Community College Mission [electronic resource] : A '60s Mission Looking at a Y2K World / Bernard H. Levin.
Although the world has changed considerably in the past three decades, community colleges and their guiding missions have largely not adapted to changing conditions. College mission statements tend to be unfocused documents that provide overly broad goals. In the business world, the mission statemen...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
[S.l.] :
Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1998.
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| Summary: | Although the world has changed considerably in the past three decades, community colleges and their guiding missions have largely not adapted to changing conditions. College mission statements tend to be unfocused documents that provide overly broad goals. In the business world, the mission statements of effective companies are brief, crisp, and clear, while even governmental and religious agencies manage to develop mission statements that are more focused and succinct than those of community colleges. The questions for college officials, then, are why their mission statements are so unfocused and what benefits would occur if they were fixed. If vague mission statements are not seen as a significant problem, the use of the statement as a guide to college action is seriously called into question. Another question to address is why current college missions overlap so much with those of the 1960's, when so much has changed since then. Finally, college officials should consider the effects an unfocused mission statement might have on state officials seeking to implement stricter outcomes assessment and performance-based funding. An appendix provides a general education survey developed by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, illustrating the increasing emphasis of state officials on the rationale and structure of college programs. (Contains 12 references.) (BCY) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED421182. ERIC Note: Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Southeastern Association for Community College Research (27th, Pine Mountain, GA, August 2-5, 1998). |
| Physical Description: | 25 p. |