the University, with other educational systems and institutions, and with communities to achieve common goals; and that inspires, sets high expectations for, and empowers the individuals within its community.