Our Mission
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To REACTIVATE the university’s public mission, merging research, teaching and service to improve quality of life in disadvantaged communities across the San Diego–Tijuana border region.
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To DEVELOP long-term partnerships between the university and community-based non profits to tackle today’s most pressing social and environmental challenges together.
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To EDUCATE a new generation of leaders capable of thinking ethically and collaboratively across disciplines.
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To PRODUCE public scholarship in collaboration with communities.
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To BUILD and PROGRAM new public spaces that educate, where buildings and spaces themselves operate as pedagogical tools, rendering transparent the social and energy systems they contain.
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To ADVANCE experimental forms of education, research, civic participation and economic development.
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To INSPIRE faculty across disciplines to do ethical, community-engaged research and practice in diverse, underserved contexts.
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To EXPAND experiential learning opportunities, and develop new field-based curricula that place students into actual communities settings.
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To MOBILIZE the arts and humanities as tools of civic engagement that increase public knowledge and collective capacity in disadvantaged communities.
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To PRODUCE new evidentiary data that can transform public policy.
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To SUPPORT communities developing their own neighborhood civic infrastructure and affordable housing.