In class we talked about the mission/vision statements of various institutions. Most people who shared, shared statements from their undergraduate institutions. This blog post is no different (lol). Well I looked at the mission statements for both of my alma maters – Virginia Commonwealth University (B.S.) and the University of Virginia (M.E.). And while both schools have very lofty mission/vision statements they are both truly reflective of the culture of their schools. UVA, located in Charlottesville, VA, is a predominantly white institution (PWI) whose mission is to “serve the commonwealth of Virginia”. And that was all nice and dandy but beyond that nothing really stood out to me. But VCU’s mission statement – there was something great there.
Another PWI, VCU is known for it’s diversity – so much so that outsiders not familiar with the area think that it’s an HBCU (historically black college and university) [also in a slight defense there is an HBCU in Richmond]. Located in the heart of Richmond, VA, VCU prides itself for it’s diverse culture of students and academia. It promotes an environment where people of all races, social classes, sexual identification and orientation can feel safe and come together to do the main thing that’s done at a university – learn. In class, the question was posed to us of whether or not we read a school’s mission statement before attending. Admittedly I did not because I didn’t know that was a thing. But having spent 4 years of my life at VCU (and I almost stayed there for graduate study), reading their mission statement is one of the reasons I’d like to return their as an academic. VCU is definitely the most progressive university I’ve attended thus far and by keeping up with the updates it doesn’t seem like they’re planning to slow down any time soon.