Salem State College is a comprehensive, publicly supported institution of higher learning located 21 miles north of Boston. Salem State is a community of learners which, in light of its commitment to teaching, research, and scholarship, fosters the intellectual, aesthetic and personal development of its members. In the service to the citizens of the Commonwealth and members of the larger global community, Salem State is committed to the discovery and transmission of knowledge.

To accomplish its broad-based mission, Salem State adheres to the principle that quality teaching must be supported by the research and scholarship of its faculty. Recognizing the developmental needs of students, the college provides opportunities for personal growth through a variety of academic and student life programs, services, and other activities.

In order to provide the foundation for lifelong learning and development, each of Salem State’s programs is grounded in the tradition of a liberal education. Because Salem State seeks to build a community that includes all ages, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds, it offers baccalaureate and graduate degree programs responsive to the needs of a wide spectrum of individuals as well as to the needs of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. These programs are offered throughout the year and include day, evening, and weekend classes. Additionally, as a cultural, artistic, and educational focal point of the North Shore, Salem State is committed to providing diverse experiences, including a broad range of non-credit programs, for the benefit of the wider community.

Fundamental to the College’s mission is its historical breadth of purpose and culture. In practice, this principle translates into the College’s commitment to make itself accessible and affordable to the intellectual and human needs of its diverse student body. A corollary of this principle of breadth is that the College makes room under its umbrella for a wide range of students whose interests span the arts, the sciences and the professions. While the College’s broad umbrella includes the active and innovative support of local businesses, Salem State College remains what it has been for a century and a half: an intellectually based, progressively minded academic institution, guided by its belief in the primacy of the liberal arts and sciences, the enduring significance of research and scholarship, and the value of providing a doorway to opportunity and a ladder to full participation.

To implement its mission effectively, the College is organized around the School of Arts and Sciences; the Schools of Human Services; the School of Business, and the Graduate School, along with programs in Continuing Education and Non-Traditional Studies. The College offers baccalaureate degrees in 35 majors and masters degrees in 34 programs. The College’s curriculum, enhanced by advanced technology and a range of pedagogical innovations, is designed to provide a liberal education by offering a multidisciplinary learning experience. Programs combine the demands of scholarship with the development of a global perspective and the provision of opportunities for service to the region’s communities.

Responsive to the broader economic, social and cultural needs of the Commonwealth, and particularly its North Shore region, the College’s research philosophy makes a special effort to emphasize practical, pragmatic and applied projects which have the ability to enhance teaching and learning as well as improve the quality of life in the communities we serve.

The College’s core students typically come to Salem State College as their families’ educational pioneers; frequently, they are the first to engage in the exciting and challenging realities of today’s higher education. The ambitions of these students have generally focused primarily on acquiring an education capable of granting them one of this nation’s fundamental gifts: the opportunity to compete effectively in intensely competitive and professional career marketplaces.

The College’s mission, organization and curriculum have been designed to recognize and to respond to the needs of traditional core students, as well as to the requirements of an increasingly diverse student body. The College’s Mission Statement, along with the Statements of its constituent schools, have been formally adopted according to the College’s well-defined policies of governance, and the messages of these missions have been communicated broadly to the College’s trustees, administration and faculty.

The mission of the School of Arts and Sciences lies at the heart of the College’s mission itself. Addressing both the universal and narrowly particular dimensions of education, the mission of Arts and Sciences is to prepare students to meet the current and future challenges of a rapidly changing world. That preparation translates more specifically into assisting students in the development of their intellectual and physical abilities, stimulating students to think critically and communicate clearly, and encouraging the understanding of the infinite, profound and ethical connections that tie human beings to each other and to the physical, social, cultural and economic worlds they inhabit.

The mission of the School of Education in the Schools of Human Services is “to develop educators who are intellectual, ethical, and pedagogical leaders within a collaborative educational community committed to serving the diverse needs of learners of all ages.” The statement, adopted May 19, l994, continues to undergo the College’s duly constituted review process, which has elaborated the School’s mission as including two essential points: to focus on the learner; and to make learner empowerment a critical goal.

