SJSU's Mission, Vision and Values

Mission

Honoring our roots as the first public university in the West, SJSU is an empowering institution enrolling historically underserved students, driving inclusion, and embracing talent from diverse cultures from our region and across the globe. SJSU’s spirit of innovation and creativity drives academic excellence, teaching, research, and service in a learning environment where all students belong. Together, we nurture leaders to thrive and transform our community, Silicon Valley, and the world.

Vision

San José State University will be a nationally and globally recognized, student-centered public urban research university cultivating equity-minded social impact, global innovation, and community engagement.

Values

• We are champions for student success

  • What we do: We serve our diverse students by actively identifying and working towards dismantling systemic inequities in our institution. By removing obstacles, we provide opportunities to learn, grow and effect change in their spheres of influence as alumni.

    How we strive to do it: We create an intellectual environment in which hands-on, transformational learning experiences help students, faculty, and staff collaboratively address complex issues in global communities. We establish practices that address students’ holistic needs and support their academic excellence, personal development, and well-being.

• We are visionary and community-minded

  • What we do: We are the original start-up in Silicon Valley and a downtown San Jose anchor institution [pdf] that continues to ignite the next generation of talent locally and globally. We contribute to the continuous evolution and growth of this center of big ideas driven by big thinkers.

    How we strive to do it: We lead with intentionality to increase the University’s presence and impact in a vibrant and diverse downtown San Jose community as well as the wider Bay Area region while confronting challenging environmental, social, technological, and economic issues. We cultivate relentless curiosity, creativity, and entrepreneurship to drive every aspect of what we do.

• We are inclusive and equity-minded

  • What we do: We are committed to and embody the movement for social and racial justice. Our pursuit to eradicate disparities and advance justice encompasses all axes of difference, backgrounds, and identities and promotes a sense of belonging and empowerment in our community. 

    How we strive to do it: We honor the dignity and resilience of all people, beginning with our region’s Indigenous communities. We support intersectional identities across race, class, faith, gender, sexuality, and ability so that each person can excel. We cultivate compassion, equity-mindedness and cultural humility. We provide an educational experience for our community that is rooted in socio-economic and culturally-affirming practices, encourages self-advocacy, and prepares students to be engaged citizens in a complex global world.

• We are trustworthy and act with integrity and accountability

  • What we do: We uphold ethical behavior in all that we do as credible and honest citizens to our university, alumni, community, and society.

    How we strive to do it: We embrace a culture of care and respect that delivers on our commitments to transparency, honesty and integrity to each other and those we serve. We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards.

• We are collaborative and embrace teamwork

  • What we do: We are better together. We advance the university community’s experience, the public good, and the community at large through intentional collaborations and partnerships.

    How we strive to do it: We foster collaboration and teamwork in a manner that supports and advances our mission and vision. We build positive internal and external partnerships to ensure a safe, healthy, and productive environment that promotes achievement, well-being, career readiness, and discovery.

Action Plan Framework

Read the full Campus Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Action Plan Framework, which provides a roadmap for the campus that is specific to diversity, equity and inclusion.