John Dewey (1916) asserted that deliberate and systematic educational systems provide capacity to all members of society in order to solve problems and is the foundation for participatory democratic education (Harbour, 2015). Learning is also a social process that allows people to live purposefully. The goal of this qualitative, narrative inquiry…

Two-year college mathematics teaching has interesting challenges, and it helps to have a national organization representing the profession that provides professional development, issues position statements on relevant topics, and cultivates leaders. This chapter illustrates how the AMATYC organization provides these services.

As improving equity becomes prioritized in higher education, Offices of Institutional Research (OIRs) find themselves in a central position to identify and address educational inequities faced by racially minoritized students. However, their potential to serve as a catalyst for organizational change has yet to be fulfilled. In this study, we…

This guide describes how community college presidents can embed strategic enrollment management (SEM) into mission fulfillment. It emphasizes the importance of setting a vision, ensuring adequate resources, and fostering collaboration. By leveraging data-driven strategies and continuous improvement, colleges can enhance student recruitment,…

Undocumented youth have been powerful leaders in the undocumented immigrant rights movement to advance a more just society for immigrant communities (Nicholls, 2013; Perez, 2016). Community colleges are important spaces in the higher education sector because most undocumented college students attend community colleges (Teranishi et al., 2011).…

This study analyzes the internal and external forces that led to the creation and revisions of a community college's mission statement over the course of its 53-year history. We used discourse-historical analysis to examine published college mission statements, transcripts of interviews with the founding dean of the college, and the college's…

This research study examined the campus culture of two community colleges in North Carolina. These colleges were selected based on language included in their mission statements. The campus culture of each institution was explored through the lived experiences of minority (African American and Hispanic) students attending those colleges. Native…

This chapter describes the historical context of community college mission statements and proposes that these texts serve three functions: public relations, management, and sensemaking.

Student disciplinary systems have been operating in higher education for decades and their role in furthering an institution's educational mission continues to raise. Almost all institutions have a Code of Conduct section in their handbook which describes all rules and regulations students must comply with in addition to federal, state, and local…

This study investigated the ways that mission statements from 70 Hispanic-serving community colleges communicated their commitment to their Hispanic-serving function. Reference specifically to the Hispanic-serving function was absent, but references to culture and access were relatively common. Findings describe the ways culture and access were…

Studying history offers us important lessons: it helps to point out concepts which repeat and suggests errors so that we can adjust our path. This study attempted to uncover changes in higher educational mission statements over time in the western New York area. By exploring changes in institutional mission statements, the researcher hopes to add…

To mark the 30th anniversary of "Campus Compact," leaders from across the network came together in the summer of 2015 to reaffirm a shared commitment to the public purposes of higher education. Campus Compact's 30th Anniversary Action Statement of Presidents and Chancellors is the product of that collective endeavor. In signing the…

While more and more individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are choosing to pursue higher education, comparatively little research has been conducted on the success of these students. Even less practical information has been developed and promulgated to classroom educators. This article reviews trade publications, peer-reviewed journal…

Objective: To examine the discursive strategies deployed by community colleges to sustain legitimacy in an evolving and contradictory institutional environment. Method: Using corpus linguistics software, I compared 1,009 mission statements from 2012-2013 with a reference corpus of 427 mission statements from 2004. Results: Keywords analysis,…

Over the last 40 years, the mission statement has been consistently viewed as an indispensable management tool for organizations in both the public and private sectors. In addition, there is a plethora of popular management literature that puts mission identification as the first and most important task of an organization's leadership. Strategic…