101 College Parkway Arnold, Maryland 21012-1895 Internet ...

MISSION, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Philosophy and Mission
With learning as its central mission, Anne Arundel Community
College strives to embody the basic convictions of the American
democratic ideal: that individuals be given full opportunity to
discover and develop their talents, energy and interests, to pursue
their unique potentials and to achieve an intellectually,
culturally and economically satisfying relationship with society.
Such opportunity should be easily available and readily accessible
to all Anne Arundel County residents.
Students enrolling in associate degree transfer or career programs,
certificate career programs or participating in continuing
education offerings can be assured that the college, as an accredited,
public, comprehensive, open-admission institution of
higher learning with affordable tuition, is, within the limits of
its resources, vigorously committed to:
• Fostering excellence of teaching and learning for students,
faculty and staff;
• Offering credit programs and continuing education courses in
a variety of formats responsive to a multiplicity of community
needs;
• Providing for learners at various preparation points, from
pre-college to postgraduate, a range of integrated credentialing
opportunities;
• Providing appropriate services in support of academic success
and student development;
• Affording Anne Arundel County residents an opportunity to
pursue higher education and lifelong learning;
• Providing a campus climate which invites the diversity of the
community’s population;
• Upholding rigorous and fair standards of student achievement;
• Promoting lifelong learning;
• Providing a source for intellectual, cultural and physical
vitality in the community;
• Planning for efficient allocation of college resources and for
institutional effectiveness;
• Maintaining a spirit of collegiality among the various sectors
of the college; and
• Promoting county and state economic development by providing
a variety of educational services and training programs
to business and industry in both the private and not-for-profit
sectors and to national, state and local government agencies.
Goals
To fulfill its mission, Anne Arundel Community College sets
forth the following goals:
• To provide credit courses and associate degree programs to
prepare students to transfer efficiently to four-year colleges
and universities;
• To provide courses and certificate and associate degree
programs to enable students to gain employment, to retrain
for new career fields or to upgrade current career skills;
• To provide courses and programs to serve the lifelong educational
needs of the community;
The College
• To assure quality instruction by encouraging the professional
growth and continuing excellence of faculty, administrators
and staff;
• To provide to students a range of instructional resources,
research facilities and programs that complement and add to
traditional classroom education;
• To provide a range of academic support services to students,
and specialized support for nontraditional and specialpopulation
students;
• To maintain policies and conditions that will result in a student
body, faculty and staff representative of the community's
population;
• To offer programs and events to encourage the cultural, intellectual,
recreational and physical vitality of students and the
community; and
• To extend, through contractual arrangements, educational
resources to governmental, civic, business and industrial
sectors of the community.
Objectives
To meet these goals, the college sets the following objectives:
• That students become well prepared for transfer to four-year
institutions and the attainment of higher degrees in a variety
of disciplines;
• That students become well prepared for a variety of career
fields through acquiring primary qualifications, through
retraining or through improvement of job skills;
• That students discover the value of lifelong learning, professional
growth and self-enrichment through taking noncredit
as well as credit courses, and find in the college a variety of
continuing education opportunities;
• That students, through their general education experience,
gain a foundation for
† informed critical thinking
† clear expression of thought in writing and speaking
† ethical discernment
† computational and analytical precision and develop an
awareness of their relation to the past, to the future and to
their present culture and environment;
• That students enjoy excellence of teaching by faculty members,
encouraged in their professional growth by supportive
college policies and programs;
• That students in nontraditional categories and in special
populations may benefit from instructional methods and
services adapted to their needs;
• That students increase their competence and confidence by
availing themselves, as needed, of a wide variety of academic
support services, such as special testing, academic and career
advising and tutoring;
• That students benefit from programs, facilities and services,
such as the Student Financial Services office, the Child
Development Center, the Health Services office and job
placement services, that foster ease of access to the college
and enhance student possibilities of success;
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