Mission Statements of Several Community Colleges Paper
Mission Statements of Several Community Colleges Paper
For this assignment, begin by exploring 10 community college websites, looking for these institutions’ mission statements. Then, develop a comparison matrix using the criteria below as part of your matrix.
Criteria:
- A mission statement is generally viewed as the first step in a strategic planning process; it serves as the foundation for establishing organizational priorities, strategies, structures, and tasks.
- A mission statement provides guidance for allocating organizational resources.
- A mission statement helps establish organizational culture.
- A mission statement provides opportunity for an organization to present itself to external and internal stakeholders.
- A mission statement provides a set of shared expectations regarding the organization and its endeavors.
- A mission statement motivates and stimulates commitment from participants.
After you have developed the matrix, write a summary addressing the following questions:
- How well does the mission statement for each college meet the criteria?
- Select the mission statement that best fulfills the statements and provide a brief summary of why you picked that one.
- Include the mission statement in your summary.
Length: 5-7 pages (Matrix and summary, including 11-12 references – each college website you review also needs to be referenced, in addition to 1-2 outside references to support your summary).
Resources:
1. Mission Statements:
The mission of the community college, if well written, should provide a statement outlining what the college stands for, who its constituents are, where it sees itself within the society in which it lives, and what it aims to do to serve the needs of its constituents. In this section, you will consider what community colleges stand for and how they communicate their vision and purpose to the larger community.
Community colleges have crafted and publicized their mission statements for several decades now. Recently, mission statements have taken on greater meaning and importance in the planning and governance of community colleges. Mission statements provide a public expression of what the institution is about and what makes it unique. The mission is at once a reflection of the past, a springboard for the future, and a guide for current activities. For the community college, this succinct statement of identify plays an increasingly vital role in the accreditation and reaccreditation process and as a straight-forward message to external stakeholders. In short, the mission statement is the starting point that defines the college and its character and ultimately becomes the guide for assessment of institutional performance.
Why is it so hard to develop a meaningful mission statement? Development a meaningful mission statement is a rewarding but difficult task. We can appreciate the magnitude of this responsibility by reviewing some commonly accepted purposes for mission statements:
- A mission statement is generally viewed as the first step in a strategic planning process; it serves as the foundation for establishing organizational priorities, strategies, structures, and tasks.
- A mission statement provides guidance for allocating organizational resources.
- A mission statement helps establish organizational culture.
- A mission statement provides opportunity for an organization to present itself to external and internal stakeholders.
- A mission statement provides a set of shared expectations regarding the organization and its endeavors.
- A mission statement motivates and stimulates commitment from participants.
Crafting a missing statement that can deliver on expectations requires awareness of frequent pitfalls, sensitivity to political realities, and careful balancing of contradictory pressures.
2. Cohen, A. M. & Brawer, F. B. (2008). The American community college. New York, NY John Wiley & Sons. Chapters 4,5,8
**This is a locked e-book, that I can not download to share.
