College Mission Statements Research Articles

Learning Transdisciplinary Collaboration: Undergraduate Student Perceptions of Successes and Areas for Improvement in Transdisciplinary, Problem-Focused Honors Seminar Courses

The honors college at a large land-grant research university developed transdisciplinary courses to provide undergraduate opportunities for small, student-centered classes and collaborative problem engagement in a global context. In these courses, students engage principles of competency-based education and inquiry-based learning combined with instruction in transdisciplinarity and decision-making tied to the college mission statement and course learning outcomes. As an observational study, we surveyed 91 honors students from 12 transdisciplinary courses over three semesters, asking five-point Likert scale questions and open-ended perspective questions at the beginning and end of each semester. Participants predominantly identified as White (74%), male (57%), senior-level students (67%), and represent 34 majors. Findings emphasize outcomes of lasting faculty relationships and opportunities to explore interests outside students’ majors, which respondents report influencing their academic development. Students also report areas for curricular improvement in developing research skills and engaging problem-focused experiences. We describe new offerings made to address findings.

A Full Spectrum of Interpretation: A Discourse-Historical Analysis of One Community College’s Mission Statement

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the internal and external forces that led to the creation and revisions of a community college’s mission statement over the course of its 53-year history. We used discourse-historical analysis to examine published college mission statements, transcripts of interviews with the founding dean of the college, and the college’s archives (including meeting minutes, accreditation reports, and other internal correspondence). Emerging findings were further contextualized through additional primary sources. We found that the college’s founders were influenced by the humanistic education movement and crafted a mission statement that reflected humanistic ideals of self-actualization and positive growth for the betterment of humanity. This original mission statement was nearly unaltered for the first 15 years of the college’s existence. However, external forces, including the rise of neoliberalism within education, led to a complete rewrite of the mission statement. The revised statement, reflecting a neoliberal understanding of the purpose of community college education, remains in place. This study demonstrates the influence of external forces, including those contrary to the college’s founding principles, on its mission. Given the fact that community colleges serve a vast majority of disadvantaged students, the impact of neoliberal policy is particularly concerning.

Measuring intercultural knowledge and competence in college essays: Does a performance-based rubric have construct validity?

College mission statements describe their belief that a meaningful college experience includes curricular and co-curricular activities that challenge students to develop socially-responsible attitudes and actions toward others. This charge highlights the dynamic role of the university in society and the need for valid measures to evaluate mission effectiveness and inform programmatic decision-making. In response to this need, research regarding the use of rubrics for rating performance-based assignments (PBAs) such as college essays is growing (McConnell et al., 2019). This study explored the construct validity and reliability of a performance-based rubric, the Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE Rubric (Rhodes, 2010), the items of which are posited to measure elements of Social Responsibility (SR). Using data from PBAs embedded within general-education courses and scored by multi-disciplinary faculty, we evaluated aspects of construct validity and reliability of the rubric. Overall, our results provide evidence that this rubric has favorable statistical properties that lend support to its usage.

Linking college mission statements to cost containment strategies

PurposeLeaders at higher education institutions (HEIs) in the USA experience substantial pressure to contain costs while advancing their educational missions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between publicly stated academic cost-containment objectives found in HEI’s strategic plans and mission statements, which help to unify stakeholders and link strategy to an organization’s purpose.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzes mission statements and strategic plans of 57 small, private HEIs in the Northeastern USA. HEIs in this sample published strategic plans with an explicit cost-containment goal. Mission statements were analyzed for readability. Thematic analysis was conducted using the balanced scorecard approach. Associations between a stated academic cost containment goal and mission statement themes are presented using logistic regression.FindingsMission statements of HEIs focused on academic cost containment are wordier and more varied. They tend not to mention “liberal arts,” a potential signal of a high-quality, high-cost school; less selective schools may be more likely to emphasize academic cost cutting.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper contributes to the literature demonstrating mission statements’ role in goal setting. Further, it considers college costs from college administrators’ perspectives. Given the small sample size, future work should expand the sample and use case studies to explore how mission shapes or constrains strategic objectives.Originality/valueThis is the first paper using qualitative and quantitative analysis to explore the association between the mission statements of small HEIs and academic cost containment goals in strategic plans, documents intended to support differentiation in a crowded market.

