Western Carolina University
Vision Statement

Mission

The University

Western Carolina University is a comprehensive university within the University of North Carolina, offering a broad array of undergraduate and graduate programs in the arts, sciences, and professions. The University serves the people of North Carolina from its residential main campus at Cullowhee, situated between the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains, and through its resident credit programs in Asheville and Cherokee.

Mission

Teaching and learning constitute the central mission of Western Carolina University. The University seeks to create a community of scholarship in which the activities of its members are consistent with the highest standards of knowledge and practice in their disciplines.

The commitment of the community to service, research, and creative activities complements the central mission and extends the benefits of its scholarship to society. As a major public resource for Western North Carolina, the University assists individuals and agencies in the region through the expertise of its faculty, its staff, and its students.

Aspirations

Western Carolina University aspires to provide an environment in which students, faculty, and staff jointly assume responsibility for learning, where free exchange of ideas, intellectual challenge, and high standards of scholarship prevail.

The University prepares students to become contributing and informed citizens in a global community. By working both independently and collaboratively, graduates of the University have demonstrated the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of an educated person, including:

To encourage and protect the free and open interchange of ideas, the University strives to provide experiences that foster the development of respect among all its members toward the larger communities of which it is a part. Accordingly, the University encourages its students, faculty, and staff to display the following traits of citizenship:

Clientele

Our primary service area will be Western North Carolina, with a residential main campus in Cullowhee, and resident credit centers in Asheville and Cherokee, offering a comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate programs. WCU will strengthen its position as the primary provider of graduate education in Asheville.

Cullowhee Campus:

Cullowhee will remain primarily a residential campus focusing on an undergraduate student body drawn from North Carolina, with 10-18% out-of-state and international students. Racial and ethnic demographics will reflect those of Western North Carolina, but special recruitment efforts for racial and ethnic minorities will result in increasing numbers of minority students and faculty. The Cullowhee campus will enroll an increasing percentage of female students, and actively recruit international, two-year college transfer, and non-traditional students.

Although the graduate student body will be primarily drawn from the immediate region, students from throughout North Carolina, out-of-state, and international will be attracted to our graduate programs.

Asheville Center:

We will offer selected professional undergraduate and graduate programs serving a mainly non-traditional, part-time, student body. We will actively recruit and provide specialized programming for regional professional and managerial employees.

Cherokee Center:

General education course work will be offered to encourage Native American transition to college. We will continue our long-term commitment and unique relationship with the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. In-service and professional education will be provided to meet the rapid development of business and tourism-related activities in Cherokee.

Extension and Other:

We will provide targeted extension programming in western North Carolina and areas of Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Distance education will offer unique programs. Additional resident credit centers in Western North Carolina will be established to meet on-site educational demands of communities distant from Cullowhee.

Our undergraduate student body will include an increasing percentage of high-performing students. Low-performing students will be referred to community colleges for remedial work prior to admission.

We will maintain our size relative to UNC competitors by seeking controlled, annual growth.

The University will continue to play a special role in Western North Carolina as its dominant educational resource, and as a major public service resource for the region. Through established outreach programs, faculty and professional staff will extend the expertise of the University to small business and industry, non-profit organizations, municipal and county governments, schools, and private citizens by providing research, technical assistance, and information in economic and community development, child development, environmental education, business counseling, leadership training, and cultural and natural resources.

The Cullowhee campus will serve as a regional center for culture and entertainment.

Additionally, the University will serve as a special educational and service resource for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, providing general education and in-service courses in Cherokee and working closely with tribal government and agencies and with Native American organizations in development and preservation of Cherokee historical and cultural resources.

Program and Service Mix

Cullowhee:

We will offer a wide array of undergraduate majors in the liberal arts and professions.

Masters-level graduate programming will be in areas supporting regional needs (business, education, health care, public affairs) and in specialized areas (physical therapy, environmental studies, project management) for full and part-time graduate student populations.

Doctoral-level programs will be offered in educational leadership and in program areas with special strengths.

Asheville:

We will offer selected undergraduate majors that do not duplicate UNC-Asheville's programs. Graduate programs will be targeted and formatted to meet changing regional needs in business, industry, education, public affairs, and health care.

Cherokee:

We will offer undergraduate general education courses and selected courses to meet growing educational needs associated with the hospitality and tourism industry.

Extension and Other:

Unique programs will be offered via distance education (human resource development, Project Management, environmental courses, Cherokee and Appalachian courses).

Program and service priorities:

Thematic emphases:

New program focal points: graduate-level fine and performing arts (MFA, Masters in Music, MA-communications); graduate-level hospitality and tourism; graduate-level health care (e.g. occupational therapy, health administration); graduate and undergraduate environmental studies.

Comparative Advantage

Strategic Positioning:

Operational Positioning:

Objectives

  1. Mission aspiration implementation
  2. Academic quality improvement and external recognition of quality
  3. Improved quality of student-life
  4. Fine and performing arts - facility and programming
  5. Regionally-related programs - focus on development and cultural heritage
  6. Freshman-year experiences
  7. Environmental sciences emphasis
  8. Campus master plan with initial focus on housing and student activities facilities
  9. Continued advancement of technology and implementation of technology in educational applications
  10. Enhanced Asheville programming
WCU....becoming North Carolina's university of choice

Mission Section:
            Adopted by Faculty Senate: April 17, 1997
            Approved by WCU Board of Trustees: June 4, 1997
            Approved by UNC BOG: January 9, 1998

Remaining Sections: Approved by Faculty Senate: January 14, 1998

 

Adoption formally completed in 1998.