CCU mission statement approved by Commission on Higher Education
The university's mission statement was revised as part of a comprehensive strategic planning effort initiated last year by Coastal President David A. DeCenzo. Over the past six months the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, including university faculty, students, staff and alumni as well as legislative and community leaders, developed a new mission statement incorporating ideas and viewpoints of the entire campus community.
"The revised mission statement represents the voices of all of Coastal's major stakeholders, including the community served by the university," said Darla Domke-Damonte, a Coastal management professor who is coordinating the university's strategic planning efforts.
After being approved by Coastal's Student Government Association, Faculty Senate and Board of Trustees, the new mission statement was submitted to the S.C. Commission on Higher Education in December 2007. Coastal was notified of the commission's official approval of the statement in a letter from Executive Director Garrison Walters issued Jan. 8, 2008.
The mission statement will guide future university decision-making and development. The next step in the process is the formation of task forces to begin initiating key objectives determined by the university through the Strategic Planning Steering Committee.
"The new mission statement represents a connection to our founding and a commitment to our future," said DeCenzo. "The statement will help direct the focus of the entire university community as we work together toward our goal to become the comprehensive university of choice in South Carolina."
Coastal Carolina University Mission Statement
Coastal Carolina University is a public comprehensive liberal arts institution that seeks to develop students who are both knowledgeable in their chosen fields and prepared to be productive, responsible, healthy citizens with a global perspective. To deliver on this commitment, Coastal Carolina recruits highly qualified and motivated students, faculty, and staff from the region, state, nation, and world to create a diverse and dynamic student-centered learning environment.
Because Coastal Carolina embraces the teacher-scholar model, it places primary emphasis on high quality teaching and engaged learning, and it supports faculty research, creative activities, and expert collaboration in the community, state, nation, and world. This focus enables faculty and staff to mentor students in collaborative research, creative opportunities, and internships. To nurture this active learning community, Coastal Carolina maintains a broad range of contemporary technologies, programming, support services, and innovative course offerings and delivery methods. The result is alumni who are well prepared for professional careers or graduate programs in their chosen fields and who continue to be connected to Coastal Carolina.
Inspired by its founding in 1954 to serve the educational needs of the immediate area, Coastal Carolina has grown with the region to become a mid-sized regional comprehensive university with a tradition of a strong liberal arts core. As such, Coastal Carolina commits its resources to maintaining a population of 8,000 - 12,000 students by building baccalaureate and selective master's programs of national and/or regional significance in the arts and sciences, business, humanities, education, and health and human services. Coastal Carolina fully embraces its leadership role as a regional center of economic and intellectual resources, lifelong learning, cultural and recreational opportunities, and athletic programs.
As Coastal Carolina executes this mission, it recognizes its responsibility to be a role model to the community and to the professions by assuring fair and honest treatment of people with whom it interacts and sustainable stewardship of resources entrusted to it, adopting the highest standards of integrity and accountability, and committing itself to excellence through continuous self-improvement.
Original approved by the Coastal Carolina University Board of Trustees on April 18, 1997
Update adopted by the Coastal Carolina University Board of Trustees on December 14, 2007