NOVA’s Values and Mission: The Results of Your Work

Today’s topic is a follow-up on the surveys over the past two weeks on NOVA’s values and mission statement.

First, our values.

You were asked to vote up or down on the five values that emerged from the thoughts you shared on the ThoughtExchange. These were (in alpha order): Care, Excellence, Inclusion, Integrity and Respect. Forty-seven of you took the time to respond to the survey. The results show strong agreement with the proposed values, which will now move into the “adopted” category and help guide our next Strategic Plan:

The 10 alternates suggested under “other” align with the adopted values. Thus, they could be incorporated into the NOVA operational definition of the adopted values and will be provided to the definition teams in spring semester. For example, our operational definition of Integrity could include the suggestions “transparency” and “personal responsibility”; Care could include the suggestions “students first” and “empathy”; Excellence could include the suggestion “innovation”; etc.

If you would like to serve on a definition team for one of the values, please complete this survey by December 5. These teams will begin their work in January and complete it by the end of February.

Second, our mission.

You were asked to select your choice for our mission from six options that reflected your feedback on the initial mission draft. The first four of the options varied slightly in phrasing based on your comments; the fifth and sixth were more significant revisions based on some ThoughtExchange feedback. These last two did not attract much support in the vote.

The table below shows the results of the vote. Option 1 was preferred by a slight margin of respondents, but taken with Option 2, which varies from Option 1 only in the placement of “equitable,” this overall mission message garnered the most support. However, the results also show that the addition of the word “opportunity” in Option 3 spoke to a significant share of the respondents—and this word and concept came through clearly in the ThoughtExchange feedback, too.

Based on the totality of your comments and feedback throughout this process, the following slight revision to Option 1 seems to capture most fully the purpose for our work that resonates with our NOVA community:

Northern Virginia Community College provides equitable access to affordable and exceptional higher education and workforce programs, transforming the lives of our students and advancing opportunity in our community.

This mission and the values listed above will go to NOVA’s Advisory Board at its January meeting for approval. Per Board policy, they will then be shared with VCCS, and per SACSCOC requirements, they will be provided to our accrediting body. Most importantly, in practice, they will guide our Strategic Planning process, which kicks off in January.

Your active engagement, feedback, insights and thoughtful responses over the past month informed and strengthened the revision of NOVA’s mission and values—modeling the very values you put forward. Thank you all so much for participating in this process!