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INFORMATION ABOUT » Our District » Mission, Vision & Strategic Plan
Mission, Vision & Strategic Plan

2017-23

Approved by the Seattle Colleges Board of Trustees July 13, 2017

Mission

As an open-access learning institution, Seattle Colleges prepares each student for success in life and work, fostering a diverse, engaged, and dynamic community.

Vision

Seattle Colleges is recognized as an exemplary learning institution that transforms lives, promotes equity, and enriches the community.

Values

  • Accessibility for all learners and partners

  • Collaboration through open communication and commitment to working together.

  • Diversity, inclusion, and equity for all individuals, particularly the underserved in our community.

  • Fiscal sustainability for long-term viability and excellence in service and operations.

  • Growth and development of faculty and staff through professional development

  • Innovation in instruction, student services, operations, and organizational culture

  • Integrity by adhering to the highest standards of ethics and public stewardship

Mission, Vision, Values Bookmark

Goals

  1. Student success: The success of our students is the central focus of Seattle Colleges. We strive to make steady gains in improving student satisfaction, retention, completion, job placement, and narrowing student performance gaps

  2. Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Community: At Seattle Colleges, we firmly establish equity, diversity, and inclusion as a strategic goal and as human rights for all. We frame our decisions and actions with a lens of equity, diversity, and inclusion and are accountable to the community.

  3. Organizational excellence: Seattle Colleges aspires to achieve excellence as Seattle’s open-admission institution of higher education. We seek to achieve continuous improvements in excellence in teaching and learning, operational efficiency and fiscal sustainability, strategic innovation, employee growth and engagement, and diversity and inclusion.

  4. Partnerships: As an important engine of economic development, Seattle Colleges values and invests in strategic and ongoing partnerships with educational, business, governmental, labor, and community organizations.

2018 Strategic Plan Brochure

View Brochure

Our Story

Chartered by the state Legislature in 1967, Seattle Colleges enjoys a proud 50-year history of serving Seattle and the state of Washington.

Seattle Colleges is composed of Seattle Central College, North Seattle College and South Seattle College. As the largest community college district in the state, we serve 45,000 students annually with more than 135 professional and technical programs, including nine applied baccalaureate degrees.

Seattle Colleges is the city’s open-access education institution. Generations of students with diverse academic and socioeconomic backgrounds have come to us to learn, improve, and live a better life. We have also formed strong partnerships with educational, business, governmental, and civic organizations throughout Seattle.

Although each of our institutions has unique strengths and specialized programs, they all share the same commitment: transforming lives, bridging opportunity gaps, and fulfilling community needs. It is a shared vision and our common story now—and for the next 50 years.

+-Learn about our strategic planning processClose

Strategic Plan Purpose

The Seattle Colleges Strategic Plan 2017–23 provides broad, forward-looking direction to ensure student success in the dynamic and vibrant city of Seattle.

The Board of Trustees—in consultation with the district community, including faculty, staff, students, administrative leadership, and external partners—initiated and approved the new strategic plan.

The plan reflects a common purpose, beliefs, commitments, and priorities. It also establishes a set of major goals that will be achieved over time at each college and across the district. The strategic plan recognizes the unique characteristics of each of the colleges and includes a range of high-level strategies that will be operationalized in a manner appropriate for each college. Ultimately, the strategic plan acknowledges our proud history, short-term challenges, and opportunities while identifying future directions, aspirations, and operational strategies. It also affirms our fundamental mission: to prepare each student for a successful life and work in a diverse, global, and dynamic society.

Overview of the Strategic Planning Process 2016-17

The previous 2010-17 Seattle Colleges strategic plan sunsetted in 2017. With this in mind, the Board of Trustees initiated a process to develop a new district-wide Strategic Plan in late 2016. The new plan serves to set strategic direction for Seattle Colleges for future years. The colleges will develop operational plans in support of the district-wide strategic plan. A critical part of the strategic planning process was to engage and gain input from our stakeholders, including our employees.

