College Mission Statement

As part of the 2012 planning questionnaire, ninety-eight percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the mission statement is clearly defined, comprehensive, and accurately guides the institution’s operations. After review by the Executive Committee, a slight revision was made to one sentence in the mission statement. The original sentence stated “The College seeks to contribute to the economic growth and development of York, Lancaster, and Chester counties and of the State by maximizing student success.” The sentence was rearranged to put emphasis on maximizing student success first in the sentence. The sentence now states “Through maximizing student success, the College seeks to contribute to the economic growth and development of York, Lancaster, and Chester counties and of the State.”

Our College governing board (York Commission for Technical Education) approved the change on October 9, 2012 and the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (SC CHE) approved the non-substantive change on October 22, 2012. The revised mission statement is provided in word format for those individuals who need to include the mission statement in accreditation documents or other publications. It is required when publishing the mission statement in its entirety to include the approval dates by our governing board and the Commission on Higher Education. The abbreviated version of the mission statement “Building Our Community Through Maximizing Student Success” may be used in informal communications without the approval dates. If there are any questions about the use of the mission statement, please contact Jacquelyn Nesbitt at jnesbitt@yorktech.edu.

Acceleration Team

I had the pleasure of meeting with the Acceleration Team over the spring semester to discuss a variety of subjects. Meeting with a primarily faculty group gave me the opportunity to discuss the input gathered at the all-faculty meeting on August 22, 2011. The team included the following representatives that were chosen by the employees from the respective divisions with a few employees that I appointed myself.

Debbie Tertinger – Health and Human Services
Pete Baldwin – Business, Computer, Arts, and Sciences
Jonathon Stewart – Industrial and Engineering Technologies
Krista Bradshaw – Center for Teaching and Learning
Linda Bolick – Corporate and Continuing Education
Sally Herlong – Student Services and Adjunct Faculty Member
Kerri McGuire – Student Services and Adjunct Faculty Member
Steve Rast – Adjunct Faculty

I greatly appreciate the time and energy that all of these employees spent reading articles and discussing a variety of subjects with me. I believe they provided me honest input that gave me a deeper understanding of the challenges that you and our students face. We also discussed several articles that I have provided below for those who wish to review.

Making It In America
A Matter of Degrees
Why Companies Aren’t Getting the Employees They Need
Who Are Our Students?
Are College Students Learning?
The Case Against Strategic Planning

We were able to summarize what we thought were the “big rock” issues discussed during our time together and have documented those in our summary document. Many of these recommendations are being followed-up on by various groups. If you want to learn more about my time with the Acceleration Team, I welcome you to contact one of the members listed above or myself. I will continue to engage you to learn more about what we can do to improve student success.

2013-2017 Strategic Direction

In late spring, a planning questionnaire was administered to faculty, staff, Commission and Foundation members asking for input related to our mission statement and strategic themes. An Ad-Hoc Committee was formed to review the input. The Committee, led by John McGill, included members from the Quality Learning Council as well as staff representing various areas across campus. Members included:

Jamey Abercrombie     Maureen Gore
Jack Bagwell               John McGill
Brittany Burton            Kerri McGuire
Deborah Dukes           Mary Beth Schwartz
Kimberly Herndon        Susie Turner
Shannon Godwin         Teresa Faile

Their evaluation of the State of the Strategic Plan was presented to the full Quality Learning Council, Council of Academic and Student Affairs (CASA), and Executive Committee. I want to sincerely thank the Ad-Hoc Committee for all their work!

From your input and the feedback from the Ad-Hoc Committee, strategies were developed to form the 2013-2017 Strategic Direction for the College. You will find that our strategic themes haven’t changed and that some of our goals, or strategic theme statements, have had minor revisions.  Your input reaffirms our commitment to Maximizing Student Success and to the future direction of the College.  Our governing board reviewed and approved the plan as presented on Tuesday, October 9. 

To ensure that we are all fully informed about the College’s 2013-2017 Strategic Direction, I am requiring that every employee attend one of the following sessions in L-100 (Bowater Room) in the library. Please click on the link below to sign up.

Sign Up for a Strategic Direction Meeting

Friday, November 9 from 1:30 – 3 p.m.
Monday, November 12 from 2 - 3:30pm
Tuesday, November 13 from 9:30 - 11am
Thursday, November 15 from 2 - 3:30 p.m.
Thursday, November 15 from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
Friday, November 16 from 10 - 11:30 a.m.