West Valley College Mission Statement

West Valley College

West Valley College is a community of learners open to those seeking advanced educational opportunities. Our faculty, staff, and students have a passionate commitment to learning, fueled by the spirit of inquiry. The College embraces innovation and change characterized by trust, confidence, and accountability. Through open communication, support and acceptance for one another, shared decision making through collaboration and teamwork, and a respect for diversity, West Valley College affirms its commitment to people.

Mission Statement

"The West Valley College Community supports students
along their pathways to reach transfer and career goals
in an environment of academic excellence."

Approved by College Council

To achieve West Valley's mission, the college strives to attain excellence in providing:

• Transfer Preparation.

  Courses and programs which provide comprehensive lower division instruction with full transferability through articulation agreements and transfer guarantees for students who have educational goals beyond the associate degree.

• Vocational Technical Education.

  Courses and career programs which provide skills and knowledge responsive to current needs of business, technology, and the allied professional fields.

• General Education.

  Courses and programs which contribute to the education of an individual, including the development of critical thinking, written and oral communication skills, understanding of and the ability to use quantitative analysis; appreciation of the arts and humanities; and awareness of physical, social and behavioral sciences as they affect the individual and interaction with the community and the global society.

• Pre-Collegiate Basic Skills.

  Courses and programs which prepare students for college level reading, written and oral communication, and mathematics.

• Economic Development.

  Courses and programs which advance California's economic growth and global competitiveness and contribute to the region's continuous work force improvement.

• Student Services.

  Counseling programs and additional services which:

  1. assist students in the matriculation process;
  2. facilitate planned selection of programs and courses;
  3. lead to transfer and/or career goals; and,
  4. promote student access, retention and success.

• Community Education Courses and Programs.

  Community Education meets identified community interests and needs by offering state funded and fee-supported non-credit classes in areas including education for older adults, health and safety, short term vocational programs, basic skills, College for Kids, parenting, and drug and alcohol education programs.

College Strategic Goals

1. Learning Community.

   We will shape a learning community which blends the traditional focus on content with the development of additional skills that learners need to contribute successfully to our contemporary, multi-cultural society by:

   • Effectively developing a sense of community
   • Encouraging collaboration
   • Making all members of the college community active partners with shared responsibility in the learning experience
   • Developing appropriate skills to promote lifelong learning
   • Supporting collaborative learning and problem solving within the classroom, across the college and throughout the district

   We will continue to support student success by:

   • Developing, evaluating, and improving our educational programs and services
   • Assisting students in setting their educational goals and evaluating progress toward them
   • Utilizing continual assessment to improve the student learning experience.

   We will promote ongoing professional and personal growth by:

   • Providing orientation for all full and part-time employees
   • Providing opportunities, resources, and mentoring

2. Diversity & Inclusion.

   We will foster an increasingly diverse and inclusive learning community by:

   • Communicating and building better relationships with the communities we serve
   • Decreasing systemic financial, geographic, academic, physical, personal and cultural barriers to make the campus more accessible and inviting
   • Attracting, hiring, retaining, and supporting a highly qualified, multi-faceted staff
   • Preparing and encouraging students to contribute successfully to our contemporary, multi-cultural society

3. Collaborative Leadership.

   We will work collaboratively, as active partners in the learning community, on behalf of the common good of the College and District. We will take responsibility, both individually and collectively, to engage in shared decision-making by:

   • Improving and sustaining an environment of mutual respect, confidence, support and trust
   • Communicating, interacting and building teams within and across constituencies
   • Ensuring timely, effective communication
   • Making intentional, conscientious, thoughtful, and timely decisions

4. Physical Resources.

   We will pro actively and innovatively support the learning community with physical resources (buildings, grounds, learning stations, instructional space, and equipment) by:

   • Making the campus more accessible, inviting, safe, and physically attractive to a diverse population
   • Maintaining, reconfiguring, and developing classrooms, laboratories and other facilities to promote collaborative learning
   • Sharing our physical resources more effectively
   • Using technologies that help us transcend the limitations of the physical environment by thinking of the community as the classroom
   • Promoting the College campus as a resource to the community and viewing the community as a resource for the College

5. Fiscal Innovation.

   We will proactively and innovatively fund our learning community by:

   • Engaging in strategic financial planning
   • Securing appropriate alternative sources of funding
   • Allocating resources through fiscal policies, priorities, and processes that support institutional goals

Accreditation

West Valley College is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, (3402 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95403 (707) 569-9177) an institutional accrediting body recognized by the Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation and the U.S. Department of Education.