Oakwood’s President Addresses the Mission of Higher Education

The Adventist Review recently published an article by President Leslie N. Pollard, Ph.D., which addresses the mission of Seventh-day Adventist higher education. The article is taken from Dr. Pollard’s remarks at the Inaugural Faculty Development Institute (May, 2016).   

In part, he said that since 1896 Oakwood has, through all its program adjustments and adaptations, consistently attempted to implement its mission in every generation.

Oakwood’s mission is to lead students into a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the principal purpose of an Adventist education. However, the second is “like unto it”: We work every day a
t Oakwood University to impart a worldview that equips students for success in service now, and that outfits them for service throughout eternity. Newly tooled and totally surrendered graduates leave this institution to honor God, have an impact, and serve humanity.

This dual purpose—to lead students into a relationship with Jesus Christ and to effectively impart a distinctively Seventh-day Adventist world-view designed to provide the biblical foundations for moral and ethical decision-making—fulfills our educational mission.

This dual process is foundational to the curricular and cocurricular environments of our university. These purposes grant us our unique identity within the marketplace of higher education.