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Preamble
A
commitment to serving people has been Purdue’s central
purpose since the University was founded more than 130 years
ago amid the promise of a bold new vision for American public
higher education. Purdue traces its origin to the Morrill
Act of 1862, which provided assistance to the states in establishing
colleges "…where the leading object shall be,
without excluding other scientific and classical studies,
and including military tactics, to teach such branches of
learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts,
in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively
prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education
of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions
in life…" Purdue became Indiana's land-grant
university by action of the state legislature in 1869. Since
that time, Purdue has broadened its vision and evolved from
a single-campus University to a multi-campus system designed
to serve the people of Indiana. Today, together with its regional
and metropolitan university campus programs, Purdue University
is a land-grant university system that addresses broadly based
post-secondary educational needs in Indiana.
Over
the past 132 years Purdue’s role and scope have evolved
and expanded until it is today one of the nation’s premier
universities, renowned internationally for the excellence
of its wide-ranging programs of research, scholarship, and
creative endeavor. As it developed into an outstanding research
university, Purdue continued its dedication to its basic commitment
— providing the finest possible programs of learning
to its students. The Purdue education prepares these people
for their role as both citizens and leaders of our rapidly
changing global community.
The
production of new knowledge in the laboratory, the library,
and the field, and the development of students' knowledge,
competencies, and talents in the classroom and elsewhere do
not exhaust Purdue’s obligations. The University also
serves numerous other clienteles through a rich variety of
outreach, extension, distance learning, and partnership activities.
As the provider of educational services to numerous local,
statewide, national, and global constituencies, and as the
steward of this accumulated knowledge, Purdue addresses the
problems and promises of today’s world in many profound
and fundamental ways.
Purdue
values the traditional arts and sciences as the foundation
of its academic enterprise, and strives to excel in these
areas. Purdue also recognizes that its international reputation
is grounded primarily in its accomplishments in the ever-developing
science and technology disciplines.
In
offering Indiana’s only public university programs in
agriculture, engineering, pharmacy, and veterinary science,
Purdue is a vital and irreplaceable Indiana resource. In addition
to these unique programs, the University makes available distinguished
academic offerings in the liberal arts, the physical, life,
computer and mathematical sciences, consumer and family sciences,
education, management, nursing, health sciences, technology,
and interdisciplinary studies, and confers degrees at the
associate, baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels. Purdue’s
alumni have exerted a profound influence on the world —
and beyond — by contributing basic and applied knowledge
in many diverse fields and by exploring the frontiers of space.
Purdue
provides learning opportunities to statewide, national, and
international constituencies through comprehensive continuing
and distance education programs. Wherever and however these
programs are offered, Purdue is committed to teaching students
how to learn and thus to become lifelong learners.
The
Purdue University system provides academic programs in West
Lafayette (the flagship campus), on regional campuses in Hammond
(PU Calumet), Fort Wayne (IPFW), and Westville (PU North Central),
on the metropolitan University campus in Indianapolis (IUPUI),
and in many statewide technology facilities throughout Indiana.
While respecting the different levels of academic autonomy
at its various campus locations, the West Lafayette Campus
provides administrative and operational coordination services
for all regional campus programs. This renders Purdue among
the nation's most efficiently and effectively administered
universities.
Standards
of admission to the programs conducted at these various sites
are established in the context of the character and demands
of the programs themselves, local and regional community needs,
and the availability of other post-secondary educational opportunities
in the state. Purdue plays an important leadership role in
Indiana's public higher education enterprise. This system
is designed to accommodate all students who are eligible to
receive a post-secondary educational experience. Thus, Purdue
recognizes that access to higher education is a shared responsibility
among Indiana's post-secondary institutions, and the Purdue
University system embraces its part of this responsibility.
Purdue
University is a birthplace of ideas, discoveries, inventions,
and innovations. It is the site of great accomplishment in
the basic and applied sciences and their technological applications,
the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts. It combines
responsible stewardship with shared leadership as it looks
forward to an exciting and rewarding future in the new millennium.
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