Wright State University Statement of Purpose
Policy Number: 1002
Date Issued: September 1997
Authority:   Board of Trustees (adopted February 13, 1968; amended June 17, 1970, and December 15, 1976); The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1973 as Amended; Ohio House Bill 285 and 286; The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504 as Amended

1002.1 Purpose

The chief purposes of Wright State University shall be the achievement of excellence in teaching, the achievement of substantial contributions to human knowledge, the achievement of major service to the larger community, and the maintenance of a free and cosmopolitan environment for the work toward such achievement.

1002.2 Teaching

  1. The teaching program of the university shall reflect valid knowledge from the past and also explore knowledge at its frontier, where validity is not yet firmly established.
  2. The university shall pursue that ideal relationship between teacher and student where each learns from the other, where the student is led outward to his/her highest level of motivation and understanding, and where the teacher is bound by his/her own growing knowledge to a continuous revision of the content of instruction.
  3. The student shall be exposed to a variety of academic disciplines and the exploration of areas of knowledge other than those lying within his/her professional studies. The university shall make opportunities available for the student to live and work with others and to know cultures other than his/her own.
  4. The university shall make intensive efforts to assist each student, with proper reference to his/her gifts or lack thereof, to achieve his/her maximum self-fulfillment, his/her greatest value as a member of society, and the highest quality of life of which he/she is capable. The university shall accept the obligation to assist and motivate each student in his/her field of career study to the end that he/she shall be able to compete with the graduates of any university in graduate study or in the earning of a livelihood in a changing and complex economy.
  5. The university shall hold the years of study in residence to be only a beginning of the learning process and shall seek to maintain in its professional community and its student body a consciousness of learning as a continuing process through life. To this end, the university shall place no less emphasis upon excellence in adult education than upon excellence in the teaching program for degree candidates.
  6. The university shall pursue the foremost knowledge of teaching methodology and be a place of study and experimentation in this field. The university will innovate to the end that more be learned at a lower cost in wealth and human effort, but shall seek always to maintain the small university environment, wherein the gifts of outstanding teachers can be known and cherished by the students in a context of personal relationships.

1002.3 Research

  1. The university shall actively foster the advancement of learning in each of its academic disciplines and among them. The university shall encourage the search for truth in all its fields, being no less concerned with new discovery in the arts and the humanities than in the sciences.
  2. The university shall perform research at its various levels and will on occasion perform research as a service to the larger community. No test of practicability shall be imposed upon scholarship, however; and, the search for basic trust for its own sake shall not be subordinated to research for the near-range purposes of the larger community.
  3. The university shall foster interdisciplinary research. While a degree of academic specialization shall be deemed necessary and proper, special effort will be made to encourage the scholar distinguished in more than one discipline and encourage joint achievement among the disciplines.
  4. The university shall encourage and reward clarity of mind, creativity, and objectivity of outlook, love of truth and discovery, and persistence to completion of undertakings. Openness of mind shall be honored. The university shall provide incentives for its students and professional members to explore new paths, as well as established methodologies, in their pursuit of knowledge. To this end, study and advancement of research methodology shall be encouraged in the various disciplines.

1002.4 Service

  1. The university, as a public and predominantly urban university, shall be especially cognizant of the American university's tradition of public service.
  2. Within a framework of excellence in teaching and research, the university shall be responsive to the needs of the Miami Valley, the state of Ohio, and the region. To the extent feasible and compatible with commitments in teaching and basic research, the university shall lend its human resources, its recorded learning, its techniques, its equipment, and its physical resources to the solution of human problems in the larger community.
  3. In recognition of its founding by and among the people of a metropolitan area, the university shall make special efforts to lend substantial service in the field of urban life, problems, and potentialities.
  4. The university shall seek distinction as a center of knowledge and culture in its region of service. Intellectual activity and visual and performing arts shall be presented to the public, who shall be made welcome on this campus and be recognized at all times as the owners of this university.

1002.5 The University Environment

  1. In the interest of achievement in the fields of teaching, research, and service, the university shall support the freedom of each individual within the university to inquire into any subject, learn the truth about it, and express conclusions of such inquiry without interference. Such freedom shall be limited only by consideration of the equally important rights of other.
  2. As befits a public university established in a metropolitan area during the latter half of the twentieth century, this university shall actively seek a cosmopolitan membership in its faculty, staff, and student body. It shall draw to itself and benefit from the participation of persons of varied race, culture, experience, and national background. Never shall the university cause any person to suffer disadvantage because of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, or handicap.
  3. In keeping with its cosmopolitan character, the university shall aggressively maintain its identity as a general university and review its programs continuously, in order to guarantee that no discipline or field of specialization shall unduly dominate its total endeavor.
  4. The university recognizes that its purpose and its desired environment, as herein before described, are attainable only insofar as the people of the university aspire to them and actively seek them. To this end, the university shall inculcate among all its members a sense of honor, professional pride, and mutual good faith.

1002.6 Affirmation of Principles

  1. As a university we reaffirm our dedication to the historical traditions of universities and especially to the tradition of academic freedom. We intend in our role as members of the university and as individual citizens to resist the politicization of the university by right, left, or middle political groups or by any governmental group or official. The strength of the university lies in its nonpartisan educational, scholarly, and service contributions to its constituencies. The university has a positive obligation to foster communication, dialogue, and good citizenship, and its resources should be used to promote these ends. The members of the university—faculty, staff, and students—should be actively encouraged to participate as individual citizens in the processes of democratic government. As a university we endorse these principles.