1. Mission and Purposes
Description
Capital Community College has long been proud of the rich diversity of its student body, academic programming, faculty and staff, support and enrichment services, and lifelong learning opportunities. The College’s tradition of service to the greater community is rooted both in the development of postsecondary technical education following World War II, and in the national community college movement of the 1960s. These movements generated two independent institutions, Greater Hartford Community College and Hartford State Technical College, which merged in1992 to form Capital Community-Technical College, later renamed Capital Community College.
The College is governed by a Board of Trustees and a central administrative office that oversees all twelve Connecticut Community Colleges. Capital Community College derives its purpose and authority from state law, specifically Connecticut General Statutes10a-80 (Exhibit 1.1). The mission of the Community College system, as published on its website, is as follows:
The twelve two-year public colleges that comprise the system of Connecticut Community Colleges share a mission to make educational excellence and the opportunity for lifelong learning affordable and accessible to all Connecticut citizens. The colleges seek to enrich the intellectual, cultural and social environments of the communities they serve. The colleges support the economic growth of the state and its citizens through programs that supply business and industry with a skilled, well-trained work force (Exhibit 1.2).
Capital Community College’s local mission statement encompasses the statutory requirements but customizes the mission for the Hartford region. As an urban institution serving one of the poorest cities in the nation, the College believes in a special purpose: to see that those in need obtain a high-quality college education to prepare them academically and socially for lifelong inquiry and participatory citizenship.
Over the past ten years, the confluence of strategic planning review, new campus planning, and self-study scrutiny have focused renewed community attention on the guiding function of a clear mission statement. In response to the 1996 NEASC Accreditation Report, the President appointed a Strategic Planning Committee charged with developing a continuous planning process to analyze and appraise the institution’s mission, policies, procedures, and effectiveness. The committee’s first task was to develop a new, more concise College Mission Statement. Based on the committee’s recommendation, the College Senate, Student Senate, Foundation & Regional Advisory Council, and the Board of Trustees of Connecticut Community-Technical Colleges approved the new Mission Statement in 1998. Minor revisions were approved and published first in 2003 and more recently in 2006.
In the spring of 2005, a self-study team conducted a formal survey to gather information about faculty, staff and student perceptions regarding the Mission Statement. Results were used to inform both this report and the Strategic Planning Committee’s work as it contemplated improvements to the Mission Statement. In March 2006, the College Senate and the President approved the following revision of the Mission Statement, which was adopted by Capital Community College:
The Mission of Capital Community College is to provide access to higher education to the diverse residents of the greater Hartford region. The College, an integral part of Hartford’s cultural and economic district, does this by:
- Preparing individuals for transfer education and careers through associate and certificate programs in academic and technical disciplines and workforce training.
- Maintaining programs and support services that enable students to develop academic and professional skills that equip them for ongoing challenges and opportunities.
- Fostering a student-centered environment committed to learning and teaching, the collegial process, cultural enrichment, and the respectful and vigorous dialogue which nourishes active participation and service to the community.
Appraisal
The Capital Community College Mission Statement reflects principles and purposes established in State statute and in the Connecticut Community College System Mission. It declares the College’s distinctive character within the system by affirming its role as an urban institution serving a diverse community with diverse needs. It concisely captures key values that serve as guideposts for departments, committees, and management in setting priorities for the institution’s human, fiscal, physical, and technological resources as well as in developing curricula. Further, it addresses concerns about the Mission Statement in effect during the 1996 self-study report and the visiting team’s evaluation report: the need for brevity, and the clarification of a unified purpose arising from the merger of two previously distinct institutions. In addition, the new draft statement of 2006 reflects changes in the College’s identity since the 2002 consolidation of all operations within a completely renovated historic building in downtown Hartford. The new location stands as a symbolic commitment to the city, bringing new energy to a formerly vacant site on Main Street. It has helped to generate many new academic and continuing education partnerships by putting the College in close proximity to major employers, corporate training clients, arts and entertainment venues, and social service agencies. The opportunities afforded by the new location are embraced in the latest Mission Statement.
The new Mission Statement also addresses one issue remaining from the 1996 self-study (Exhibit 1.3) and 2001 fifth-year report (Exhibit 1.4): that the previous Mission Statement did not specifically reference the College’s historical and statutory role in technical and technological education. To strengthen the College in this area, the Academic Division in recent years has eliminated underenrolled or obsolete programs in traditional technical fields, and created demand-driven information technology offerings in areas such as communication media, computer applications, computer support services, library technology, and radiology. The College has also expanded its use of technology in general education through its distance learning offerings and internet delivery of course materials – changes that require students from all academic disciplines to achieve a higher level of proficiency in using computers and related technology. These initiatives are consistent with the systemwide mission, which reflects state statute declaring that a primary responsibility of the College is “to provide programs of occupational, vocational, technical and technological and career education designed to provide training for immediate employment, job retraining or upgrading of skills to meet individual, community and state manpower needs.” (Exhibit 1.5a)
The College publishes its Mission Statement in two prominent places: the college catalog and the college website (Exhibit 1.5b). In the past, it has not appeared in other commonly used publications, such as the Student Handbook, the Adjunct Faculty Handbook, semester course schedule booklets, and academic program brochures. Sparse publication may account for the fact that many faculty and staff, as revealed by research for this report, did not realize that the Mission Statement was revised in 2003. As part of the current strategic planning process, the Mission Statement was revised in the spring of 2006 with more widespread consultation and recognition.
A formal survey undertaken in the spring of 2005 (Exhibit 1.6) asked students, faculty, and staff to answer questions about their understanding of the Mission Statement. The survey was divided into two parts: first, an open-ended set of questions to assess general familiarity with the Mission Statement; and, second, a Likert-type scale to assess the degree to which respondents felt the College was meeting each part of the stated mission. Results indicated that the majority of respondents believed, when presented with the Mission Statement, that it accurately represented the College’s purposes and objectives.
Part One of the survey showed that full-time faculty and staff were virtually unanimous in reporting that they had read some version of the Mission Statement and in correctly identifying where it is published (only in the annual catalog and on the website). However, students and part-time employees were unlikely to have read the Mission Statement or to have encountered it in their time at the College, suggesting that wider use and better publicity is needed.
Part Two of the survey presented the Mission Statement and asked respondents to rate the level of conformity between their own experiences at the College and the principles espoused in the Statement. The results indicated an interest among students, faculty, and staff for the College to improve its commitment to maintaining the educational environment described in the Mission Statement.
Projection
The current Mission Statement, approved in the spring of 2006, is being posted prominently on each floor of the campus, providing background for strategic planning developments in the coming months and for ongoing reflection on the College’s purposes. The revised statement will replace the 2003 version in the College Catalog and on the website, and the departments of Institutional Advancement and Marketing & Public Relations will continue to include the Mission Statement in other publications where appropriate.
Through the strategic planning process, the College will continue to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of the Mission Statement on a periodic basis and use the findings to locate issues that need attention. College management, through the Strategic Planning Committee, will use the Mission Statement as a guide for establishing priorities and the overall direction of the College.
Exhibits
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