The Mission of the University of Mount Union
The mission of the University of Mount Union is to prepare students for fulfilling lives, meaningful work, and responsible citizenship.
The Vision of the University of Mount Union for 2015
In 2021, the University of Mount Union will be a vibrant, comprehensive Midwestern university of 2,700 students, including 2,200 undergraduates and 500 graduate students who will study on the Alliance campus, online, and potentially, at satellite sites. Technology will be imaginatively and flexibly deployed to enable effective teaching and learning, to bring the world into Mount Union classrooms, and to overcome obstacles of distance, time, and expense that often prevent students from achieving their educational goals.
To students and families seeking a personalized education combining breadth of knowledge and perspective with career-specific study and experiential learning, the University of Mount Union will offer an optimal combination of exceptional quality, reasonable cost, and preparation for career success. The University’s scholarship and financial aid programs will allow the University’s notably diverse student body to access an academic experience that inspires them for global engagement in the 21st century and prepares them to be valuable leaders for the world.
We will be known for offering an undergraduate curriculum that is integrative, encouraging students to gain the breadth of knowledge and perspective fostered by a liberal arts education, to understand the multiple means by which academic disciplines create knowledge and find meaning, and to prepare for career success and leadership in service to others. New academic offerings and active revision and updating of extant programs will help ensure that our students receive an education that is valuable and relevant. Experiential learning that leads to career success will continue to be strongly emphasized across the curriculum.
Graduate program offerings will build on the University’s strengths in health and medical sciences, explore new opportunities in data and computer sciences, and continue the University’s outreach – begun with its MAEL program - to part-time graduate students with programs in the social sciences and business and management. All Mount Union students will study in an environment that features personal attention, small class sizes, active and experiential learning, and an emphasis on leadership development.
The University’s diverse student body will live and learn in an inclusive environment that values, supports, and celebrates students of varied ages and cultural backgrounds. These students will participate in curricular and co-curricular programs that foster a global mindset and develop intercultural competence that will permit them to excel after graduation. Our efforts to attract and serve American students from a wider geographic area, more transfer and commuter students, more international students, and more part-time and full-time graduate students, will help diversify the University’s sources of tuition revenue, strengthening the University’s finances.
The University’s historical commitment to accessibility will be undergirded by a capital campaign focused on significantly increasing the University’s endowment for scholarship support and financial aid.
Mount Union’s employees will have appealing opportunities for personal development, continuing education, and career advancement. They will jointly create a work culture that features effective communication, fosters cooperation and innovation, and that is nimble and inventive in responding to opportunities and challenges.
The main purpose of the University’s strategic plan is to continue Mount Union’s planned transition into a comprehensive university that offers our students an integrative liberal arts education while also providing pre-professional and professional education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The plan honors the University’s traditional strengths and commitments while positioning Mount Union to thrive in an environment that requires leadership, collaboration, and innovation.