Now in its second century, embracing both its Lutheran heritage and the modern ecumenical environment, Pacific Lutheran University reaffirms its primary mission: to develop knowledgeable persons with an understanding of the human condition, a critical awareness of humane and spiritual values, and an ability to formulate and express ideas clearly and effectively. The university empowers its students for lives of thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership, and care--for other persons, for the community, and for the earth.
To best prepare students for these roles, Pacific Lutheran University fosters a climate of intellectual challenge distinguished by enthusiastic learning and committed teaching. The university is grounded in the liberal arts, which awaken the mind from ignorance and prejudice, expand capabilities for reasoned conversation and creative innovation, and provide the foundations for the highest standards of professional achievement. In a climate of free inquiry and expression, faculty and students alike seek to apply and advance knowledge and discern relationships between all branches of learning. Rigorous scholarship is enriched by active mentorship and collaboration.
Pacific Lutheran University is a diverse, caring community of students, faculty, and staff. As part of an increasingly interconnected and pluralistic society, the university welcomes different beliefs, backgrounds, and identities. Such diversity informs the search for truth, helps liberate the mind, and opens the heart to all humanity.
The university is dedicated to the education of body, mind, and spirit. It encourages integrated lives of physical activity and recreation, open discussion of all questions, empathetic encounters with difference, and worship and meditation. As a modern church-related university, rooted in Martin Luther's rejection of the ultimate authority of church tradition in favor of scripture and conscience, Pacific Lutheran supports the academic study of religion and helps students to develop critical perspectives on matters of faith and conviction. The university is committed to sustaining critical dialogue with an increasingly complex world and the community of the Church that confesses that all things are united in Jesus Christ.