Case Western Reserve is
a high-impact research university
that aspires to be a community
where humanity, science and technology meet
to create a just and thriving world
About our North Star Statement
High-Impact Research
We are a comprehensive research university that strives to have an even greater impact—from books and publications, to the classroom, to patient care and disease breakthroughs, to product development and beyond.
A Community
We aspire to be a campus community without barriers and silos among faculty, staff and students. We seek to build a holistic local and global community that aspires to exchange ideas among all of its people, and in every sense. We must support one another and talk about difficult things. We must be intentional. We must serve as an anchor institution to our surrounding neighborhoods and region, and be a congealing place in University Circle and in Cleveland.
Where Humanity, Science and Technology Meet
We must unite our disciplines. Those who aim to understand and improve the human condition must work alongside those who are making advances in science and technology. We must connect people who have diverse ways of thinking so that they can create new knowledge and new solutions, together.
To Create
We must look beyond what is possible to achieve what is new, both physically and philosophically.
A Just and Thriving World
We want to be intentional in doing our work, with the goal of supporting a just and thriving world. This means thriving personally, financially and professionally. It means legal justice. Human justice. It means acting ethically. As a university community, we must create with purpose and meaning.
The North Star: An historical connection to CWRU
Case Western Reserve University and specifically, it's predecessor Western Reserve College, played an important role in the anti-slavery movement. In fact, abolitionist sentiment was strong among Western Reserve College students and faculty from the early 1830s. In 1854, Frederick Douglass, a former slave and an outspoken proponent of abolitionism, addressed the Western Reserve College Philozetian Society during Commencement Week, urging the audience to take an active role in the slavery debate. Earlier in his advocacy, he developed one of the most influential African American antislavery publications of the pre-Civil War era. The name of that newspaper? The North Star.