The idea of public affairs as an appropriate statewide mission for a public university emerges from two central convictions. First, that value-free education is both impossible, and, more importantly, to hold it out as an ideal does a disservice to the society that supports the educational enterprise. Knowledge has a moral purpose that is at least as important as its utilitarian purpose.
Public affairs is about taking values seriously.
It is about cultivating the understanding that individual freedom and opportunity is rooted in a particular kind of social order. That social order is sustained by values embedded in the Constitution and expressed as a set of civic virtues including respect for the individual, the belief that our common interests exceed our individual differences, a concern for the welfare of those who shall succeed us on this planet, and support for the freedoms set forth in the Bill of Rights. Public affairs involves cultivating civic virtues, strengthening the bonds that unite people, and provoking reflection about and commitment to the collective sources of our individual rights. It needs the recovery of core values that sustain social order, create responsible public leadership, and promote community in the midst of diversity. The recovery of civic values has become a national necessity.