Widener University

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Mission & Goals

As a leading metropolitan university, we achieve our mission at Widener by creating a learning environment where curricula are connected to societal issues through civic engagement.

Our Mission

We lead by providing a unique combination of liberal arts and professional education in a challenging, scholarly, and culturally diverse academic community. We engage our students through dynamic teaching, active scholarship, personal attention, and experiential learning.  We inspire our students to be citizens of character who demonstrate professional and civic leadership. We contribute to the vitality and well-being of the communities we serve.

Our Goals

• Develop a university community whose diversity enriches the lives of all members and where our students are prepared for living in a pluralistic and ever-changing world. Achieve an unparalleled academic environment by promoting rigorous educational programs, productive scholarship, and lifelong learning.
  
  
• Create a student-centered living and learning experience that supports the achievement of academic excellence. Transform Widener into a university known for distinctive educational programs that effectively use experiential and collaborative learning, mentoring, and engaged teaching and that emphasize the linkage between the curricula and societal needs.
  
  
• Expand and diversify the university's financial resources and manage its assets in an efficient and effective manner.
  
  
  Make Widener an employer of first choice and a place that attracts talented people at all levels to work or volunteer to help us fulfill our unique mission.
  
  
• Implement strategies to strengthen the integration of liberal arts and sciences and professional programs, and enrich our general education offerings to ensure that every undergraduate student has common educational experiences involving civic engagement and experiential learning.  
  
  
• Foster an environment that will encourage innovation in teaching, scholarship, and program development. Raise the profile of Widener among metropolitan leaders, the general public, the academic disciplines, and the national higher education community.
  
   
• Optimize the university's enrollment to achieve a vital university community at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
  
  
• Address the metropolitan region's most pressing concerns and enhance our program offerings to respond to the educational needs of our communities. Actively promote the development of leadership skills and provide opportunities for leadership experiences for members of the university community so that they may demonstrate civic and professional leadership.
  
  
• Ensure academic excellence by maintaining the university's commitment to academic freedom and by upholding faculty governance, especially in matters pertaining to pedagogy, curriculum, and scholarship.