Expressed in its still-relevant motto Urbi et Orbi, the mission of Long Island University since 1926 has been to open the doors of the city and the world to men and women of all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds who wish to achieve the satisfaction of the educated life and to serve the public good. Its mission is to awaken, enlighten and expand the minds of its students.

Generation after generation, the students who have enrolled in the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University have come from varied, primarily urban backgrounds. Like their predecessors, many of today's students are new to America and new to the English language or are the first in their families to seek a university education. At the Brooklyn Campus, all students find an academic community where cultural, ethnic, religious, racial, sexual, and individual differences are respected and where commonalities are affirmed. This requires the Campus to be open and welcoming, even as it maintains respect for intellectual, cultural and academic traditions.

Nationally recruited, the faculty has a strong commitment to teaching, to personal advisement of students, to the fullest range of scholarship, and to faculty development and service.

The Brooklyn Campus recognizes both the faculty's training and experience and the character of its diverse student body as two of its greatest strengths and challenges. No matter what their background or generation, students come to the Brooklyn Campus to build the educational and intellectual foundations for successful personal lives and careers. The Campus faculty and administration believe that a liberal education, along with careful preparation for a fulfilling career, is the best way to achieve this end.

To carry out its mission, the Brooklyn Campus offers comprehensive undergraduate curricula, supported by advanced courses for specialized knowledge and graduate programs in those areas in which it has developed strength or has a unique contribution to make. In addition, the Campus has designed programs to permit students to acquire essential literacies, intellectual curiosity, analytic and reasoning skills, and effective communication skills. In this way, the Campus serves as a conservator of knowledge, a source and promulgator of new knowledge, and a resource for the community it serves.