Mission Statement, Core Themes & Community Responsibilities
Our 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.
Our Vision
Seattle Colleges is recognized as an exemplary learning institution that transforms lives, promotes equity, and enriches the community.
Our Core Themes
- Student Achievement
- Teaching and Learning
- College Culture and Climate
- Community Engagement and Partnerships
Our 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
Our Goals
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Our College Community Responsibilities
- Treat each other with courtesy and respect
- Speak civilly and act responsibly with consideration for the rights of others
- Affirm the value of diversity and promote cultural sensitivity
- Maintain a safe and welcoming community
Our Commitment to Equity in Action
South Seattle College commits to creating an environment of equity, inclusion and multiculturalism which dismantles all forms of oppression by developing responsive, intentional practices
Our Commitment to Evolve into an Anti-Racist Institution
In 2018, South Seattle College welcomed Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap as our newest president, and the first woman of color to lead our institution. In 2019, South celebrated 50 years in operation and in her campus-wide speech on President’s Day of that year, President Rimando-Chareunsap reflected on South’s first 50 years and issued a call to action for our next 50, with a steadfast focus on becoming an anti-racist college and eliminating achievement gaps based on race. From her speech:
"In order to improve student outcomes, in order to improve student retention, in order to fulfill our mission and make whole-system improvements that guarantee that our legacy for the next 50 years will survive and thrive, we must confront our institutionalized racism, and work together to create racial equity. In so doing, we will be better able to address the many other forms of inequities that also exist. Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Being willing is not enough, we must do. We must do. And my hope is that we lean into this work together, making connections, and remembering that these are the things that we love about our college: to be kind, to be inclusive, to be student-centered, to be advocates, and to be connected.”
Our Statement of Transformation Issued in 2020
Through a focus on anti-racist development and by caring about each member of our community, South Seattle College will become the best choice for effective and adaptable student support, excellent remote learning, and distinctive professional/technical programs taught safely in-person.