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Mission & Goals

"Learned institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty."

James Madison to W.T. Barry, August 4, 1822.

Public scholarship at Penn State has developed around the belief that we can incorporate democratic capacity into our curriculum. Public scholarship argues that:

we have an obligation to prepare students to view participation in the democracy not as a one time or occasional contribution of good will, but as the continual work of citizenship;

that we have an obligation to help students not only to understand the meaning and history of democracy, but also to bring the university’s work in the arts, sciences, and professions to bear on democracy’s practice;

and that as educators we have a special obligation with and through our students to conserve the discovery and diffusion of knowledge that are the lifeblood of democracy as well as of the university.

Mission & Goals

"Learned institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty." James Madison to W.T. Barry, August 4, 1822.

"Learned institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty."

James Madison to W.T. Barry, August 4, 1822.