The School of Nursing in the Schools of Human Services adopted its mission statement September 29, l994. The School’s mission calls for it to be “committed to providing an environment that facilitates excellence in nursing scholarship, leadership and practice to meet the health care needs of a dynamic and diverse society.”

The School of Social Work in the Schools of Human Services has adopted a mission statement that commits it to “the transmission and production of knowledge and the application of knowledge in service to the community and profession. The mission of the School is to prepare professional social workers to deliver social work programs, research, training, planning and administration to meet the human service needs within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, especially those in the public sector.” The School’s mission proceeds by training undergraduate (B.S.W.) and graduate (M.S.W.) social service professionals for generalist and advanced generalist practice targeted to clientele who frequent public sector social service agencies and are “adversely affected by race, gender, class, age and geographic location issues.”

The Graduate School’s mission is “to create a stimulating environment for research and interactive learning at a post-baccalaureate level for both students and faculty” and to promote “the cultivation of scholarship and the expansion of knowledge…[and} research at an advanced level.” The Graduate School developed its mission to “help learners achieve professional competencies and realize broad intellectual and social interests” and is “responsive to the needs of all academically qualified students,” offering programs “with flexible day and evening schedules and financial arrangements.”

The School of Business has developed a mission focused on being “a regional business school that provides undergraduate and graduate education for a diverse mixture of traditional, non-traditional and working professional students.” To deliver upon the promise of the mission, “the curriculum focuses on three dimensions: content, skills and practical experience.” Consistent with the College’s principle of offering “access” to circumstantially challenged and under-served populations, the School of Business’s mission embraces an approach which “enable[s] students to break through barriers of economic circumstance, racism, sexism, stymied professional advancement, low expectations, and deferred academic preparation.”

Appraising or assessing the Mission has been a process of seeking input from across the College community. In the current era of educational testing and accountability across the Commonwealth and throughout the nation, much attention at Salem State College is focused on how well the College is delivering on the specific promises of its mission. Unquestionably, certain areas merit the College’s close attention:

• To fulfill the promise of “providing for its students a foundation of knowledge and scholarship and to refine the teaching-learning process,” the College recognizes the need to intensify its efforts to bring better align teaching strategies with rapidly changing learning styles and needs of students.
• A continued intensified effort is needed to better train teachers in the use of the new Internet and computer-based technologies.
• Amid broad concerns about the general decline in writing skills, the College needs to implement and to continue the support of the its Writing Across the Curriculum Program in greater depth.
• As a corollary to the need to improve writing skills, a parallel effort must be made to upgrade student reading and other communication skills.
• In accordance with findings about the value of hands-on learning, the College needs to redouble its efforts to provide mentoring programs for faculty who are hesitant to incorporate experiential learning methods.
• To better assess student “outcomes,” the College must continue to upgrade its effort in collecting and disseminating statistics on student successes and failures of the graduates.
• To guide students to make the best decisions about their academic choices during their college years, the College needs to continually strengthen its advising process.
• Consistent with the newly implemented MECT, the College needs to intensify its efforts to substantially improve teacher-candidate test scores.
• To address public concerns about the possible decline in cultural literacy, general knowledge and awareness of current events and their roots, the College needs to pay special attention to the power and scope of its Core Curriculum.

Realistically appraising the Mission involves translating into daily realities its tripartite purpose: (1) creating the kind of infrastructure that can support the dissemination of knowledge; (2) orchestrating systems that foster innovative and productive teaching and learning; (3) partnering supportively with our North Shore constituencies to enrich the area’s economy and its social and cultural life. Much needs to be done to help the College realize the promise of its Mission. To this end, across the College, there is evidence of numerous and vigorous enterprises, programs, innovations, partnerships and other initiatives -- all of which are intended to make the College’s Mission a living and productive reality.