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. SMSU subscribes to this metropolitan philosophy.