Mission and Goals of the Open U Of the International Institute for Human Understanding (IIHU)
“human understanding takes more than one perspective”
Within our overall mission of promoting human understanding so as to foster tolerance, compassion and the welfare of all humankind and the environment, the iihu’s Open U is dedicated to meeting educational needs of the Southeast Florida community relevant to our mission. Members of the iihu and its’ Open U believe that it is only through human understanding and the motivation to make change can we as people:

• Promote ethical, cultural, social and political responses reflective of humanitarian ideals.
• Alleviate human suffering and enhance quality of life for all.
• Advance the values of tolerance, justice, compassion among people and freedom from oppression.
• Inspire the search for meaning within cultures, contexts, and contingencies and respond appropriately.
• Develop programs based on human understanding directed to solving problems that contribute to inequality, injustice and poverty of all types.

We understand that these goals are concepts, and they are commonly used by many organizations, but we are the only organization that is offering education courses to promote the underlying understanding that is necessary to accomplish such goals--yet not attained in our society.

Thus our primary purpose for the Open University is to foster human understanding through education so as to promote quality of life based on equality, opportunity and education. Equality and opportunity through education in an open university means that the doors of the university are open to any individual who is interested in gaining a better understanding of human nature, the individual and groups, culture, societies and the populations that comprise the local, national and international worlds. In-depth study of the multiplicity of worldviews, polyvocality, multiple realities, and intersubjectivity will be encouraged in discourse.

"Conversation is the production site of knowledge." Steinar Kvale

An open university goes beyond physical structural limitations and reaches out to the community to focus on improving the life of those on the local, national and international levels. Concepts relative to the postmodern world will be favored over the traditional worldview of teaching and learning through the use of imaginative and creative ways of coming to know and to understand. Open U is a non-traditional educational institute. It offers formal occasions for learning opportunities throughout the calendar year. However, Open U does not award credit, maintain transcripts, or function under accreditation requirements.

Open U is a place where an idea—at once old but novel—known as conversation occurs. Conversation has become a lost talent among skill-acquisition curricula and career-oriented learning opportunities. But conversation is fundamental to the human community. Conversation builds tolerance, compassion and the common welfare of humankind.

Tolerance, compassion and the common welfare of humankind require vigilant attention from all people, everywhere. To foster tolerance, compassion and the common welfare of humankind, Open U offers open-enrollment, non-requisite courses, which are “conversations.”

Conversations are formal occasions for Open U to engage in educational topics that command a wide audience. These educational topics cross ethnic, linguistic, religious, racial, gender and generational boundaries. Such topics are at the core of human experience. Sometimes the topics are posed as questions, such as How can I help?

Therefore, the mission of the Open U is to build educational conversations locally, in the Southeast Florida region, as well as across the globe. Improvements in parity of resource distribution, civil discourse among and between so-called identity groups, and building the metaphor of a global home to be shared in business and commerce, politics, transportation, housing, religion, access to food and water, and civil administration are projected outcomes of these educational conversations.