STRATEGIC PLAN

Our Mission

SUNY Niagara provides flexible teaching and learning environments dedicated to educational excellence and committed to our core values of student centeredness, accessibility, comprehensiveness, collegiality, community partnership, and lifelong learning. Through the liberal arts and sciences as a key component of all academic programs, our College nurtures and empowers students to recognize and to value our common humanity as well as the richness of our diversity. SUNY Niagara offers quality academic programs while providing supportive student and academic services. To produce engaged citizens, SUNY Niagara provides cultural, social, recreational, athletic, and global experiences. SUNY Niagara is a major contributor to economic development through transfer, career and technical education, workforce development, and continuing education. To demonstrate integrity and accountability, SUNY Niagara operates through a collegial model of shared governance, which provides for a comprehensive assessment of all aspects of institutional effectiveness.

Our Vision

SUNY Niagara will be a leader in providing a dynamic, high-quality educational environment responsive to current and emerging needs of our students and community.

Student Centeredness:

The College maintains that students are the highest priority, and as such, will be supported by the highest quality of services and programs.

Accessibility:

The College will meet the diverse needs of students by remaining accessible in programs, policies, procedures, admissions, locations, facilities, and tuition.

Comprehensiveness:

The College will provide a broad range of courses leading to associate degrees in university-parallel and career programs as well as certificate curricula. To ensure quality and appropriateness, all curricula are subject to periodic evaluations.

General education will be an integral component of all degree curricula.

The College will assist students in their academic, personal, social, and cultural development by providing a comprehensive and integrated range of academic and student support services.

The College will seek to prepare students to function in the global/international community by providing academic, social, and cultural experiences which foster student awareness.

The College will seek to create an environment that recognizes and values our common humanity as well as the richness of our diversity.

Collegiality:

The College will provide an effective collegial governance structure that encourages active participation of all its constituents. The governance decisions will reflect the collective input of all relevant parties.

The College will continue to formulate, implement, maintain, and refine ongoing, systematic evaluations of policies, programs, and people that affirm rigorous academic standards.

The College will provide resources, opportunities, and programs which encourage administrators, faculty, and staff to pursue their professional development in order to enhance the programs offered by the college.

The College will continue to strengthen mutual respect among and between constituencies.

Community Partnership:

The College will continue to develop short and long-range planning systems which accommodate periods of growth, stability, or decline and which assess the impact of such changes upon the College.

The College will continue to seek sufficient resources to accomplish its mission.

The College will be accountable to its constituencies by administering its resources within generally accepted accounting principles and standards.

The College will strive to maintain the highest standards of professionalism through ongoing, systemic evaluation.

The College will strive to enhance its positive image in the community.

Lifelong Learning:

The College will assist individuals in obtaining skills which allow them to become lifelong learners.

The College will continue to collaborate with business, industry, and other groups in order to play a central role in the educational, social, cultural, recreational, athletic, and economic life of the community.

The College will provide a variety of community education and economic development programs which positively impact the quality of life.

The five Institutional Learning Outcomes below are the foundation of students’ overall education at SUNY Niagara, where the entire experience has been designed to foster students’ development of such knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes.

1. Independence: SUNY Niagara graduates should be self-directed lifelong learners and informed consumers with enhanced life skills who can advocate for themselves and solve problems objectively.
2. Knowledge: SUNY Niagara graduates should demonstrate discipline-specific as well as general education knowledge and should possess practical skills gained through applied learning.
3. Curiosity: SUNY Niagara graduates should be inquisitive and willing to explore and to discover. They should ask meaningful questions, demonstrate awareness of surrounding environments, engage in current and evolving technology, and think both critically and analytically.
4. Communication: SUNY Niagara graduates should engage in social interaction and express/articulate ideas in speech, in writing, and/or through media or technology.
5. Values: SUNY Niagara graduates should demonstrate global awareness, civic engagement, appreciation of differences and diversity, civility, ethics, and aesthetics.

The College maintains a Planning and Assessment Policy that guides its work.

Planning and Assessment