The college has developed and now approved a new mission statement. It was approved by the District Board during their January meeting. This was phase one of their strategic planning process to carry out the strategic planning process regarding its mission, vision and values.

The mission statement now states Madison College provides open access to higher quality education that fosters lifelong learning and success within our communities. In its vision statement, it states the college is the leader in accessible, affordable education that meets the evolving needs of our diverse communities.

The college’s values statement now states excellence, respect, commitment to students and diverse communities, and making higher education available to all.

In October, there were session held at each Madison College campus to start the reevaluation process of the school’s mission, vision and values statements. Those sessions included faculty and students to seek out feedback about the existing mission statements and what could be improved.

Responses were sorted into three main themes by a committee and sent to a team of writers. Three mission statements, three vision statements, and three values statements were given to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee who modified and presented them to faculty and students to decide which best envisioned Madison College. Favored statements were reviewed once more by the President’s Cabinet and finally shown to the District Board at its December meeting.

“Successful student outcomes, ensuring sustainability, supporting faculty and staff, addressing student preparedness, aligning with the community and improving recruitment are six primary areas we feel the need to improve upon,” said Tim Casper, the strategic planning team co-chair.

To assess these six points of emphasis, an Academic Planning team and Student Services Team were created. Both of these team questioned faculty, Information Technology, Human Resources and Enrollment about addressing the issues. Information was relayed back through the two teams on Feb. 14 and specific actions will be tentatively decided by March. Forums will be conducted with community stakeholders throughout April and May, followed by final Board of Trustees approval in June or July. The new strategic plan is tentatively planned to be in effect August 1.

“From these goals we can decide what to do and more importantly how to measure our success,” said Casper, who is also the assistant vice president of budget and grants for the college.

Next, in the strategic plan development was how to implement the statements into tangible goals.