2024-2025 University Student Handbook

University Information

Mission Statement

The University of Jamestown is a student-centered university dedicated to the development of wholeness in all members of our community. We adhere to a curriculum of academic excellence which blends the liberal arts with sound professional preparation. Our commitment to the Christian faith encourages an atmosphere of self-discipline, responsibility, and concern for the continuing growth of the individual.

Vision Statement

The University of Jamestown seeks to be the best career-oriented, liberal arts university in the Midwest with a presence that extends into other strategically chosen regions across the United States.

We will do so through offering innovative academic programs in a variety of formats that blend the best of the liberal arts tradition with professional training in an engaged, student-centered, Christian environment that cultivates lifelong personal and professional success.

Identity Statement

The University of Jamestown exists to develop wholeness in all members of our community and to serve its students in a friendly, caring environment. Supported by faculty and staff who are committed to the success of our students, we make the transitions into college and from college-to-career as stress-free as possible.

We value academic excellence as well as a highly engaged student body, faculty, and staff. We blend the liberal arts with professional programs with the goal of graduating students who are well rounded and foundationally prepared for careers that are ever changing in an expanding global economy and lives that are lived in an increasingly complex society.

We believe that students can thrive in a variety of learning environments, whenever and however courses are offered. We promote a residential experience for our traditional undergraduate students, recognizing that a living-learning environment provides an outstanding opportunity for academic, social, and spiritual maturation and persistence. We provide online and hybrid offerings for learners who prefer the flexibility such formats offer while demanding a level of academic rigor that builds character, promotes ethical development, and leads to success in the workplace and further educational endeavors.

We are a Christian university founded in the Presbyterian tradition which welcomes students, faculty, and staff members of all faiths and denominations and fosters the spiritual lives of all members of our community.

Values Statement

You shall love the Lord our God with all our God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

The University of Jamestown is a fully independent, self-governing institution that shares an historic relationship with the Presbyterian Church (USA). We are non-sectarian and welcome students, faculty, and staff of all faiths and beliefs. Our Latin motto, “Lux et Veritas,” proclaims to all that the pursuit of truth lights our journey today as it has since 1883.

As a Christian institution of higher education in the Presbyterian tradition, we celebrate God through the use of our minds and the exercise of reason, believing that God is the source of all truth. We believe that learning and the search for truth are closely connected to faith.

We embrace the ongoing search for knowledge and truth as a way of liberating the human spirit and of understanding the world we share with others. The University of Jamestown promotes education as a means to improve lives, search for vocation, and create lifelong seekers of truth and wisdom. We value the life of the mind and the life of the spirit and therefore hold that faith and reason reinforce each other and that through mind, heart, and hands one can honor God and serve humanity.