Mission Statement and the Rider Promise

Rider University welcomes students from throughout the region, across the nation, and around the world who seek to be challenged and supported as active members of our inclusive and vibrant living and learning community. Committed to student growth, transformation and leadership, we connect rigorous academic, artistic and professional programs of study with a rich array of learning experiences that engage students inside and outside the classroom. We prepare graduates to thrive professionally and to be lifelong independent learners and responsible citizens who embrace diversity, support the common good, and contribute meaningfully to the changing world in which they live and work.

Our students, alumni, faculty, staff and administrators live the RIDER PROMISE by being forever:

The Rider PROMISE is offered as a representation of the mission. It is inspired by our recent 150th anniversary which embraced the tagline, Fulfilling the Promise. This tagline was, in turn, inspired by Andrew J. Rider himself as discussed in the historical books written by Dr. Walter A. Brower ’48, former Dean of the School of Education. Andrew J. Rider declared in 1883 that Rider's future was full of promise. The Rider PROMISE is offered as part of the mission in response to student feedback this past spring that we try to represent the mission in a visual or graphic way.