Learner needs, rather than institutional preferences, determine priorities for academic planning, policies, and programs. Acceleration methods and assessment of prior and current learning are used to reduce the time it takes to earn a degree. Quality teaching is demanded, recognized, and rewarded. Academic freedom is the foundation for the transmission and advancement of knowledge. The university vigorously protects freedom of inquiry and expression, and categorically expects civility and mutual respect to be practiced in all deliberations.
Diversity is a source of renewal and vitality.
The university is committed to developing capacities for living together in a democracy whose hallmark is individual, social, cultural, and intellectual diversity. It fosters a climate and models a condition of openness in which students, faculty, and staff engage multiplicity and difference with tolerance and equity. Informed and engaged citizens are essential to the creation of a civil and sustainable society. The university values the development of the responsible self, grounded in honesty, courage, and compassion, and committed to the advancement of democratic ideals. Through service learning requirements, the university engages students in community involvement with time for formal reflection on experiences.