This vision, mission, and goals support the broader institutional vision that is articulated in the 2013-2018 Academic Master Plan because it will promote Shippensburg University as “a national model for quality public higher education in the liberal arts tradition, both through dynamic faculty-student engagement and through the integration of academic, professional, cultural, and service experiences.” We envision that undergraduate and graduate students will become involved with the CLUS through student-faculty research and service learning programs, which will “encourage and facilitate collaborative learning opportunities” (Goal 2.5), create new opportunities for high-impact experiential learning (Goal 3.1), “support faculty in their roles as academic and professional mentors (Goal 3.1),” and provide a mechanism to strengthen university and community connections (Goal 3.3 and 6.5). As an interdisciplinary center with dedicated support staff, the CLUS will serve as a faculty recruitment and retention tool (Goal 4.1), support faculty professional development in the areas of research and scholarship (Goal 4.2), and will specifically foster interdisciplinary collaborations (Goal 4.6).