From its founding, Stetson University has affirmed the importance of spiritual life and the quest for truth in its educational mission. The University motto, Pro Deo et Veritate (For God and Truth), is a symbol of this commitment, and expresses our determination to integrate the pursuit of a liberal education with the search for meaning in our lives and communities. Chartered as an independent and comprehensive university, Stetson has had an historical relationship with the Christian community and Baptist denomination. That relationship has shaped our commitment to build an inclusive community. Today, the University includes people from diverse religious, ethnic, cultural, economic, and intellectual backgrounds. It is thus from varying perspectives that members of the University community have joined together to affirm collectively

• The centrality of knowledge, examined ideas, and independent judgment in the life of an educated person;
• The inherent dignity, worth, and equality of all persons;
• The importance of community in human life;
• The role of religious and spiritual quests for meaning in human experience;
• The value of diverse persons and differing ideas in an educational community;
• The responsibility we share to work toward social justice;
• The necessity for decisions to be guided by ethics and social responsibility; and
• The obligation of individuals and communities to act as responsible stewards of the natural environment.

In our curricula and co-curricular activities, then, we aim to infuse liberal education with the values of religious and spiritual life, ethical decision-making, human diversity and commonality, gender equity, community service, environmental responsibility and health and wellness. We aspire to develop distinctive, innovative, and interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs that are centered on vigorous intellectual inquiry, informed by these values, increasingly global in perspective, and worthy of local and national recognition.