WNCC 2010 Self-Study Report - Western Nebraska Community ...

Document Summary and Request for Continued Accreditation
Western Nebraska Community College is a student-centered learning college which serves its
internal and external constituencies effectively. The College builds upon an eighty-year tradition in
the Nebraska Panhandle, but it does not rest on past achievement, nor does the fact that it is
recognized and respected in the region lead to complacency on the part of its administrative and
instructional leaders. Whether it is updating curricula to match discipline-area advances,
identifying and meeting business or corporate training needs, or giving back to the communities in
its district through events and programming, WNCC resolves to expand its operations and services
even as the surrounding population base shrinks in the High Plains.
Faculty, staff, and administrators report for work every day at one of WNCC’s three campuses, or
drive an hour and a half one-way home on deserted roads late at night, for one reason—to serve
students. The positive force of changing lives through education furnishes the resolve for the
College to surmount obstacles like uncertain funding and tough economic times. WNCC, which
has been in existence much longer than many other community colleges, has the advantage of
collective perspective. Triumphs and challenges have come and gone, but the College persists
through winter blizzards, world wars, agricultural fluctuations, and political and social upheavals.
Representatives of the College believe that the visiting team of Consultant Evaluators will discover
that the positive elements in the College as they are represented in this report are genuine. The
team will also come to see that the acknowledged challenges are honest appraisals of instances
for improvement. Everyone at WNCC understands that improvement is always possible, and even
those who struggled at the time to explore, evaluate, and critique the institution recognize the selfstudy
process as cathartic. It has been a meaningful exercise to take stock of the College.
WNCC understands its role and mission as a community college, the operative word for WNCC
being community, and it realizes that learners are learners, and each of them deserves an
institution of higher education driven to excellence. The College welcomes the visiting team’s
scrutiny, and particularly its recommendations grounded in experience and expertise for
recognized concerns in areas like data acquisition and use, retention, planning, and resource base
unpredictability. Past experience has shown that a thorough and thoughtful review of the system
as a whole will help the dedicated instructors and other employees at the College do a better job.
Thank you for reading the document and for the necessary hours of labor invested in a careful
analysis of the College’s operations, opportunities, and challenges. No doubt many of the tools
and techniques used by the College will shift again within the next ten years because innovation is
crucial to continued effectiveness in education. That is not frightening to WNCC’s leaders and
teachers, though, because the College has refashioned itself several times—growing stronger and
more valuable to its constituencies each time. One thing will not change. WNCC’s employees will
find a way to serve students, wherever and at whatever level of preparation it finds them.
In consideration of the evidence presented in this written record which captures a sampling of the
results from the learning odyssey the self-study project has represented, Western Nebraska
Community College formally and respectfully requests continuation of its accreditation through the
Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Western Nebraska Community College Page 177