The Mission of the California State University
- The mission of the California State University is:
- To advance and extend knowledge, learning, and culture, especially throughout California.
- To provide opportunities for individuals to develop intellectually, personally, and
professionally.
- To prepare significant numbers of educated, responsible people to contribute to California's
schools, economy, culture, and future.
- To encourage and provide access to an excellent education to all who are prepared for
and wish to participate in collegiate study.
- To offer undergraduate and graduate instruction leading to bachelor's and higher degrees
in the liberal arts and sciences, the applied fields, and the professions, including
the doctoral degree when authorized.
- To prepare students for an international, multi-cultural society.
- To provide public services that enrich the university and its communities.
- To accomplish its mission over time and under changing conditions, the California State
University:
- Emphasizes quality in instruction.
- Provides an environment in which scholarship, research, creative, artistic, and professional
activity are valued and supported.
- Stresses the importance of the liberal arts and sciences as the indispensable foundation
of the baccalaureate degree.
- Requires of its bachelor's degree graduates breadth of understanding, depth of knowledge,
and the acquisition of such skills as will allow them to be responsible citizens in a
democracy.
- Requires of its advanced degree and credential recipients a depth of knowledge, completeness
of understanding, and appreciation of excellence that enables them to contribute continuously
to the advancement of their fields and professions.
- Seeks out individuals with collegiate promise who face cultural, geographical, physical,
educational, financial, or personal barriers to assist them in advancing to the highest
educational levels they can reach.
- Works in partnership with other California educational institutions to maximize educational
opportunities for students.
- Serves communities as educational, public service, cultural, and artistic centers in
ways appropriate to individual campus locations and emphases.
- Encourages campuses to embrace the culture and heritage of their surrounding regions
as sources of individuality and strength.
- Recognizes and values the distinctive history, culture, and mission of each campus.
- Promotes an understanding and appreciation of the peoples, natural environment, cultures,
economies, and diversity of the world.
- Encourages free scholarly inquiry and protects the University as a forum for the discussion
and critical examination of ideas, findings, and conclusions.
- Offers degree programs in academic and applied areas that are responsive to the needs
of the citizens of this state and provides for regular review of the nature and extent
of these programs.
- Offers or proposes to offer instruction at the doctoral level jointly with the University
of California and with private institutions of postsecondary education, or independently
in the field of education where the need is clearly demonstrated.
