The kind of university I believe we can build by our 150th anniversary will honor our historical mandate of accessibility, affordability, and citizenship preparation. It will be a university that embraces the diversity of our students, faculty and staff as a means of accommodating the changing racial, ethnic and religious face of our nation.

Our university will be a leader in global education, producing citizens of this country who will serve as economic and cultural ambassadors to the world, and enabling international students to carry back to their homelands the American ethic of achievement through education.

SIU will join the ranks of great student-centered teaching and research universities with state-of-the-art libraries, lecture halls, laboratories, and technology to match the quality of our students and faculty.

We will be a university, sharing our vision, unified in our support of each other while respecting the distinct missions of each campus. Through sharing and collaboration our common mission as one university will be achieved.

Besides producing good citizens, SIU will strive to be one, with out-reach programs that share our resources and skills with the many populations we serve. We will lead, not follow, in the educational and economic development of central and southern Illinois.

Thus, our vision will maintain accessibility, affordability, and high academic achievements along with building good citizenship. It will embrace diversity, promote international education, and produce excellent research. The SIU family will be unified in building a greater sense of community, sharing a common vision while appreciating our differences, and exhibiting outstanding “citizen leadership” to our area.

It took Delyte Morris, together with the entire SIU family, to give us our spirit and pride as a university. That accomplished, we are prepared to stretch forth once again with renewed purpose to the challenges that await us. We have learned much of ourselves in the intervening years and, in the widening vision of great universities, we stand ready to project those values and ideals that will govern us though the next century.

Glenn Poshard, President
June, 2006