Strategic Framework

Vision, Mission, Core Values, Institutional Student Learning Outcomes, and Strategic Directions and Goals

EDUCATIONAL MISSION

Historically diverse, uniquely Micronesian and globally connected, the College of Micronesia-FSM is a continuously improving and student centered institute of higher education. The college is committed to assisting in the development of the Federated States of Micronesia by providing academic, career and technical educational opportunities for student learning.

VISION

College of Micronesia-FSM will provide educational opportunities of the highest quality and will embrace the life-long pursuit of knowledge and the enrichment of the diverse Micronesian communities we serve.

STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS

The College of Micronesia-FSM will focus on six strategic directions for the COM-FSM vision of where we want to go as an organization over the next five years.

Focus on student success: The College of Micronesia-FSM will pursue excellence in student success and will develop a balance between "access and success" with appropriate career pathways for learners.

Emphasize academic offerings in service to national needs: The College of Micronesia-FSM will increase the number of 4-year program opportunities while also strengthening the career and technical educational opportunities for non-college bound students.

Be financially sound, fiscally responsible, and build resources in anticipation of future needs: The College of Micronesia-FSM will generate diversified revenue sources, create an allied foundation, and accumulate reserves and endowment assets.

Invest in and build a strong capacity in human capital: The College of Micronesia-FSM will support and strengthen faculty, staff, and administrators through establishment of aspirational goals for credentialing and funding professional development and building upon organizational and leadership capacity.

Become a learning organization through development of a learning culture guided by learning leaders: The College of Micronesia-FSM will operate under the assumptions that learning is a skill and is worthy of investment and mastery, and that the communication of information and participatory governance are pivotal to organizational success. There will be support of the time, energy, and resources necessary to foster critical reflection and experimentation towards institutional improvement through double-loop learning and systematic thinking.

Evoke an image of quality: The College of Micronesia-FSM will be viewed as a model institution for best practices exhibited through quality, excellence, and integrity of both employees and graduates. The college will maintain regional accreditation without sanction for the maximum six-year cycle allowed by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges: Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

INSTITUTIONAL STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

COM-FSM graduates will demonstrate:

1. Effective oral communication: capacity to deliver prepared, purposeful presentations designed to increase knowledge, to foster understanding, or to promote change in the listeners’ attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.
2. Effective written communication: development and expression of ideas in writing through work in many genres and styles, utilizing different writing technologies, and mixing texts, data, and images through iterative experiences across the curriculum.
3. Critical thinking: a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.
4. Problem solving: capacity to design, evaluate, and implement a strategy to answer an open-ended question or achieve a desired goal.
5. Intercultural knowledge and competence: a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.
6. Information literacy: the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand.
7. Foundations and skills for life-long learning: purposeful learning activity, undertaken on an ongoing basis with the aim of improving knowledge, skills, and competence.
8. Quantitative Reasoning: ability to reason and solve quantitative problems from a wide array of authentic contexts and everyday life situations; comprehends and can create sophisticated arguments supported by qualitative evidence and can clearly communicate those arguments in a variety of formats.

CORE VALUES

We believe in:

REVIEW OF MISSION STATEMENT

A comprehensive review of the mission statement, including the vision and values statements and goals, is part of the formal strategic planning process for development of the college's five-year strategic plan. An annual review is also undertaken during the annual college-wide summit.

Strategies, Measures, and Benchmarks

The planning cycle begins at the start of the fiscal year when annual assessments plans are prepared and reported for service units and for courses. Every two years a review of academic and non-academic programs and services are prepared to identify areas of priority and improvement.

Every five years, the college reviews its mission, vision, and strategic goals in order to guide its integrated educational master plan (IEMP), which consists of plans from all areas of the college. These various plans are carried out and aspects of the plans are assessed by the annual assessment plans (i.e., program reviews at COM-FSM). After six years, the college will have completed three cycles of program reviews and one cycle of mission, vision, strategic plan, and IEMP assessment. These various cycles are reported to the college’s accreditation commission every six years.

From time to time, short-term, specific development plans are drawn to strategize accomplishing objectives specific to an area, such as communication, technology, etc. These individual plans feed into the institutional strategic plan which is annually monitored and adjusted. See appendix 2 for the current strategic plan.

Assessment

The College of Micronesia-FSM is committed to provide the citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia and the region with quality educational programs and services that undergo comprehensive and continual assessment. Accreditation standards also mandate a more comprehensive assessment process for all instructional programs, learning resources, student services, and administrative units at the college. To make assessment of student learning outcomes the focus of all assessment activities, the college will provide a cycle of program evaluation to fulfill the following objectives:

• Demonstrate and improve student learning and student success;
• Assess program quality, productivity, need, and demand;
• Improve the quality of academic offerings and vocational training;
• Ensure wise allocation of resources;
• Determine the effectiveness of programs and to implement program improvement strategies; and
• Promote continuous improvement of college programs and services.

The COM-FSM Program Assessment and Program Review Manual provides a roadmap to guide all levels of decision makers in reaching consensus based on criteria and outcomes established by the college’s own mission, laws of the Federated States of Micronesia and mandatory policies. To ensure continuous improvement of programs and services, all departments and units must conduct annual program assessments or biennial program reviews. The college will use the results of the program assessment for the yearly budget allocation and reallocation. In longer term, each department or unit must conduct a more comprehensive program review every two years. The college will use the results of program review as critical points of its program prioritization in the development of its five-year strategic plan.

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