Mission

Gettysburg College, a national, residential, undergraduate college committed to a liberal education, prepares students to be active leaders and participants in a changing world. This statement is grounded in the core values of the institution:

• We believe in the worth and dignity of all people and the limitless value of their intellectual potential;
  
  
• We acknowledge the power of a liberal arts education to help students develop critical thinking skills, broad vision, effective communications, a sense of the inter-relatedness of all knowledge, sensitivity to the human condition, and a global perspective, all necessary to enable students to realize their full potential for responsible citizenship;
  
  
• We value the enrichment of the traditional liberal arts and sciences curriculum with the most promising intellectual developments of the age;
  
  
• We encourage the free and open marketplace of ideas and the exploration of the ethical and spiritual dimensions of those ideas, both indispensable to helping students learn to determine which have lasting value;
  
  
• We hold true the value of a lifelong commitment to service and the role of the college in both providing an example of public service for students and fostering a commitment to service among our young people; and
  
  
• We believe that a residential college is the most effective means of promoting the personal interaction between student and professor, and student and student, which develops the community that is the heart of a liberal arts education.