Mission | Vision | Core Values
Mission Statement
Edison State Community College provides the learning opportunities, support services and commitment that enable students to complete their educational goals and realize their dreams.
Vision Statement
Edison State Community College will be the region’s premier resource for higher education by employing our core values, commitment to student success, strategic initiatives and community collaboration.
Core Values
The core values are a set of principles that guide Edison State 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 State 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 use 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 not 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 through which the learner formulates essential questions, locates appropriate resources and evaluates the applicability of the data for a particular situation. Students at Edison State 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.
Brand Promise
"A personal experience, a rewarding education."
What can our students expect? This question is the core of the "brand promise"—our definition of what our students expect to receive in their time with us.
Edison State's brand promise has two parts. The first, "a personal experience", acknowledges that each student is a unique individual, and the faculty and staff will endeavor to create a college experience that is memorable and personal for each student.
The second part of the brand promise, "a rewarding education", encompasses the broad spectrum of reasons why students attend college. "Rewards" of higher education may range from a self-image to financial security and Edison State's brand promise ensures that we all strive to empower each individual to reach his or her personal and educational life goals.
2019–2022 Strategic Plan
2023–2026 Strategic Plan
Taking Excellence and Innovation to the Next Level
The 2023–2026 Strategic Plan provides tactical direction for Edison State and is guided by our vision, mission, values, and student learning outcomes. This plan is intended to be an integral part of the Edison State overall operations and daily initiatives. Outcomes presented here are the result of collaborative efforts from a host of stakeholders including alumni, students, staff, faculty, and community and business leaders from across our service region.