BENTONVILLE -- A newly proposed vision statement for Northwest Arkansas Community College is much simpler than the current one.
"Positively changing the lives of those we serve" is the statement faculty member Bryan Aguiar presented to the Board of Trustees for consideration at the board's meeting last week.
Mission
Here is Northwest Arkansas Community College’s mission statement, approved last fall:
“Empower lives, inspire learning, and strengthen community through accessible, affordable, quality education.”
Source: Staff report
Aguiar said it might not sound like a typical vision statement, "But we thought of this in terms of what an educational institution is for, and that is long-term investment in education of people. And we thought this was actually a pretty good vision."
Trustees were asked to mull the proposed statement and offer any thoughts they have on it. Mike Shupe was the only trustee who weighed in Monday.
"It's short and to the point," Shupe said.
The current vision statement states the college "is committed to being a nationally recognized, two-year comprehensive institution that excels in providing education in a learning-centered environment." That statement was written about 13 years ago.
The college rewrote its mission statement last fall, then got to work on the vision.
Lisa Anderson, executive director of planning, effectiveness and public relations, met with focus groups to discuss what the vision statement should look like.
The focus groups consisted of the college's students, superintendents and counselors from the K-12 public schools and other community members.
A group of college staff members used that input to develop potential versions of a vision statement. Ideas were distributed to faculty and staff members schoolwide in surveys, Aguiar said.
The college serves a variety of people with different needs. The proposed vision statement applies to all of them, Aguiar said.
"We're constantly going to have to look at it when we do our strategic planning," he said. "It requires us to have evidence. How do we know we're positively changing. So we're going to have to evaluate programs, we're going to have to evaluate courses."
Aguiar emphasized the statement is not a final product and is subject to change based on the trustees' input.
Anderson said Friday she had not heard any comments or feedback from board members. The hope is to finalize the vision statement by next month, she said.
NW News on 04/17/2017