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Approved by Mennonite Board of Education, January 1995

Mission, Vision, Values

What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

MISSION

EMU prepares students to serve and lead in a global context.

Our community of learning integrates Christian faith, academic rigor, artistic creation and reflective practice informed by the liberal arts, interdisciplinary engagement, and cross-cultural encounter. 

VISION

EMU will be renowned for academic excellence and faithful discipleship in addressing the most significant challenges in our complex world.

We seek to be a leader among Christian universities, united by a hopeful and enquiring spirit, cultivating meaningful relationships locally and globally, and engaging the rich diversity of human identity, experience, and need. 

VALUES

EMU’s mission and vision are grounded in the enduring biblical values of Christian discipleship, community, service, and peace.

These values are embodied throughout the university in our distinctive commitment to peacebuilding, social justice, cross-cultural engagement, and sustainability. Rooted in the Anabaptist tradition, we follow Jesus’ call to bear witness to truth, serve with compassion, and walk boldly in the way of nonviolence and peace.

Eastern Mennonite University, founded in 1917, is an educational institution of Mennonite Church USA, serving students of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. EMU confers undergraduate, graduate, and seminary degrees in the liberal arts, applied sciences, and professions.

Approved by Board of Trustees June 24, 2017

Life Together: Commitments for a Community of Learning

Expectations and Responsibilities for Community Life for faculty, staff and students at Eastern Mennonite University

At Eastern Mennonite University our life together supports our work, and in turn, our work shapes our life together.  EMU serves the church and the world by engaging in academic inquiry in conversation with God’s story through scripture, Christ, and the church. As a Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, we encourage each other in Christ-like ways of living and learning. 

The following ideals describe the learning community we aspire to be. They are derived from scripture as read in the Anabaptist tradition, our own century of tradition as an academic church institution, and the traditions we continue to make together today. Formal policies and procedures outlined in EMU faculty, staff, and student handbooks are designed to hold us accountable to these principles and sustain the identity and values that bind us together while creating space for questioning that identity in a spirit of continual renewal. We commit ourselves to regularly review and update all university policies in light of these ideals.

Love for God and one another: Our most important work is to love as God loves us, as shown in the life of Jesus. We seek relational, collaborative, and restorative approaches to teaching and learning, administration, policy, and discipline. We commit ourselves to practice generosity and hospitality, demonstrating reconciling love, sustained by collective worship and spiritual formation.

Wisdom: Our learning community pursues truth and seeks wisdom in its practice. We bring creativity and rigorous inquiry to our academic work, including our curricular distinctives of peacebuilding, social justice, cross-cultural engagement, and sustainability. We listen to each other with compassion and boldly share our own authentic statements of faith and doubt. We commit ourselves to intellectual, physical, and spiritual growth in all aspects of academic and social life.

Equality: Because each person has immeasurable worth in God’s eyes, we value participatory processes and pedagogies. Each person has a right to be heard, and to work and study in a safe environment. Policies and procedures aspire toward equity, including individuals of all backgrounds in the benefits of community membership and giving everyone a recourse against abuse of power. We commit ourselves to show respect for the rights, dignity, and full personhood of one another.

Sustainability: We strive to use God’s gifts wisely and generously, emphasizing well-being and supporting policies that enable students and employees to live balanced lives. We commit ourselves to exercise responsibility in our care for the earth and our use of resources as we practice stewardship of mind, time, abilities, and finances.

Accountability: Our individual and collective actions affect the health of the entire community. We expect each person to conduct themselves ethically and faithfully in personal and public matters, in order that all may thrive physically, spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually. We commit ourselves to mutual accountability motivated by love in a spirit of generosity and grace.

Approved by Board of Trustees on June 24, 2017

Statement on Safety and Behavioral Expectations for the EMU Campus Community

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