Challenge Your Mind - Pursue Your Passions - Find Your Place - Build Your Success
Looking for more from your college experience – and from yourself? Come thrive at CMU. Empowered by a caring community, surrounded by every imaginable opportunity, you’ll discover your strengths. You’ll find your voice. You’ll achieve your very best – as a scholar, as a leader, as a difference-maker in the world.
| Academics CMU offers more than 40 programs of study, taught by expert faculty in highly personalized classes. |
Digital U As an undergraduate CLAS student at our main campus in Fayette, you’ll have the future at your fingertips with your very own iPad provided through CMU’s Digital U. |
| Discover Athletics Competing at the NAIA Division I level, Eagle athletics play an integral and spirited role in CMU's campus culture. |
Life after CMU Confident and well prepared, CMU graduates are highly sought after by leading employers and graduate schools. |
Founded in 1854, Central Methodist University is a four-year, private, liberal arts university. CMU's main campus, home to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), is located in Fayette, Missouri, enrolling 1,100 students. More than 4,000 students attend CMU's College of Graduate and Extended Studies (CGES), which offers classes online and at sites across Missouri and the region. CMU is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and welcomes students of all faiths.
Mission
Central Methodist University prepares students to make a difference in the world by emphasizing academic and professional excellence, ethical leadership, and social responsibility.
Creed
The Central Methodist University community, consistent with its United Methodist heritage, strives for academic excellence, individual achievement, and social responsibility. As members of that community we believe in:
- Seeking knowledge, truth, and wisdom;
- Valuing freedom, honesty, civility, and diversity;
- Living lives of service and leadership; and
- Taking responsibility for ourselves and the communities in which we live.
Statement on Civility
Civility is upholding the values of respect, kindness, and diplomacy in our direct and indirect interactions with others. Diversity is recognizing differences between people and perceiving these differences as an asset to the community.
Guiding Vision Statement & the University Learning Principles
Central Methodist University will be recognized and valued as an institution delivering distinctive academic programs of excellence, nested within a robust and supportive campus environment, preparing students for making a living and living a life.
To ensure that educational experiences at CMU engender the ideals incorporated in the mission and vision statements, the faculty, administration, and trustees adopted new university-wide learning principles and associated outcomes in Spring of 2016. Six of the nine outcomes will be used to assess the general education program. The remaining higher order outcome will be assessed at the senior, graduating student level. These are:
Communication (Articulate, Multimodal, Professional)
- Students are articulate, able to speak and write clearly and effectively.
- Students are multimodal, able to interpret and express ideas through multiple modes of communication.
- Students are professional, able to adapt to and interact with others in a confident, responsible, and engaged manner.
Curiosity (discover, analyze, create)
- Students can discover, explore, and seek solutions based on accumulated knowledge and current research.
- Students can analyze, evaluate, interpret, and summarize data.
- Students can create and innovate using critical thinking and collaborative skills.
Community (serve, respect, lead)
- Students will serve others and be ethical and informed citizens.
- Students will understand and respect diversity, including other’s viewpoints, positions, and beliefs.
- Students will lead creatively and collaboratively to produce positive changes in the broader world.
Values & Goals
Who We Are
Central Methodist University is known for its high-quality undergraduate and graduates educational programs, its values-centered learning experiences and longstanding church relationship, its strong liberal arts tradition, its emphasis on character and leadership development, and the success of its graduates through their further educational and professional pursuits. Characterized by academic excellence and proactive, personalized student services, programs are offered in Fayette and statewide via distance learning technologies as well as through partnerships with schools, churches, hospitals, and other institutions of higher education.
Values
Central Methodist University affirms its Wesleyan heritage and its unique place as the only United Methodist-related University in Missouri. The location of its main campus in a small, historic, rural community provides an opportunity for students to live and to learn in a safe setting. The University values its strong liberal arts, providing a foundation for excellent professional programs. CMU and its out-reach activities foster an environment in which a diverse student body can develop intellectually, socially, and spiritually. University life emphasizes honesty, integrity, civility, and a strong sense of personal responsibility as integral elements of character and leadership. Central Methodist University nurtures a spirit of community and caring, among students, faculty, and staff.
Educational Goals
The Central Methodist University experience engenders, through the academic program and opportunities for practical experiences, student growth in knowledge, personal integrity, spirituality, and professional competence. In addition, students are challenged to develop a sense of global citizenship and a commitment to the betterment of the world. Students with a CMU education are prepared to:
Academic Goals
- demonstrate knowledge of the liberal arts and academic specialties as well as technical skills and professional competencies.
- think critically and conceptually and apply their knowledge and skills to the solving of problems.
- communicate accurately and effectively through listening, speaking, and writing.
Character Goals
- continue to develop self-knowledge, confidence, and a sense of honor and commitment by assuming responsibility and leadership in the service of others.
- seek an understanding of ideas, issues, and events within and beyond their immediate community and appreciate the gifts of diversity.
- evaluate their personal strengths and abilities, and explore appropriate career choices in a changing world.
- have the courage to make decisions based on considerations of ethical, aesthetic, economic, and environmental consequences.
- commit themselves to a life exemplifying values in relationships with self, family, church, university, and community.
Change a Life - Refer a Student to CMU
Since 1854, CMU students have learned, lived, and grown as individuals destined to make a difference in the world. Whether they study in Fayette, online, or at one of CMU’s many centers in Missouri, they experience a life-changing transformation that leads to success. Know someone who would love our University? Help them find where they belong – as an Eagle at CMU!