Mission statement to possibly see changes

A meeting was held in the Fireside Room on Thursday to discuss possible changes in the Contra Costa College mission statement.

The mission statement is essentially a brief description of the opportunities CCC, as an institution, can give to its students.  These opportunities include providing abilities relevant to lifelong learning, student success and verifying achievement through a process of assessments.

The last time any changes were made to the mission statement was in 2009. In 2011, however, the district Governing Board approved a motion encouraging its colleges to take a look at their mission statements and make changes, if necessary.

Ten people attended the meeting including CCC President Denise Noldon, Gateway to College Director Karl Debro and Bruce Harter, superintendent of the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

Because the Academic Senate organized the meeting, Academic Senate President Wayne Organ first explained the basics before attendees could make suggestions.

“The mission statement is who we are and certainly what we do,” Organ said. “We can’t come up with a thousand answers (in the statement). We must have a single one.”

Because the mission statement reflects what the college should be doing, Organ said he felt the need to organize a meeting to analyze and see if changes should actually be made.

Organ went over a detailed PowerPoint presentation and discussed the existing mission statement, statistics and college achievements. The presentation also included improvements that should be made at the college.

Organ said CCC is around the average percentage in categories like career technical education (CTE) credit course completion and percentage of students who earned at least 30 units.

The improvement rate for accredited basic skills courses, however, is below the average percentage at 42.2 percent. Organ said the improvement rate for ESL students is at 52.5 percentage, which is considered “not acceptable.”

During the meeting, Dr. Noldon asked, “How do we have people see us as a college and not just a place to transfer?”

Noldon said there are many resources CCC has to offer other than just being a place to take transfer courses.

Organ made a recommendation during the meeting that the mission statement should be more descriptive and aggressive to emphasize how much more the college has to offer.

After they went over the questions, the meeting concluded with Organ promising that they will assess and analyze the suggestions before anything is changed and updated in the mission statement.