Case Study on "College What Are the Institutions"

Case Study 8 pages (2496 words) Sources: 0 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

College Case Study

What are the institutions values, mission, and vision statements, and are they easily accessible for external communities?

Like any other academic institution, Readers State College is faced with a difficult task when it is asked to identify its goals. Baldridge et al. (2000) point out that while most organizations have specific, stated goals that help them form their decision making process, universities have a much more difficult task, as they must deal with "vague, ambiguous goals" (p. 128). Thus, specific goals are difficult to pinpoint when considering Readers State College, so values cannot be derived from goals in a linear fashion. Instead, the values of Readers State College are derived from its many characteristics, including client services, problem technology, professionalism, and environmental vulnerability (Baldridge et al., 2000, p. 128-130). Thus, Readers State College has the following values: excellence, respect, integrity, diversity, and responsibility. The values of excellence and responsibility derive from the college's characteristics of client services and professionalism. The college understands that its clients, the students, are its highest priority, and that hey have diverse needs. This being said, the college dedicates itself to giving these students the best experience and preparation possible. In addition, the college prides itself on hiring professionals for both the teaching of students as well as the proper handling of other issues (Baldridge et al., 2000, p.129). Furthermore, the college's value of responsibility derives from its high commitment to customer service and keeping the promises it makes to its clients. The college's values of respect, integrity, and diversity derive not only from the college's client services characteristic, but also from the fact that it is environmentally vulnerable and has a problematic technology component. The college seeks to cater to its clients by promoting an environment in which they feel comfortable despite of and because of their diverse backgrounds while also maintaining the integrity that is necessary from a higher authority that is an academic institution. Understanding that "the entire person must be considered" (Baldridge et al., 200, p.219), Readers State College maintains these values to counteract both its inherent problematic technology and environmental vulnerability characteristics. Thus, Readers' State College suffers from the same problems that many colleges encounter, especially when it comes to the issue of ambiguous goals. In response to these problems and the characteristics shared by most colleges, Readers State College has formed values that counteract the negative affects common to universities. In addition, the college's values, as well as the vision and mission statements, are easily accessible externally. That is, the community interaction between the college and its community base is quite positive. Similarly to Birnbaum's account of Heritage College, Readers State College is located in such a way that the students often interact with the professors in their homes and professors walk and bike to school (DATE, 85). Thus, the external communities can feel welcome in such an environment, and they understand. Furthermore, from students to community members who use Readers State College facilities, the values are accessible and understandable, as Readers State does try to be "all things to all people," (Baldridge et al., 2000, p. 129), but with order and structure. These values are reflected in both the vision statement and mission statement of the college.

Vision Statement

Readers State College will provide its diverse student population with a course of study that ensures a broad scope of knowledge and understanding that is deeply rooted in both respect and integrity. Through the integration of internal business processes, technology, and the teamwork of administrators, faculty, staff and students, Readers State will be recognized statewide as a model of excellence in postsecondary education for the effective and responsible use of human, fiscal, and physical resources in its education process.

Mission Statement

At Readers State College, we value learning and we put the interests of our students and community first. By providing high quality, affordable, and accessible learning opportunities, we enable students to meet their educational, career, and personal goals. By sharing our knowledge and resources, we support our community's educational, social, cultural, and economic vitality.

Is there evidence that current administrative practices are congruent with the mission, vision, values, and goals of the organization?

Through an adoption of values, and the incorporation of these values into its mission and vision statements, Readers State College has attempted to both preempt the challenges that universities face and make its services "all things to all people" (Baldridge et al. 2000,p.129) in a structured fashion. In order for these values to be applicable, however, evidence must exist that suggests an application of these values is occurring in administrative practices. Indeed, this evidence does exit that the current administrative practices are in line with the mission, vision, values, and goals of the organization. This evidence can be realized in the college's ability to outline goals, create new and innovative programs, and reach a larger client base.

First, the college has recently outlined the following goals to accomplish: providing high quality and affordable academic programs and support services for all students in order to grow attendance and retention rates across the College, promoting regional economic and workforce development in order to strengthen their relationships within the community, increasing the college's external funding to help offset rising costs, promoting effective and efficient use of all resources, and enhancing the College image both on and off campus. The very development of such streamlined goals suggest that the college's administrative practices are in line with its values. As the college's values were developed, in part, as preemption toward problems that colleges generally have and one of the problems that colleges generally face is the definition of goals, evidence is presented that the college is using its value system and that those values are working. In addition, the goals that the college has outlined seek to promote those values through appealing to their client base, solving their technology problems, and encouraging new clients in the community. In addition, the goals show further use of the preemptive strategy by Readers State College. As colleges grow, add more programs, become more diverse, and cater to the needs of clients, they often have less of a sense of community, making governance difficult (Birnbaum, DATE, p.130). Readers State College is seeking to preempt this problem through the definition of goals that will encourage decision-making and allow that decision making to occur on the collegial level. For instance, strengthening its relationship with the community, the college encourages a new level of community -- that which is an intermixing of local culture and academia -- on campus. By controlling cost and providing cost-effective programs for students, the college encourages the type of diversity that lends itself more to a well-functioning community than to strife. That is, by allowing many from diverse backgrounds access to the college, the college sets itself up as a mini city, and can better address its problems through the diverse backgrounds represented.

Second, while the college's creation of goals certainly suggest their adherence to their values, more concrete evidence can be found through their implementation of new programs. Recently, the college has undergone training to receive a higher level of accreditation. As a result of the administrative meetings geared toward achieving this process, the college has decided to offer more rigorous courses of study in several areas, including women's studies, engineering, multicultural studies, and secondary education. The process of making these courses more rigorous includes the implementation of new, professional faculty, increased opportunities for faculty meetings within departments, and a weekly mandated meeting where the chair of these departments share goings on with chairs of other departments, faculty, and administrators in a discussion forum. This program will run as a trial in the aforementioned areas before being applied to the entire school. Through this implementation, the college is upholding its commitment to excellence, as well as its commitment to responsibility, especially a responsibility to insure that the education received by the students is the best possible quality. Furthermore, the implementation of this program serves to unite the college interdepartmentally.

Finally, the college's creation of goals, along with the implementation of its new programs, are supplemented by its attempt to reach out to a new client base. This helps satisfy its economic as well as diversity goals while adhering to the college's values of excellence, diversity, and responsibility. Having a responsibility to make themselves more accessible to other communities, insure excellence by having the best demographic representation possible, and honor diversity, the college has created the following programs through which it is attempting to reach out to a new client base:

Community liaison program -- an ambassador to the community is appointed in order to find potential college candidates and help them through the application and scholarship program

Returning Student Ambassador -- a professional is hired to work with returning students both before they enter college and after, in addition to helping them stay on track so that they do not have to drop out

Diversity Scholarship Committee… READ MORE

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