SUNY Fredonia Mission Statement

The State University of New York at Fredonia, a comprehensive institution of higher education, declares as its mission:

To offer programs at the baccalaureate and master’s degree levels – within and across the disciplines that comprise the liberal arts and sciences and in professional and applied fields – consistent with the university’s existing strengths, its participation in the SUNY system, and the contemporary and future needs of a changing society; and to affirm the centrality, in this enterprise, of a general education in the arts, humanities, and sciences.

To encourage teaching and learning in formal and informal settings on and off campus, as well as through field experiences, student support programs, services and activities, and advising and counseling.

To promote involvement in the scholarly and creative enterprise by recognizing and supporting a broad range of intellectual activity; basic research and artistic creation; understanding, synthesis, and interpretation of existing knowledge and art; sponsored projects; and research that seeks to improve methods of teaching and learning. The university values and supports scholarly activity that directly involves students in the creative process and recognizes that the patterns of knowledge at the frontiers of research increasingly cross disciplinary boundaries.

To contribute to the intellectual, social, and emotional development of students by preserving the quality of campus life beyond the classroom and laboratory, by insuring a rich variety of experiences within a congenial residential atmosphere and an engaging physical environment, and by encouraging a supportive sense of community.

To develop and support service to individuals and organizations beyond the campus by opening the university’s extensive educational, recreational, and cultural facilities to the community; by providing opportunities to attend lectures, athletic, and cultural events, by operating programs and clinics in association with specialized instructional programs, and by encouraging faculty and staff to contribute their expertise to the variety of community-based endeavors for which it may be of value.

To commit the university to education that provides an awareness of global interdependence and cultural diversity through its curricular and co-curricular activities. Through active recruitment of students, faculty, and staff from under-represented populations and the inclusion of this diversity in its programs, the university seeks to provide its students with the academic and personal richness afforded by exposure to such pluralistic perspectives.

To draw upon and contribute to the academic resources of the State University of New York and, in the context of excellence, to further SUNY’s mission of providing accessible higher education to the diverse citizenry of New York State which the university serves.