Three Functions of the Community College Mission Statement

AbstractThis chapter describes the historical context of community college mission statements and proposes that these texts serve three functions: public relations, management, and sensemaking.

Letter to the Editor: Is Advising a Political Activity?

Letter to the Editor: Is Advising a Political Activity?

Mission-Driven Adaptability in a Changing National Training System

This case study of an adult and community education provider based in far north Queensland describes its capacity to balance various iterations of public policy against its vision for the future of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders. Community-controlled organisations wanting to contribute to economic and social development in regional/remote Australia through the use of formally recognised vocational education and training have adjusted to at least three major sociopolitical changes at the national policy level since the early 1990s. These include redefining equity, marketising the delivery of public services and increased centralisation. The contemporary orientation of vocational education and training as part of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy has become a highly prescriptive and heavily centralised mechanism for the establishment of employment outcomes. This has been framed as an obligation and right of Australian citizenship as opposed to the other wellbeing and personal development benefits of education. This registered training organisation has navigated four burdensome (re)definitions of equity that have made planning and delivery of true lifelong training objectives difficult. The provider has embraced the marketisation of the sector and navigated other policy changes in order to provide the services and knowledge set out in the college mission statement.

The Function to Serve: A Social-Justice-Oriented Investigation of Community College Mission Statements

This study investigated the ways that mission statements from 70 Hispanic-serving community colleges communicated their commitment to their Hispanic-serving function. Reference specifically to the Hispanic-serving function was absent, but references to culture and access were relatively common. Findings describe the ways culture and access were used in the mission statements. The article suggests more explicit reference to the Hispanic-serving nature of the institution in materials readily available to the public.

Using Socrates to Teach Psychology

A cursory reading of most college mission statements can take one’s breath away in their lofty, humanistic sweep. The same is true for many course goals for Introductory Psychology. An analysis of 150 Introductory Psychology syllabi revealed that nearly 88% of courses attempt to achieve at least four of five humanistic outcomes. Students are expected to attain rich theoretical understanding, engage in critical and higher order thinking, change deep-seated attitudes, apply concepts to everyday life, and grow personally. At the end of the semester, however, many psychology instructors wonder about the extent to which these goals have actually been achieved and how much their students have learned, particularly when courses are structured around the “big textbook” and delivered in the traditional lecture format. This article presents a lively and accessible course outline for using Platonic dialogues and the ancient figure of Socrates to teach modern psychology. Socrates is among the world’s most engaging and effective teachers. He is also regarded as one of the founding figures of humanistic psychology who would have had serious problems with the didactic teaching methods and sterile textbooks of today’s college classrooms. The article shows how encountering Socrates and engaging Plato’s dialogues can help professors achieve many of the laudable humanistic goals they have for their students.

Using a Mixed Methods Content Analysis to Analyze Mission Statements From Colleges of Engineering

A mixed method design was used to conduct a content analysis of the mission statements of colleges of engineering to map inductively derived codes with the EC 2000 outcomes and to test if any of the codes were significantly associated with institutions with reasonably strong representation of women. Most institution’s (25 of 48) mission statement had two or fewer of the outcomes endorsed by the accrediting agency. The diversity code was significantly related to the representation of women, but is not one of the outcomes identified by the accrediting agency. The research demonstrates how mixed methods can be applied to content analysis.

Community colleges and the politics of sociospatial scale

In an analysis of 421 community college mission statements, I demonstrate how community colleges recontextualize a dominant discourse in which economic activity at the global scale transcends regulation, the nation-state lacks the moral authority to influence markets, and local communities have no choice but to adapt. Findings suggest that the community college has appropriated economic development as a mission priority and tacitly accommodated scalar relations typical of post-Fordism. On the other hand, a rival hypothesis suggests a competing trend in which colleges prepare and empower students to engage in sociopolitical processes at a global scale.

