2008 Woodie Awards
Union's mission statement to be revised for accreditation visit
Daina Amorosano
Issue date: 1/17/08 Section: News
On Wednesday, January 9, faculty and students gathered for a discussion, led by Dean of Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs Therese McCarty, regarding the draft of a revised mission statement.
Although the College's next Middle States accreditation visit is not until 2010, the first stage of review has now begun. In light of the upcoming visit, the faculty and Board of Trustees need to approve a revised mission statement to meet the requisite standards for accreditation by the Commission, which accredits colleges and universities in the Mid-Atlantic region.
While the current mission statement has sufficed since it was last approved in January 1992, the development of the recently written Strategic Plan and its associated mission statement have raised some concerns from Middle States, who criticized the College for having multiple statements.
Union is set to scrap the current statement in exchange for a more focused and concise one that is more assessable for Middle States.
The current mission statement introduces the college as a liberal arts and engineering school that is "committed to three basic beliefs about individual development through learning." The statement goes on to summarize those beliefs in separate paragraphs and concludes with Union's "underlying conviction" that "a liberal education is the best path to personal fulfillment."
The statement also notes Union's obligation to instill "a lifelong commitment to truth and joy in learning" in students, which may in fact be an objective of the College, but too difficult a goal to assess. The assessment itself, as Professor of Chemistry David Hayes explained, is actually a process of "auditing our mission statement and how well we are fulfilling the mission. We don't want a mission statement that doesn't live up to what we're doing."
The task at hand then is to consolidate the mission statements into one succinct statement that captures the essence of Union and its goals as a college and a community, while also wording them such that they are reasonably assessable for the review.
Although the College's next Middle States accreditation visit is not until 2010, the first stage of review has now begun. In light of the upcoming visit, the faculty and Board of Trustees need to approve a revised mission statement to meet the requisite standards for accreditation by the Commission, which accredits colleges and universities in the Mid-Atlantic region.
While the current mission statement has sufficed since it was last approved in January 1992, the development of the recently written Strategic Plan and its associated mission statement have raised some concerns from Middle States, who criticized the College for having multiple statements.
Union is set to scrap the current statement in exchange for a more focused and concise one that is more assessable for Middle States.
The current mission statement introduces the college as a liberal arts and engineering school that is "committed to three basic beliefs about individual development through learning." The statement goes on to summarize those beliefs in separate paragraphs and concludes with Union's "underlying conviction" that "a liberal education is the best path to personal fulfillment."
The statement also notes Union's obligation to instill "a lifelong commitment to truth and joy in learning" in students, which may in fact be an objective of the College, but too difficult a goal to assess. The assessment itself, as Professor of Chemistry David Hayes explained, is actually a process of "auditing our mission statement and how well we are fulfilling the mission. We don't want a mission statement that doesn't live up to what we're doing."
The task at hand then is to consolidate the mission statements into one succinct statement that captures the essence of Union and its goals as a college and a community, while also wording them such that they are reasonably assessable for the review.
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