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Chancellor Zelema Harris

Strategic Planning

St. Louis Community College is, as stated by the Higher Learning Commission evaluation team, deserving of its status as one of the premier community colleges in the nation. Our mission of advancing quality at STLCC in everything we do is reflected in our substantial accomplishments and progress since we first opened our doors in 1964.

While our past has created a solid foundation for teaching and learning, we have come to a decisive point in our history: our thinking and our actions must be future-oriented. Our vision of the St. Louis Community College of tomorrow is grounded in capitalizing on our strengths and addressing our critical needs through the development of a collaborative and reflective strategic plan. Our approach to this planning process is to be efficient and expeditious in moving forward. To that end, the recently-completed process for reaccreditation by the HLC provided the formal means by which we have identified our directions and choices for positive transformation.

Our strategic planning process is based upon the key elements of information gathering, critical thinking and collaborative input. Five significant initiatives, which have involved faculty and staff from all campuses and departments, have contributed to our strategic directions:

  • Mission-based Assessment
  • Our HLC Self-Study process and the associated "Focus on the Future Fridays"
  • Our review of external trends and the internal processes identified by NCHEMS and Institutional Research and Development
  • The enrollment management research gathered by Noel-Levitz
  • STLCC's Visional Directions planning process

As a result, STLCC's Board of Trustees and college officers have identified three strategic directions that we absolutely must pursue:

Direction I: Growing Enrollment
Direction II: Improving the Academic Achievements and Student Learning Outcomes of our Students
Direction III: Improving our Responsiveness to Evolving Workforce Needs

I am confident that our plan and the planning process have created the new foundation upon which we allocate the necessary resources to remain a model of success in higher education. I look forward to the continued development of this plan and the ensuing measures for which we hold ourselves accountable for our decisions. Your voices have been heard and I welcome further input.

Zelema Harris
Chancellor