An Analysis of Baccalaureate College Mission Statements

We examined baccalaureate colleges mission statements to better understand how these organizations represent themselves to potential students and other external constituent groups. We drew these documents from two sources, the colleges’ official web sites and an archive constructed and maintained by U.S. News and World Report. Most sampled colleges submitted revised or different mission statements to U.S. News than published officially on institutional websites. Our findings suggested that the communication patterns of baccalaureate colleges are both vague and idiosyncratic. Official mission statements often proved descriptive or appealed to normative concepts. The statements submitted to U.S. News, by contrast, often utilized “strategically deployed shifters.” These terms suggested legitimate content but eluded precise definition. Mission statements submitted to U.S. News thereby proved amenable to student recruitment efforts.

Transformative Higher Education

College mission statements often describe learning that is intended to transform students and communities. This study revealed that 35% of participating college students reported experiencing transformative learning as a result of critical reflection on disorienting college experiences. This study explores curricular and pedagogical interventions designed to move critical reflection and perspective transformation from the periphery of higher education curriculum into a central framework for teaching, as an act of intentionality and decision making. These interventions require substantial curriculum and assessment rethinking and redesign from faculty in teacher education programs—as well as faculty of all disciplines—in order for higher education students to earn a meaningful degree of understanding.

Valuing diversity at Wigan & Leigh College

PurposeExamines how Wigan & Leigh College, in partnership with learning expert Academee, has put in place policies, practices, training and development to promote equality and inclusion for staff and students and to create a culture where diversity is valued.Design/methodology/approachDraws on information provided by the college's staff‐development co‐ordinator and by the director of diversity at Academee.FindingsDescribes how the strategic management team took part in a three‐day workshop to raise awareness of key issues and to expand the action plan. The college appointed internal equality and diversity champions. An ambitious target of training more than 150 college staff in under three months was achieved. Building on this, Academee and the college began to develop spin‐off training programmes aimed at different groups of staff.Practical implicationsReveals that the college's mission statement and core values now reflect its focus on diversity and equality. There is an increased and broader awareness of equality and diversity across the college. Both staff and students are more conscious of how equality and diversity affect their day‐to‐day activities.Originality/valueShows that staff and students at the college have become increasingly diverse over the past four years, and the college is also helping to promote integration within the town as a whole.

Community Colleges' Use of the Web to Communicate Their Mission: Slights of Commission and Omission

This basic interpretive qualitative study identified, described, and interpreted community college mission statement messages as they appeared in print and on the web site. The study analyzed each institution's similar, different, unique, and unintended messages. The within-case inductive analysis found emergent mission statement messages in the print materials and on the web site. A deductive analysis then was conducted using Newsom and Hayes (1990) mission statement component framework. Inductive and deductive cross-case analyses were completed to compare and contrast institutional messages resulting in the 3 themes discussed in this article: access, diversity, and service area. The authors recommend that community colleges use an inductive and deductive checklist to examine their print materials and web site for message consistency between the two mediums and their mission statement.

