Who We Are

Mission and Vision

Mission

The mission of Christopher Newport University is to provide educational and cultural opportunities that benefit CNU students, the residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the nation.

Christopher Newport provides outstanding academic programs, encourages service and leadership within the community, and provides opportunities for student involvement in nationally and regionally recognized research and arts programs.

Our primary focus is excellence in teaching, inspired by sound scholarship. At CNU, personal attention in small classes creates a student-centered environment where creativity and excellence can flourish. Our primary emphasis is to provide outstanding undergraduate education. We also serve the Commonwealth with master’s degree programs that provide intellectual and professional development for graduate-level students.

We are committed to providing a liberal arts education that stimulates intellectual inquiry and fosters social and civic values. Christopher Newport students acquire the qualities of mind and spirit that prepare them to lead lives with meaning and purpose. As a state university, we are committed to service that shapes the economic, civic, and cultural life of our community and Commonwealth.

Vision

Christopher Newport University, a small academically selective public university, is grounded in the principles of liberal learning and dedicated to the ideals of scholarship, leadership and service. We celebrate the values inherent in the liberal arts and sciences and live as a community of honor to inspire our students to lead lives of significance.

We aspire to be a preeminent, public liberal arts and sciences university. We will pursue excellence in all that we do and dedicate ourselves to those initiatives that will strengthen our teaching, our scholarship, our academic programs and disciplines, and our campus community. We will build an intimate, diverse, residential community which will attract the most academically talented, inquisitive and intellectually adventuresome students. We will ignite in our students a love of learning and instill a sense of responsibility and civic duty that will give our graduates the knowledge and confidence to engage as responsible leaders and citizens in their communities, the nation and the world.