This is the fourth in a series of articles detailing MCC’s initiatives that align with recommendations contained in the AACC report “Empowering Community Colleges to Build the Nation’s Future.” The recommendation this week is, “Re-focus the community college mission and redefine institutional roles to meet 21st century education and employment needs.”
MCC is about student success. MCC is about innovation. MCC is about multi-directional and multi-purposeful networks.
A few data points:
- In the beginning, MCC did not have a mission statement. It had a statement of philosophy and purpose. We paraphrase that statement as follows: Accepting its responsibilities to educate students for their own self-realization and for the well-being of society – the commitment of the College is to quality of instruction, opportunity through admissions, diversity in programming, social responsibility in all activities, and career direction in student services. In 1993 we endorsed the MCC classic mission statement that put student success as our highest priority. In 2012, as part of the Strategic Plan process and in response to Middle States Standard 1, the current MCC mission statement was approved.
- MCC is governed by a Board of Trustees comprised of nine community leaders and one student. Four trustees are appointed by the Governor and five are appointed by the Monroe County Legislature (the College’s sponsor). The student trustee is elected by his or her peers.
- MCC’s vision is to champion opportunity, innovation, and excellence to transform lives and communities.
- In general our mission is guided, funded and supported by four key partners: the MCC Board of Trustees, the Monroe County Legislature, NYS Department of Education and the State University of New York, and Middle States Commission on Higher Education. These are the cornerstones upon which we build.
The AACC report states that to ensure “students are learning what they need to learn,” MCC programs and services and curriculum need to be open, accessible, flexible, customizable, multimodal; and MCC needs to develop new partnerships, business models, and consortium arrangements. The report identifies six action statements:
1. Serve as a broker of educational opportunities not just the provider of instruction.
2. Help students integrate experiential learning into their academic program through advising, learning assessment, and credentialing.
3. Recognize multiple dimensions of faculty expertise; content mastery, effective teaching, curriculum design, technologies, assessment, and student development.
4. Support the contributions of part-time faculty to strengthen student learning.
5. Incorporate technology broadly and effectively in instruction and student services.
6. Empower students as partners to develop their career pathway and achieve their educational goals.
These six actions represent an evolving and continuous mission. Here are some examples of how MCC remains true to its purpose and redefines itself to meet changing needs.
1. What is the longest, continuous, academic, community program partnership at MCC? Yes – our Dental Hygiene program. Its history traces back to 1913 and 1916 when a school to train “young woman” to assist dentists was proposed and chartered. That affiliate of the Eastman Dental School became our dental clinic which currently provides over $1,000,000 in free dental screening and hygiene care to the community.
2. OWL (Online Western New York Learning Alliance) provides leadership for institutional collaboration to enhance student access to flexible, affordable, and high quality online educational opportunities in Western New York. Students can earn an online associate degree or certificate by seamlessly pooling courses taken from MCC and a combination of OWL member colleges.
3. MCC’s Office of Online Learning focuses on increasing access to appropriate course and degrees and implementing strategies to maximize student retention and completion. This evolving virtual campus will provide a home for online students to ensure that they have access to all of the services and supports they need to succeed.
4. The Job Connection is an internet accessible database of employment and experiential opportunities for our students managed by the Career Center. The nationally acclaimed site includes jobs, internships, and community service positions.
5. Go to this site and be astonished by the depth and diversity of programming offered by our Corporate College https://user-tybgwup.cld.bz/MCC-Corporate-College-Fall-2014
6. Beginning In the 1980’s, when all of SUNY envied MCC for our PROGRESS system to present-day amazement of how we are adapting Degree Works (Student Advisement Degree Audit) to support SUNY Seamless Transfer, our Advising Center is using technology tools to service more students with individualized academic planning.
7. Not that paper and web pages are old technology, but MCC is adapting all formats of social media to communicate with the public and our students. If there is a medium, the Marketing and Community Relations Department is exploring its potential. And typically we find the President already there.
To the 21st Century we said welcome! We have continued to embrace change throughout the years! More change to come!
We invite you to share your thoughts via the President’s Blog.
Jeffrey P. Bartkovich, Interim Provost and Vice President, Academic Services and
Lloyd A. Holmes, Vice President, Student Services
09/24/2014 |