The committee met regularly throughout late 1990 and early 1991 and solicited comments and suggestions from the University community in a variety of ways. There were two special editions of the Official Bulletin: The first published the then-current Mission Statement, and the second published a draft of the new Mission Statement. Each edition invited comments. Also, letters asking for comments and advice were sent to all standing committees, to the Faculty Senate, the Student Senate, and to the heads of the University foundations and the Alumni Association. Several successive drafts of the Mission Statement were also circulated among interested constituencies, and modified in response to their comments [2.0.5].
This process produced two approved versions of the NCSU Mission Statementan unabridged version to guide campus activities, and an abridged version. The longer, unabridged Mission Statement, along with an expanded explanatory report (see self-study library) issued by the Mission Review Committee, was the primary product of the review process. The unabridged Mission Statement is now included in all official NCSU publications [2.0.4].
In February 1991 the unabridged Mission Statement was approved by the NCSU trustees. In summer of 1991 the UNC Board of Governors, which has the statutory authority to establish the missions of all sixteen campuses, gave NCSU permission to use this Mission Statement [2.0.5]. At the same time, the Board of Governors requested an abridged official Mission Statement that it could use in its own publications.
The unique mission of North Carolina State University is to serve the citizens of North Carolina as the State's only research university in the land-grant tradition. Since its founding in 1887, NCSU has been committed to science and technology as pathways to human betterment and has served as an innovative educational resource, providing leadership for positive intellectual, social, and technological change. Faithful to its founding mission, the University must now meet the challenges posed by the increasing complexity of our global society and the accelerated growth in knowledge and technology. At the same time, it must continually address the effects of these developments on the environment and on the social and economic well-being of the people of North Carolina, the nation, and the world. Spurred by these new challenges, NCSU will continue to fulfill its mission through the integrated functions of teaching, research, and extension, its unique form of public service.Teaching, research, and public service will continue to be mutually enriching enterprises at NCSU. The activities of research and extension interact to provide students with an environment for learning that stresses creativity, problem solving, social responsibility, and respect for human diversity. The educational and extension functions join to apply, test, and disseminate the new knowledge generated by research.
During the University's first hundred years, its distinctive mandate has led to preeminence in science, technology, and engineering. This mandate will continue to shape future development, necessitating excellence in the full spectrum of disciplines that provide the intellectual and critical foundations for understanding, anticipating, and responding to public needs.
Undergraduate education is a major responsibility of North Carolina State University. Core education is provided in science and the humanities, with specializations offered in physical, social, and life sciences, in the humanities, and in professional and technical disciplines. The atmosphere of a research university provides distinctive opportunities for undergraduates to benefit from the experience of research in the classroom, laboratory, and informal settings. Exposure to the discovery and synthesis of new information provides students with a basis for identifying and solving society's problems and builds a critical foundation for their personal growth, cultural enrichment, and professional development.
As a national center for doctoral studies, NCSU embraces the responsibility to maintain excellence in graduate research and education. Students work as partners with faculty in the creation, expansion, conservation, and transmission of knowledge. Graduate education will continue to evolve as the University builds on its traditional and preeminent strengths in science, technology, and engineering and as it develops further strengths in complementary disciplines.
Research and scholarly inquiry form the foundation for education and public service at NCSU. Faculty and students in all disciplines engage in the art and science of discovery in a climate of free inquiry and creativity, extending the boundaries of knowledge and horizons of human intellect. The research mandate of NCSU is signified in its national classification as a Research University I.
The University's land-grant philosophy is manifest in its commitment to active stewardship of the human and natural resources of the State. NCSU has been an integral part of significant economic and technological changes in North Carolina for the past one hundred years. This stewardship is expressed currently through public service activities in all the University's colleges and schools, whereby the expertise resident among the faculty and students is disseminated across the State through extension, technical assistance, professional development, lifelong education, and technology transfer programs. Loyal to the vision of its founders in the nineteenth century, NCSU will continue to strive through extension and public service to improve the quality of life for North Carolinians into the twenty-first century.
NCSU's dual designations as land-grant university and a Research University I form the basis for the unique role of NCSU in The University of North Carolina. North Carolina State University stands on the threshold of a new century with deep appreciation for the significance of these mandates and the commitment to excellence and change that they jointly require.
North Carolina State University fulfills the fundamental purposes of all major research universities: to discover, to disseminate, and to preserve knowledge. In its unique role as the state's land-grant Research University I, the institution meets these objectives in all its educational programs, in basic and applied research, and in public service activities. Through its historic strengths in science, technology and engineering; through the excellence of its academic programs across a broad spectrum of disciplines and degree levels; through the strength and responsiveness of its extension activities; and through the range of its student activities, the institution provides opportunities for all students to develop their fullest potential and enhances the quality of life and economic viability of the state. In the years to come, as it has in the past, North Carolina State University will honor its commitment to active stewardship of the human and environmental resources of the State of North Carolina.
