Dive Brief:
- The heads of higher ed institutions must be wary of viewing the demands of an institution's mission statement too narrowly, according to Rhona Free, the president of the University of St. Joseph, an all-women's school which will become co-ed next year.
- In a piece for Crain's Business, she described the mistake she made by taking the mission statement to mean that being a women's college means the school should only accept women. Free came to believe the mission statement did not necessarily exclude men, only that the school maintain a focus on developing women's potential.
- Free said maintaining a degree of flexibility with an institution's mission statement can help schools navigate difficult economic and external conditions, but it can also help administrators feel emboldened to steer the institution in ways that are helpful rather than harmful for its long-term strength.
Dive Insight:
Free's assertion is that schools cannot feel so constrained by a mission statement that it inhibits administrators from pursuing decisions and paths that may be beneficial to the institution's health and long-term viability, but if administrators amend their mission statements, they should understand that many stakeholders may have something to say about it. At Albany State University last year, for example, students protested because the school's new mission statement did not make any reference to the fact that the university was an historically black college or university after the institution merged with Darton College..
As administrators at colleges and universities consider how to keep mission statements flexible enough to evolve while maintaining their core purpose, they must also assure that the values of those mission statements are illustrated in practice in campus life. Kimberly Quick, a policy associate at The Century Foundation, said in an Education Dive interview last year that many campus protests could be emanating from the fact that schools claim to value diversity and inclusion in their mission statements (as well as their marketing), but such claims are not validated by the actions of campus leaders. Students attend colleges in part on such values, only to find those values are lacking in practice when it comes to college life. As colleges consider how to make changes to mission statements, it's important to affirm the current ones are properly upheld.