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(Recommended by the SUNY Cortland Faculty Senate on April 7, 1998, and approved by President Judson H. Taylor on April 9, 1998.)
Making a Difference: Educating for the Common Good
State University of New York College at Cortland is one of 13 four-year colleges in the SUNY system. We share important academic goals with our sister institutions and are especially proud of our distinctive strengths, strong majors, and a history of more than 125 years of teacher education.
Today, SUNY Cortland is a comprehensive college of arts and sciences offering undergraduate and graduate programs in the liberal arts and a variety of professional fields. We are committed to excellence in teaching, scholarship, research and service to the community.
Quality teaching has been the highest priority since our founding in 1868. We are committed to a comprehensive curriculum, building on our traditional strengths in teacher education and physical education and enhancing our high-quality programs in the arts, humanities and sciences.
Our students gain skills, knowledge and conceptual understanding in their discipline; furthermore, they grow intellectually and acquire fundamental life skills and values. Among these are a desire to learn, an ability to think critically, an awareness of the excitement of discovery, an appreciation of diversity, and a respect for physical and emotional well-being.
Our students are immersed in a broad-based general education program, develop oral and written communication skills and acquire an aesthetic sensibility. All students have opportunities to develop and utilize technology in their studies while also assessing the impact of technology on individuals and society.
SUNY Cortland fosters personal excellence and seeks to develop students who are independent learners living enriched lives. Additionally, we focus on helping students become good citizens with a strong social conscience and an appreciation of the environment and diverse intellectual and cultural heritages.
We strive to instill within students a sense of responsibility, an eagerness to make a difference in their community and an awareness of the important positive role they must play in an increasingly global society. The SUNY Cortland faculty, staff and administration, together with dedicated alumni, all work toward preparing our graduates to make a difference in the lives of others.
The College and Cultural Diversity
(Statement recommended by the SUNY Cortland Faculty Senate and approved, after editing, by the president of the College, March 29, 1993.)
State University of New York College at Cortland is dedicated to the affirmation and promotion of diversity in its broadest sense. The mission of the College requires that people of every background be able to study and work here with an expectation of respectful treatment.
The College seeks to establish standards of behavior which honor the dignity and worth of individuals regardless of gender, ethnicity, race, age, physical or mental abilities, religious beliefs, sexual and affectional orientation, or socioeconomic class.
A major goal for Cortland is to develop and maintain an atmosphere which supports learning about prejudice and discrimination so that the College community can strive to reduce it not only on campus but wherever it is encountered.
While open debate on diversity issues can often make discordant viewpoints more highly visible, the College recognizes the need for individuals to become educated about the effects of personal biases within an atmosphere of safety and respect.
An environment where it is safe to explore differences enables everyone to make more progress toward a campus community which celebrates, rather than simply tolerates, the richness inherent in the pluralism of the College.
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