04/12/2021
Here's a Draft Mission Statement:
Mission & Values
Mission Statement
Condor College invests in its community, with the aim of producing well-rounded, socially responsible citizens through an academically rigorous, interdisciplinary education emphasizing social and environmental justice, intercultural understanding and scientific literacy. Democracy is a core Condor value, and we demonstrate that commitment through meaningful participation of students, faculty and staff in college governance and program design. We are a worker self-directed non-profit organization, so our workers select the College’s officers and vote on our own pay and benefits package; students have a voice on issues that do not concern employee wages, benefits, and working conditions. Our aim is to transform our community by producing leaders, identifying core needs of our community and training individuals to fill those needs, and encouraging student involvement in the community.
Condor Core Values
At Condor College, we emphasize five core values:
Be a Force for Good: At Condor, we believe that colleges should be good actors in the community. Their employees should make a living wage and fair benefits, and they should have a reasonable pension plan, job security, and good working conditions. We also believe that employees should be able to secure those reasonable demands through workplace democracy. But taking care of our employees is only the most basic part of what makes Condor College unique. We believe that the college should also be a positive force for good in the surrounding community. Colleges should be good neighbors, whose students are trained to be good citizens who participate in the life of the community.
Be Part of Your Community: At Condor, we believe that Colleges should tailor their programs to the needs of the community, and not vice versa. We strive to take our students from our campus communities, rather than marketing our programs to out of state students or students who live in California but outside of our geographical region. We believe that our faculty should be relatable to our students, and that the programs should be designed to fulfill needs in the community so that graduates can find jobs in the community right after graduation. So we seek to partner with local employers and the public sector to make our programs the right fit for our workforce. On the other hand, we do not believe that the college experience is primarily about creating good workers. So we strive to help our students be good citizens first; we believe that good citizens are naturally good workers. All of our programs, therefore include a service component wherein our students perform regular volunteer service around the community, and then reflect upon those experiences in written work.
Have Your Teachers Teach: At Condor, we believe that students learn best when the teacher is actively involved in their instruction. So we are a teaching college, not a research college. Our faculty do have academic expectations in order to earn tenure. However, those academic expectations are primarily the creation of free (OER, Creative Commons) textbooks and other resources so that we can keep our costs low for our students. Other than that, we do not want to burden our professors with research and other academic expectations. We prefer that they stay in the classroom. And we are committed to keeping our class sizes to 20 students or less, because we believe that students learn better when class sizes are smaller. Moreover, all faculty also take on counseling and advising roles so that they are invested in their students overall program success, and not just the current section that they are teaching.
Be Innovative: Condor College students are taught to challenge the traditional ways that education has been performed. We seek to innovate wherever possible and find new and refreshing ways of learning. Our programs are dynamic, adaptable, and the student is challenged to be a part of the process of program design. We seek to be on the leading edge of pedagogy and to push the envelope with respect to our academic programs.
Be Nurturing: At Condor College, we seek to develop the full potential of our students, faculty, and staff by nurturing them and focusing on their social and emotional well-being. We are a place of healing where ‘empathy’, ‘kindness’, and ‘helping’ are not just words that we utter, but rather a way of life.
