Mission, Values & Diversity

Residential Life Mission Statement

The Office of Residential Life is committed in providing quality living options, programs and services that support the academic mission of Missouri Western by promoting safety, encouraging student development, and fostering the understanding and appreciation of diversity within our community. In order to carry out this mission we believe in the following principles:

• Providing safe, secure, clean and reasonably priced residential environments conducive to the academic and personal development of the student;
• Providing services, programs and activities, which encourage students to mature intellectually, emotionally and spiritually so as to add value to their community, and society at large;
• Selecting and training professional and paraprofessional staff committed to developing residential communities which emphasize student development principles;
• Providing residential environments that honor human diversity which embrace students as individuals -- each with rights and responsibilities -- each with unique goals and needs.

Residential Life Values

To be a residence hall student at Missouri Western State University we expect you to recognize the strength of personal differences, while respecting institutional values. You are encouraged to think and act for yourself, however, we expect you to understand that the office of residential life has non-negotiable values in which it believes strongly. These values include:

These values along with the university values of serving others, quality, enthusiasm about learning, freedom to exchange ideas, and courage to shape the future, are the trademarks of the university, and will be protected diligently. Each person has the right and ability to make decisions about his or her own conduct. Just as importantly, each person has the responsibility to accept the consequences of those decisions. When individual behavior conflicts with the values of the department or university, the individual must choose whether to adapt his or her behavior to meet the needs of the community or to leave the residence halls or the university. This decision, among others, assists each person to determine who he or she is with respect to the rest of society.

Residential Life Diversity Statement

The Office of Residential Life & Housing celebrates and recognizes that the University community is comprised of persons who represent diversity on many levels... diversity of thought, belief, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation to name a few. All members of the University community are appreciated for their difference and accountable to each other. In a community of scholars, there is no place for behavior which marginalizes, ridicules, or demeans others. Therefore, the Office of Residential Life & Housing embraces the following principles:

• Foster an environment, which nurtures the value and the celebration of human differences.
• Define diversity to include all members of the campus community.
• Facilitate learning experiences, which capture the connectedness and interdependence of all people in a pluralistic and global society.
• Educate residents to understand the added significance of social responsibility in an increasingly diverse and global society.
• Develop leaders who affirm the principles of human rights and dignity and engage these principles in their decisions as leaders to improve the human condition.
• Establish bridges with other University departments to link the learning process in developing values and life skills necessary for a pluralistic and global society.
• Create collaborative relationships with local communities/agencies to create and sustain a climate both in the community and the campus that fosters diversity.
• Maintain an open learning community where the free exchange of different points of view, inquiry, dialogue and civil discourse are encouraged.
• Foster professional practice, which emphasizes ethical conduct by all members of the campus community.