Indian Education for All: A Tribal College Perspective

WHEN delegates to Montana's 1972 constitutional convention inserted new language into the constitution regarding the cultural and educational integrity of the state's American Indians, little did they know the impact it would have on education some 34 years later. Bringing that constitutional language to life in Montana's classrooms would be a precarious journey, finally resulting in its codification in the Indian Education for All (IEFA) Act, passed in 1999, and the law's historic funding by the state legislature in 2005. Adding to all of these events was the election of Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who proposed an increase in funding for IEFA. Gov. Schweitzer's proposal included a unique provision: funding to support Montana's seven tribal colleges in their efforts to write their own tribal histories, called the Tribal Histories Project. Montana's tribal colleges have always operated in accordance with the tenets of IEFA, and many include in their mission statements the advancement of their tribes' culture and traditions. current challenge facing tribal colleges is to meet the demands of Montana's education community for accurate and appropriate information about tribes while still carrying out their own unique and specific functions. THE MISSION OF TRIBAL COLLEGES Tribal colleges were created as a response to demands for higher education opportunities in Native communities. Starting in 1968 with the establishment of Navajo Community College, tribes began bringing college courses to their members. During the early 1970s, many tribal colleges in Montana began developing partnerships with existing community colleges and four-year institutions to create satellite campuses on reservations. Tribal education leaders worked with a newly formed organization, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, to lay the groundwork for the establishment of Montana's first tribal colleges. In 1984, Salish Kootenai College in Pablo became the state's first accredited tribally controlled college. Today, all seven of Montana's tribal colleges are fully accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Tribal colleges have become success stories unto themselves. Their graduates have gone to work for the tribes or have gone on to obtain bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. While increasing tribal members' access to higher education, the colleges have also helped to maintain and preserve tribal cultures and languages. Tribal history and language courses are part of the core graduation requirements at tribal colleges, and many have established tribal archives to store and protect important photos and documents. For some students, attending one of these colleges may be their first opportunity to learn about their history and culture from a tribal perspective. Little Big Horn College, located in Crow Agency, Montana, is a good example of the tribal colleges' role in transmitting and preserving culture. college's mission statement reads, in part, The College is committed to the preservation, perpetuation, and protection of Crow culture and language and respects the distinct bilingual and bicultural aspects of the Crow Indian community. (1) Students can take Crow Language I, Crow Language II, and Conversational Crow. Other course offerings, such as Crow Social and Familial Kinship and History of the Crow Chiefs, address Crow culture and history. Students may even earn a two-year degree in Crow Studies. Staff members and students converse in Crow in class and at work. College Board of Trustees conducts its business meetings in the Crow language. David Yarlott, Jr., president of Little Big Horn College, stresses the importance of the Crow language and culture to the college: The part in our mission statement that states 'committed to the preservation, perpetuation, and protection of Crow culture and language' says it all for me. It is not only a statement, but I feel it. …

Toxicology and Carcinogenesis: A Course for Undergraduate Non‐Science Majors

A goal for liberal arts education is for students to be broadly educated in the liberal arts and sciences in order that they may “provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world” (Kalamazoo College Mission Statement). For many students in the liberal arts, the requirement to follow a minimum number of courses in the natural sciences can be frustrating - or even frightening, due to past negative experiences. At Kalamazoo College, as at many other undergraduate institutions, specific “non-majors” courses in the natural sciences are offered for those students seeking to fulfill their natural science requirement outside of courses in the major sequence. These non-major courses have the minimum goals of increasing science literacy and introducing scientific method via a hands-on experience. An additional goal is to offer courses that will be meaningful to students and allow them to apply knowledge from their broader education to the topic. One area of wide public interest is in cancer. Coupled to this are interests in health effects of pollution, environmental exposure to carcinogens, and understanding cancer risks and mechanisms. Out of these interests and needs, a course in toxicology and carcinogenesis was developed in the Chemistry Department at the College. Methods, outcomes, and student reactions are presented.

Neoliberal Ideology in Community College Mission Statements: A Critical Discourse Analysis

This critical discourse analysis focuses on neoliberal discursive representations of the community college mission. The community college's role in reproducing social inequality is explained as a neoliberal discursive project in which meanings of education are reconstituted to secure the interests of the powerful. As such, the community college mission becomes defined in economic instead of democratic terms. The author calls for a counter-hegemonic discourse that represents the community college as an opportunity for emancipation.

Dolores E. Battle

Dolores E. Battle

Helping Students Develop Vision and Voice: The Role Creativity Plays

Most educators would agree that developing creativity is a good thing for students to do. In fact, creativity is featured prominently in many college mission statements. Yet for all of the talk about how important it is, we are still struggling to define and understand it. The author, a former art instructor, takes a stab at just this— exploring the connection between creativity and how students develop.