Virtually all research universities around the world the commitment to search for truth and understanding, to create and extend knowledge, to preserve and transmit the intellectual content of the culture, and to educate people to think critically. These functions are incorporated into the warp and woof of the institution through the triune and inextricably related mission of teaching, research, and service.
Teaching is informed by research and practiced in service.
Service allows the application of research and often provides the proving ground of the classroom and laboratory. Together, the work we do in fulfilling the various dimensions of our mission creates a powerful force for good in the lives of the people we serve throughout our state of Alabama, the nation, and the global community. Those of us in the academy must anticipate dramatic changes in our respective missions as we enter the next century. Of course we will continue our primary functions of searching for truth and understanding as well as continuing to integrate teaching, research, and service in all that we do. We are acquiring and disseminating knowledge at an exponential rate of growth.