Mission, Vision, & Values

As Thurgood Marshall College celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2020, the moment presented itself as an opportunity to revise the College’s vision, mission, and values. This resulted in a four-year endeavor to ensure the College remained true to its founding principles in light of the significant social and institutional changes of the past half century. Undergraduate students, alumni, faculty, and staff (past and present) all contributed to this revision. TMC’s vision, mission, and values statement below ensure that the College continues to participate actively in the ongoing growth and transformation of UC San Diego as a public university.

Vision

Thurgood Marshall College’s ongoing vision is defined by the original demands of the Lumumba Zapata Coalition, an alliance of Black and Chicano/a/x UC San Diego students who named themselves after revolutionary leaders Patrice Lumumba and Emiliano Zapata in order to demand from within the transformation of the university and, ultimately, larger society. Marshall College envisions a general education experience that redefines what it means to be a scholar and citizen by empowering members of the Marshall community to: explore their own complex identities, analyze structures of power and privilege within society, and enact systemic change in the name of justice.

Mission

At Thurgood Marshall College, we are dedicated to empowering students from all majors to become scholars critically aware of the complex histories of ongoing social struggle and of the roles they play in shaping the future. Marshall College furthermore centers mutuality and recognizes that students themselves teach and transform the College through their very presence and participation in it. 

Values

Interdisciplinary Learning

Through an emphasis on interdisciplinarity, our students develop a consciousness of the ways in which our society transforms over time, the relevance of identities within society, and their own capacity to effect societal change through collective movements. Our core sequence centers insights from history, ethnic studies, cultural studies, political science, sociology, writing studies, and gender studies. Additional general-education requirements include courses in mathematics, physical and biological sciences, humanities, and the arts. 

Community Cultural Wealth

Members of Thurgood Marshall College bring to the university a wealth of cultural knowledge shaped by their experiences and communities. Honoring this deep cultural knowledge equally alongside interdisciplinary learning resists racist hierarchies, ensures centering student voices in the classroom, and promotes the inclusion of “marginalized” ways of knowing in the university. We develop our collective knowledge within and beyond the classroom by centering our complex identities and social positions in our learning. 

Coalition Building

Pursuing interdisciplinary learning and centering community cultural wealth enable students to critically understand themselves as scholars and citizens. Thurgood Marshall College rejects a narrow definition of “citizen” that relies on legality and documentation. Like the College’s namesake Justice Thurgood Marshall, our scholars and citizens value critiquing the status quo and breaking down borders in order to build coalitions according to a radical hope for an equitable future. We prioritize self-advocacy alongside collective accountability, personal responsibility alongside communal care, and building alliances from the ground up in the name of comprehensive institutional transformation and structural change.