Great Colleges Are Built on Great Missions

Image via Claremont McKenna College.

Much ink has been spilled over the decision of Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr to suspend 12 students over the occupation of Carnegie Hall held on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. This article does not seek to confront certain circles’ moods of indignation, but rather to question assumptions many observers have made when approaching the issue. Colleges are not meant to be accountable to the student body they host in any particular moment, but rather the mission statements that ground them. Decisions based on the whims of the student body, rather than the moral imperatives of a mission statement, leave institutions without their fundamental anchor of meaning. 

Unfortunately, commentary on higher education often moves forth with the assumption that a college should be first and foremost accountable to its student body. Such a perspective takes a utilitarian view of collegiate education. Colleges are imagined as corporations with a consumer base. In 1872, Washington University Chancellor William G. Eliot declared “nothing can be more sad…than abundance of wealth where poverty of mind prevails.” Today, his institution advertises their memory foam mattresses while its professors demand students acquiesce to their political views. Other schools cater to their consumer base with filet mignon or a laundry folding service. Although most have mission statements, comparatively few colleges today primarily define or market themselves in those terms. Harvard University’s 2024 “Why Harvard?” page dedicates less space to academics than student life. In contrast, the first account of Harvard’s foundation, dated to 1643, justifies its existence on intellectual grounds and turns to the student body primarily to emphasize their conformance to Puritan moral standards.

In his inaugural speech, William G. Eliot also justified Washington University’s existence “in service of humanity.” Similar language echoes across many collegiate mission statements. Such rhetoric frames a college in service not to students but to greater ideals. The cost of focusing colleges on student desires, including amenities and pre-professionalism, is the civically-minded ideas institutions are meant to hold. This shift has fundamentally altered the nature of the liberal arts and American collegiate education. Student activity, including protests aimed at the college’s own ethos, trumps the educational and personal development of students. 

CMC presents an interesting workaround to this rule as a rare school that justifies its pre-professionalism within its mission statement. Since 1946, CMC has promised to “prepare students for thoughtful and productive lives and responsible leadership in business, government, and the professions.” Perhaps as a result of CMC’s status as a newcomer to the block of elite American colleges, this unique mission statement explicitly centers students rather than principles. What it lacks in a mission statement, however, CMC makes up for in a motto. Indeed, perhaps no college in the United States carries belief quite so clearly as CMC’s crescit cum commercio civitas — civilization prospers with commerce. CMC rhetorically centers these statements in its institutional brand and has aimed to attract and admit students who embody certain traits, such as valuing civic dialogue.  CMC defined its mission uniquely and has managed to stick to it. 

Other colleges should take heed. Turning the ship of higher education away from the tides of consumerism and towards purposeful adherence to a coherent mission offers an opportunity to reinvigorate the intellectual life of American colleges. Often, this will include deeply unpopular decisions. The leadership of Pomona College deserves respect for the very fact that they have acted so contrary to the wishes of so much of their student body. In the past months, President Starr and others have demonstrated that they have a backbone in a time when the masses demand that college administrators listen to their students, not the mandates provided by their mission. The greatest institutions of higher education were built on long term visions. To best serve their students and the country, colleges should stand by these founding principles and refuse to yield to transient student whims.