Dear Campus Community,

As you may be aware, we have been reviewing our mission statement, vision statement, and core values, throughout the current academic year.

The motivation for this was the awareness that the current mission statement and core values are 19 years old. Best practice for universities is to review these foundational documents more regularly. In light of the profound change – in our world and on our campus – we have experienced in the past 19 years, it seemed imperative to think carefully and collectively about how we can best express who we are and what core values guide us at this moment in history.

During the fall semester, we consulted with representative bodies of each of the major university stakeholder groups: undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, parents, and the board of trustees. Likewise, in November, we sent an email to all USD students and employees inviting them to participate in the process. Altogether, more than 430 people dedicated time to reviewing our current mission, vision, and core values and to answering three key questions about them:

• What do you appreciate most?
• What is missing?
• What do you hope the mission statement will express?

In December and January, a small writing group met multiple times to review the feedback received, reflect on it, and begin drafting revised statements. Members of that group included Satyan Devadoss, Ph.D., Fletcher Jones Professor of Applied Mathematics; Sr. Mary Hotz, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of English; Chris Nayve, J.D., Associate Vice President for Community Engagement and Anchor Initiatives; Kristin Scialabba, Ph.D., Associate Provost; and Kimberly White-Smith, Ed.D., Dean, School of Leadership and Education Sciences.

During the spring semester, we have revisited the stakeholder groups we met with in the fall, sharing the drafts developed and continually refining them based on the insights offered. We are happy to report that the documents crafted by the writing group in January have gone through significant revision and improvement, and are almost ready to be presented to the board of trustees in early May.

Before this, however, we once again ask for your assistance. Please provide your feedback on the current version of the revised mission, vision, and core values here. In order to help this process reach a successful conclusion, we ask that you focus on the ideas and concepts the new statements express more than the specific words used to do so.

Thank you for your continued engagement with this important process as well as for all you do to embody our mission, vision, and values.

Sincerely,

James T. Harris, III, D.Ed.
President

Michael Lovette-Colyer, Ph.D.
Vice President, Mission Integration