As the "living room" or the "hearth" of the university, the Student Center provides for the services, conveniences, and amenities that full and part-time graduate and undergraduate students, faculty and staff need in their daily life on the campus and for getting to know and understand one another through informal association outside the classroom.

The University Student Center is the community of the university, for all the members of the university family -- students, faculty, administration, alumni, and guests. It is not just a building; it is also an organization and a program. The center is the only place on campus where full and part-time graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, staff, alumni and the administration all come together.

The center is part of the education program of the university. As the center of university community life, it serves as a laboratory of citizenship, training students in social responsibility and for leadership in our democracy. Through its various boards, committees, and staff, it provides a cultural, social, and recreational program, aiming to make free-time activity a cooperative factor with study in education.

In all its processes, the center encourages self-directed activity, giving maximum opportunity for self-realization and for growth in individual social competency and group effectiveness. Its goal is the development of persons as well as intellects.

The center serves as a unifying force in the life of the university, cultivating enduring regard for, and loyalty to, the university.