Mission and Vision Statement for the Business and Accounting Programs

Vision

The Business and Accounting programs will be students’ preferred choice for a high-quality business education delivered in a liberal-arts environment.

Combined Mission for Business and Accounting programs

The Business and Accounting programs graduate ethically-aware prospective business and civic leaders who are effective communicators, team leaders, critical thinkers, and problem solvers.

We fulfill the mission by:

  • Admitting high-potential students from the Midwest and beyond;
  • Offering programs that embrace the knowledge, skills, and perspectives of the liberal arts;
  • Using effective teaching and learning strategies with appropriate technologies to prepare students for rapidly evolving business careers;
  • Engaging with business professionals, civic leaders, and community members to enhance student learning and readiness for the workforce, and;
  • Emphasizing faculty scholarly activity related to contributions to practice and teaching/learning with a secondary emphasis on discipline-based scholarship.

Core Values

  • Student Learning
    • Faculty use effective pedagogies to address the varied learning styles of students.
    • Assignments, projects, and other learning activities reinforce the development of creative and critical-thinking skills, effective communication skills, technological proficiency, ethical awareness, and life-long learning.
  • Excellence 
    • Faculty members maintain high standards of achievement for student performance.
    • Students demonstrate high levels of achievement on learning outcomes through course performance and results on nationally-normed examinations.
    • Faculty members demonstrate excellence through their teaching and learning, scholarship impacting practice and pedagogy, and service to the profession and community.
  • Accountability
    • Faculty exercise responsible stewardship of the curriculum, maintaining its relevance to current and future business practices.
    • Faculty remain current in their disciplines and use effective instructional methods to enhance student learning.
    • Faculty assess student achievement of defined learning outcomes and implement changes to the curriculum and pedagogy to improve student learning.
  • Collegiality
    • Faculty, staff, and students build an atmosphere of mutual respect.
    • Faculty and staff share ideas, support others’ efforts, and interact with others professionally.
  • Social and Corporate Responsibility
    • Curriculum design and course assignments address the significant issues facing society and businesses, such as ethnic and cultural diversity, environmental sustainability, human rights, sustainable development, and other emerging issues
    • The School provides resources to hire and/or develop faculty prepared to conduct research and provide instruction related to social and corporate responsibility.
  • Ethics and Integrity
    • Students, faculty and staff interact with others in an ethical and professional manner.
    • Faculty teach approaches to ethical reasoning.
    • Students demonstrate ethical-reasoning skills.

Separate Mission for the Accounting Program

Building on a liberal arts and sciences education, accounting graduates will integrate analytical, research, communication, interpersonal and critical thinking skills with business and financial knowledge to be effective financial professionals and prospective leaders.