Mission and Vision 141
The following paragraph describes many of the common features of the missions
of its member institutions:
ANAC... members make student learning primary within a traditional
higher education commitment to teaching, research, and service. Most
express dedication to education that is value-centered (often reflecting the
church-related heritage many ANAC members have in common).... ANAC
institutions acknowledge their comprehensive character and qualities of
practice, integration, and application that reflect their identification with
the New American College paradigm. These include the mission of edu-
cating diverse graduate and professional as well as liberal arts students; a
commitment to service in their surrounding region; and the goal of develop-
ing applied competence as well as theoretical knowledge. (Associated New
American 2004)The effort to reconceptualize the mission of these institutions has been richly
rewarding for many of the participants. The ANAC schools asked themselves what
it meant to be a distinctive type of collegiate university and found that the theme
of “connectedness” was especially suggestive in describing their strategic intent.
In virtually every direction they turned, the theme of integration, of crossing
intellectual and organizational boundaries, illuminated their strategic initiatives
(Boyer 1994). It gave them confidence that the idea of a small undergraduate
university was rich in possibility and could stand by itself as a model of quality.
The mission of the new American college has inspired a number of dramatic
success stories in which the academic and financial strength of the institutions
has improved markedly (Berberet 2007).
Many of the ANAC schools discovered that a clear and authentic pur-
pose brings a focus to all the work of strategy and surfaces issues that are truly
mission critical. Mission then becomes a conceptual reference point that can be
internalized throughout the institution and that brings coherence and conti-
nuity to the decision-making process. In essence, it provides the organization
with purposefulness, an indispensable component of leadership. In charting
turnarounds at some two dozen institutions, MacTaggart (2007a, 2007b) empha-
sizes that a revitalized sense of mission defined around new or transformed
academic programs is the culminating stage of the process.
Vision and Leadership: Conceptual Foundations
The development of a vision for the future is part of the very meaning of the
concept of strategy and provides an indissoluble connection to the theme of
leadership. Yet for a variety of reasons, the power of a vision is often not captured
in campus strategic plans. Sometimes the term is regarded as a trendy part of the
jargon of pop management and resisted. Commonly, too, prior experience with
a vision may stir campus resentment because it did not produce the ambitious
changes that it promised (Keller 1997).