Edison Community College - General Information

Information General History Mission Accreditation Memberships Core Values		*general* History Edison Community College was chartered in 1973 under provisions of the Ohio Revised Code as the first general and technical college in Ohio. The college thus emerged without special local taxation as a two-year, public, co-educational, state-supported institution of higher learning. Under its charter it is authorized to offer studies in the arts and sciences, technical education and continuing education. By virtue of legislative action, the College's name was changed in 1977 from Edison State General and Technical College to Edison State Community College. From modest beginnings in 1973 in a rented facility, the College has grown in stages to its current campus, located on 131 acres in Piqua. Its enrollment and offerings have grown steadily during its brief history, from 309 students enrolled in 30 courses in 1973 to more than 3,000 students enrolled today in about 30 technical fields, a broad range of baccalaureate transfer programs, developmental course work, and continuing education offerings. Edison students range from new high school graduates to senior citizens, and from people just becoming acquainted with the possibilities of higher education to those returning for retraining and exploration of new fields. The College points with pride to the fact that over 30 percent of it students began their higher education at another college or university, but have chosen to continue at Edison, in may cases in recognition of its attention to quality and standards.
		Mission Statement Edison Community College, as the center for higher education in Darke, Miami, and Shelby counties, exists to assist individuals, firms and communities in achieving their greatest potential. Courses, certificates and associate degrees are offered for: GENERAL EDUCATION. Individuals learn to value and use communication skills, ethics, critical thinking, cultural diversity, learning and inquiry, and interpersonal skills and teamwork. UNIVERSITY TRANSFER. Students learn subjects which transfer to four-year colleges and universities. CAREER PREPARATION. Students learn the skills and knowledge needed for immediate employment in responsible positions. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. Employers and individuals, through partnerships with Edison, learn the knowledge and skills required for a work force to function in a changing economy and global marketplace. LIFELONG LEARNING. Adults develop the skills to learn throughout their lives, enabling them to pursue personal and professional goals.
		Accreditation By virtue of its charter Edison Community College hold recognition by the Ohio Board of Regents of the highest order attainable among institutions in the State of Ohio. In addition, the Regents have reviewed and approved the courses and programs of the College. This approval signifies that Edison's courses meet prescribed standards of quality and uniformity for maximum transferability among institutions of higher education throughout Ohio. The college is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA-Regional).
		Institutional Memberships The College is an institutional member of the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the American Council on Education, the Association of Community College Trustees, the American Technical Education Association, the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education, the National League for Nursing, the American Library Association, the Community College Consortium, OhioLINK, National Alliance for Community and Technical Colleges, and CAUSE.
		The Edison Core Values GENERAL DEFINITION. The core values are a set of principles which guide Edison Community College in creating its educational programs and environment. They will be reflected in every aspect of the College. Students' educational experiences will incorporate the core values at all levels, so that a student who completes a degree program at Edison Community College will not only have been introduced to each value, but will have had them reinforced and refined at every opportunity. COMMUNICATION. Communication, a skill basic to all college students, involves listening, speaking and writing for the purpose of understanding and of being understood. A lifetime process, communication also involves the ability to use appropriate and reasonable language and dialects, acknowledging that audiences are diverse. ETHICS. The ethics core value is defined in terms of decision making. A distinction is made between values and ethics. Values are either "good" or "bad." Ethics either exist or don't exist. They are decisions and behaviors that are based on values. Thus, the faculty will endeavor to present material across the curriculum in a manner that will cause student s to consider the decision-making process in terms of ethics. CRITICAL THINKING. Critical thinking is the ability to apply internalized standards of thought: clarity, relevance, analysis, organization, recognition, evaluation, accuracy, depth, and breadth. Critical thinking requires detachment, the ability to examine critically one's own ideas and thoughts, as well as examining the ideas and thoughts of others. Possessing the fundamentals of critical thinking enables an individual to reason across a variety of disciplines and domains and to critique one's own thinking from many perspectives. The development and sue of critical thinking is a lifelong activity which enables us to continually improve our thought and the consequent products of our thought in our lives and society. HUMAN DIVERSITY. Diversity describes the coexistence of many cultures in society. By making the broadest range of human differences acceptable to the largest number of people, multiculturalism, as a function of cultural diversity, seeks to overcome racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. Historically marginalized groups within society include but are lot limited to, Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Appalachian Americans, physically/mentally challenged, women, and people with alternative life-styles. INQUIRY/RESPECT FOR LEARNING. Inquiry is the information gathering process though which the learner formulates essential questions, locates appropriate resources, and evaluates the applicability of the data for a particular situation. Students at Edison will learn how to apply these learning processes in each field of study. INTERPERSONAL SKILLS/TEAMWORK. Interpersonal skills promote personal effectiveness when interacting with others, whether the interaction is one-on-one, in a small group, in an organization, or with an audience. To be skilled interpersonally, a person must first assess any situation to determine the expectations of others involved, and then adapt to those expectations.
		neral Information