Marquette University Mission, Vision and Guiding Values

Institutional cultures are driven by an organization’s mission, vision and values. Our mission articulates our purpose – why we exist. Our vision is how we seek to deliver on our mission. Our guiding values are those characteristics that we commit to as individuals and as an organization so that we develop a culture that delivers our mission and executes our vision.

Marquette University Mission Statement

Marquette University is a Catholic, Jesuit university dedicated to serving God by serving our students and contributing to the advancement of knowledge. Our mission, therefore, is the search for truth, the discovery and sharing of knowledge, the fostering of personal and professional excellence, the promotion of a life of faith, and the development of leadership expressed in service to others. All this we pursue for the greater glory of God and the common benefit of the human community.

Excellence

Our students, whether traditional or non-traditional, undergraduate, graduate or professional, come to Marquette University to share our commitment to the pursuit of excellence in all things as a lifelong endeavor. They come to join a community whose members — faculty, staff, students, trustees, alumni and friends alike — believe that education must encompass the whole person: spiritual and moral as well as intellectual, the heart as well as the mind. And they come seeking the educational, professional and cultural advantages of a university located in the heart of the city. We, in turn, take seriously our responsibility to foster and support excellence in teaching and research, to keep a Marquette education accessible to a diverse population of students, and to offer personal attention and care to each member of the Marquette community.

Faith

As a Catholic university, we are committed to the unfettered pursuit of truth under the mutually illuminating powers of human intelligence and Christian faith. Our Catholic identity is expressed in our choices of curricula, our sponsorship of programs and activities devoted to the cultivation of our religious character, our ecumenical outlook, and our support of Catholic beliefs and values. Precisely because Catholicism at its best seeks to be inclusive, we are open to all who share our mission and seek the truth about God and the world, and we are firmly committed to academic freedom as the necessary precondition for that search. We welcome and benefit enormously from the diversity of seekers within our ranks, even as we freely choose and celebrate our own Catholic identity.

Leadership

As a Jesuit university, Marquette embodies the intellectual and religious traditions of the Society of Jesus. Through an academically rigorous, values-centered curriculum, our students receive a firm grounding in the liberal arts, preparation for work in a world of increasing complexity and diversity, and formation for life as ethical and informed leaders in their religious, cultural, professional and civic communities. They work with and learn from faculty who are true teacher-scholars, whose research not only advances the sum of human knowledge, but also informs their teaching, and whose commitment to students is fundamental to their intellectual and professional lives.

Service

Through both our academic and co-curricular programs, Marquette strives to develop men and women who will dedicate their lives to the service of others, actively entering into the struggle for a more just society. We expect all members of the Marquette community, whatever their faith traditions, to give concrete expression to their beliefs by giving of themselves in service to those in need.

Marquette University Vision Statement

Marquette University aspires to be, and to be recognized, among the most innovative and accomplished Catholic and Jesuit universities in the world, promoting the greater glory of God and the well-being of humankind.

We must reach beyond traditional academic boundaries and embrace new and collaborative methods of teaching, learning, research and service in an inclusive environment that supports all of our members in reaching their fullest potential.

Marquette graduates will be problem-solvers and agents for change in a complex world so in the spirit of St. Ignatius and Jacques Marquette, they are ready in every way to “go and set the world on fire."

Marquette University Guiding Values

Endorsed Dec. 8, 2014
In accordance with the Catholic, Jesuit mission and vision of Marquette University, we hold that all people and things are created to praise, reverence and serve God in our community and throughout the world, and thus every aspect of the university’s lifeblood and work holds this principle and foundation as its beginning and end. Therefore, we will enact the following values and behaviors in our lives and our work to serve the greater glory of God:

• Pledge personal and holistic development of students as our primary institutional vocation
• Pursue academic excellence and educate students who are men and women for and with others throughout the world
• Embody a spirit of interdisciplinary curiosity, research, innovation, entrepreneurship and application to change and improve ourselves, our community and our world
• Nurture an inclusive, diverse community that fosters new opportunities, partnerships, collaboration and vigorous yet respectful debate
• Live as servant leaders with a commitment to the Jesuit tradition and Catholic social teaching for all people, beliefs and faith traditions
• Create bold, ambitious plans enacted with agility, authentic accountability and a commitment to the greater good