The College has a great mission statement (in blue). I comment on each item below. . .
Mission, Vision, Goals
Mission:
At McHenry County College, we value learning, and we put the interests of our students and community first. By providing high quality, affordable and accessible learning opportunities, we enable students to meet their educational, career and personal goals. By sharing our knowledge and resources, we support our community's educational, social, cultural and economic vitality.
If what students learn is applicable now and also transferrable to newly developing applications, we can call it human capital. If community learning means new connections between people, and these new connections ramify so that their benefits can be shared with others, we can call that social capital. Both of these help to contribute to economic growth, which contributes to sustaining the good life, and enable us to adapt to the changes and challenges we face. Among other things, as the economy turns corners, we can follow it.
Vision:
The community’s first choice for a lifetime of learning
The College is McHenry County’s only choice for higher education, and therefore a vital one. Long-term, branch campuses for Harvard, Huntley, and northeastern McHenry County should be considered, which would accomplish three things: provide more convenient access to students, lower our collective production of greenhouse gases, and reduce the transportation time-burden for students at the same time that it lowers transportation density for other people using these roadways.
Goals:
- To prepare students to transfer successfully to colleges and universities,
The Illinois Articulation Initiative helps to make it clear which courses will transfer for credit to public Illinois universities and colleges. For private institutions, the deal is different. Part of the challenge of making MCC work for all is attracting teachers who will teach effective enough courses that students can get credit for their courses at private colleges and universities. It might be helpful (and good for alumni relations) if there were a way for students who’ve transferred to private schools to report back which of their credits has transferred, so students considering transferring to particular schools have a realistic idea of which courses to take at MCC, and which to save for the school they are going to transfer to.
Some of this can be interpreted as institutional turf-protection by the research universities, understandable in some instances, at least if you really do have faculty involved in research doing the teaching, but it is self-defeating in some other instances. Example: How many English majors have become so because of a Shakespeare course? If we don’t allow Shakespeare courses to transfer from community colleges, English departments at research universities may end up with fewer English majors.
In my conversations on the campaign trail, I’ve heard some former students comment that the counseling they received about which courses were transferrable could have been more on target. Some courses, of course, will benefit students even if they don’t transfer, but given the time and financial expense of taking college courses, we want to do our best to make sure this counseling is on target.
- To prepare students to enter and advance in their careers.
This is one of the most challenging parts of MCC’s mission, for the workplace and the credentials and skills needed to enter it change over time.
One idea I’d like to see MCC explore, augmenting the RN program that departing trustee Francis Glosson helped to nudged into being, is a program that accredits home health visitors for programs like the Healthy Families Initiative. We know that the early childhood years are crucial for establishing positive baselines for development, and this public-private initiative provides resources for first-time parents to help things get off to a good start, increasing the chances of good nutrition for young children, and reducing the chances of child abuse.
Expanding public health careers also exist at the other end of the life course, in geriatric care, which, if the recently established unit at Centegra is any sign, will be richly multi-disciplinary.
Another initiative that it would be interesting to pursue would be building bridges between MCC’s new culinary arts program and farmers in our area, developing skill sets that would allow more local restaurants to work with fresh food grown in our area, and perhaps increasing demand for such food in our grocery stores, restaurants, and specialty shops, which could support the continued existence of small-hold farms in our area.
- To prepare students with the literacy and basic skills to succeed and grow as learners, workers and members of society,
Of course, we hope that our K-12 system will accomplish most of these tasks for students who are born here, but the college is, as it was for my one my younger siblings, a second chance for those who have for whatever reason not acquired the basic literacies that are necessary to survive and flourish in our highly complex society (given our recent economic meltdown, a lot of us might include financial literacy as one of the basic literacies).
I worked in the English as a Second Language program on Friday nights, but the college shut down this evening’s program. I was sorry that this happened, because it was one night when I could regularly volunteer, and because I know that it was convenient and fun for many students who wanted to learn English on a weekend evening.
- To promote personal development and lifelong learning for all students,
This mission—that MCC is not just for young and old, but includes under-appreciated programs for middle-agers like me--is already critically important for our community, and it is going to become even more important during the present and future economic turmoil we are faced with. Also, with the boomer generation retiring, we want McHenry County College to be an attractive venue for them, so that we can continue to benefit from the human capital that is stored up in their experience, from the revenue they pay in taxes, and from the next phase of their lives as they explore the possibilities of retirement (including the public service they may not have had time to offer previously, although I have been adjured by a former mayor to express my enthusiasm for this idea in very voluntary terms).
- To enrich the educational, social, and cultural life of the community
Wouldn’t it be great if students could get experience in radio communications here at the college? What if the board were to make their deal for the construction of the radio tower a leasing deal (Mr. McGuire, CEO of BMB, professed his openness to this during their presentation), and make the deal contingent on access for a college radio station that would allow college students and the community at large to develop radio programs for public benefit. At a much lower cost than televising them, we could broadcast Board of Trustee meetings over the radio, which would allow people to tune in to keep themselves informed, ensuring that people who want to follow issues in front of the college can do so, and rid the Board of this sense that it tries to operate clear from public scrutiny. If such new local media fostered greater public discussion of issues facing the college, we very well might have better public understanding of these issues, and more support for the college.
Again, such communications venues should hardly be restricted to younger people, or to radio. In some communities, the seniors run these programs, teach and use the equipment, and provide a great service to the community.
- To address the community’s workforce needs.
Many people hope that if the college has effective workforce programs, McHenry County can draw employers who offer high-paying jobs, which will of course benefit the community in terms of revenues flowing within the County. A recently published book, WHY THE GARDEN CLUB COULDN’T SAVE YOUNGSTOWN, discusses the difference education institutions (LeHigh University, in particular) made in the transition of the area in eastern Pennsylvania surrounding Allentown to a post-steel industry economy. McHenry County College could help serve in the inevitable transition McHenry County faces from an economy based on new home construction in former agricultural lands to a process of “suburban renewal,” in which homes are retrofitted, and areas with older housing stock that can’t be economically retrofitted can be redeveloped with more energy and water efficient homes.