AACSB mission-linked accreditation gives business schools and accounting programs an incentive to review their mission statements. Faculty and administrators are responsible for developing mission statements supported by specific objectives. Although the individuals participating in and affected by accounting education programs have objectives, the literature is not precise in defining what it means for the programs themselves to have objectives. Educational programs are social (multiperson) activities involving heterogeneous constituencies. Previous accounting literature outside the education context identifies three interpretations of the objectives of a social activity. An examination of these interpretations sheds light on the difficulty of identifying a manageable, specific, internally consistent, meaningful, and broadly accepted set of objectives to support a general statement of mission.