Mission Statements

This post sort of ties into what Karen said in her post, but I thought perhaps it could be on its own. Lowe places much emphasis on establishing a mission statement for the Writing Center. I know that the Writing Center at Ball State does not have a mission statement on their website, and I have not seen one elsewhere on their advertisements. I'm wondering why. I know Jackie had mentioned in class one day that she did not like mission statements, so I wondering whether or not mission statements are a necessity. I assume that it depends on each writing center. Perhaps, Ball State's Writing Center has one, but it is just not made public, which brings me to my next question: What's the advantage of making a mission statement public?