Strategic Planning Phases 2016-17

Phase Definition
Phase I - Develop Process, Framework and Templates. Finalize planning process, frameworks and templates for one district plan and college operational plans; review, synthesize current plans
Phase II - District-wide input, Feedback, and Review. Board review mission and vision. Draft plan with districtwide core goals; seek input from select internal and external stakeholder, colleges; target and request strategic feedback; use multiple modalities; revise district planned core goals
Phase III - College Input, Feedback, and Review. With colleges' leadership, strategic planning leads, review and refine district core goals; further develop, specify, refine college operational plans; align college subunit operational plans
Phase IIII - Board Approval, Communications and Dessemination. Present district strategic plan and college operational plans to board for review and approval; communicate key messages
Infographic showing the four phases of the strategic plan

The district planned a series of conversations beginning in the Winter Quarter of 2017. Additional conversations continued throughout the subsequent months to ensure faculty, staff, students, community members, and civic and business leaders were able to provide feedback. Our goal was to seek input from valued community members to chart a path for our future.

In addition to strategic planning, the chancellor and college leadership carried out other related major initiatives: Budget Planning and Achieving System Integration.

Timeline and Milestones 2016-17

  • Strategic Planning: Fall 2017 - Summer 2017
    • Management Team - Winter 2017
    • Town Hall - Spring 2017
    • Finish - Summer 2017
  • Budget Planning: Winter 2017 - Summer 2017
    • Communications Preliminary Budget - Spring 2017
  • Acheiving System Integration: Spring 2017
Timeline of planned implementations

The strategic plan built upon the planning that already took place at each of the colleges and aligned common goals and purposes as well as approaches to our work. Members of the board of trustees, the chancellor and vice chancellors, and presidents agreed that working towards one mission, vision, values, and set of common goals for the entire district is the long-term goal. The board of trustees in consultation with stakeholders is ultimately accountable for setting the mission and goals of the Seattle Colleges.

Key Stakeholders’ Roles (RACI) – District Goals

Stakeholder Group Phase I - Develop Phase II - Input Phase III - Revise Phase IIII - Approve
key R - resposible: does work A - Accountable: oversees C - Consulted: weighs inI - Informed: as needed of progress
Board of Trustees A I IA
Chancellor's Office A A AR
BOT Subcommittee on Strategic Planning A A AC
District staff, colleges' strategic planning leads R R R C
Chancellor's Exec Cabinet; College presidents C C C C
College President's cabinets C C C C
Chancellor's Advisory Council I C I I
District-wide Management Team I C I I
Employee Unions, Faculty Shared Governance I C I I
Student groups I C I I
Workforce advisory groups throughout the District I C I I
City gvt, Chamber, business partners, CBO's I C I I
Colleges and District Foundations. C C C C
A list of district stakeholders and their roles

Gathering Input

Through June of 2017, input was received from members of the chancellor’s advisory council; the district management team; more than 20 external experts from business, government, and community; and nearly 200 employees through an online survey. Additional input activities included a town hall and stakeholder input meetings with faculty and classified staff.

Stakeholder Input Meetings - Spring 2017

• May 8Town Hall MeetingCentral, North, and South
• May 9Faculty InputCentral
• May 10Classified InputCentral
• May 15Classified InputSouth
• May 22Faculty InputSouth
• May 30Classified InputNorth
• May 30Faculty InputNorth

Input Received - June 8, 2017

Input includes: District Management(150), Employee Survey(230), Town Hall(300), Student Forums(12), Faculty(35), Classified(30), External Experts(21), Advisory Council(15)

A list of input providers

Final Steps

In the fall of 2018, the chancellor’s executive cabinet and college leadership teams finalized measures, strategies, and operational plans. Across the strategic plan’s four goal areas, a common set of twelve districtwide measures have been identified. These measures enable comparisons across the colleges and over time. Also, seven districtwide strategies provide broad, forward-looking guidance to advance goals and respective measures. The finalized strategic plan is supported by a dynamic, interactive scorecard. Periodic in-depth reviews of each goal area and measures are held at meetings of the board of trustees.

Seattle Central  |   North Seattle  |   South Seattle
Health Education Center  |   Seattle Maritime Academy  |   Wood Technology Center
Georgetown Campus  |   NewHolly Learning Center
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