A few months ago, Grinnell College released a draft mission statement entitled ``Grinnell: A College with a Mission.'' While a few members of the college community reacted strongly to the draft mission statement, many members of the community seemed apathetic and asked why anyone should care about the mission statement. In this document, we try to address that question.
A mission statement serves three purposes that contribute to a college's function: A mission statement guides and inspires the college; a mission statement advertises the strengths and virtues of the college; and a mission statement distinguishes the college from its peers and rivals.
Because a college's mission statement is intended to reflect the mission of the college, it should be used, and is used, to guide decisions within the college. In a community like Grinnell College, where authority is shared among many people, a mission statement can guide us effectively only if it both accurately depicts the character of the institution, its values, policies, and practices, and inspires members of the community by portraying an ideal that we believe in.
This role of guiding and inspiring the college explains why the mission statement is so often taken as the starting point for the process of accreditation. One of the first questions that an accreditation team is likely to ask is How has your mission statement shaped your decisions?. We want to be able to answer confidently and explicitly.
Simultaneously, a mission statement tells the world what the college intends itself to be. As one colleague notes, a mission statement succinctly describes a college's fundamental values, purpose, and vision. Hence, many people look to a college's mission statement as a first indicator about the institution -- an early clue about how well they would fit in. An college can and should rely on our mission statement to recruit both students and faculty. A mission statement can also aid in development, as it tells potential donors why the college's activities are worth funding.
These first two purposes are closely related. If a mission statement clearly guides an institution, then those who are drawn to the statement will realize that the mission statement is more than just words. When these people join or fund the college community, they will strive to further support the mission.
However, these two purposes lead to a third important purpose for the mission statement: A mission statement must distinguish an institution from its peers. Particularly for purposes of recruitment and development, but also for guidance, a college must suggest why it is different from other institutions. Otherwise, why would anyone choose that institution over its peers? A college should not just try to be ``one of the pack'' or even ``the best of the pack''; rather, it should strive to be the best at the things it values most.
This document is available on the World Wide Web as
http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~stone/mission-statement/why.xhtml
created April 24, 2001
last revised July 10, 2001
Samuel A. Rebelsky
(rebelsky@grinnell.edu)
John David Stone
(stone@cs.grinnell.edu)