MISSION, VISION, GOALS

Mission

The City College of New York (CCNY), the first college of The City University of New York (CUNY), is a comprehensive teaching, research, and service institution dedicated to accessibility and excellence in undergraduate and graduate education. Requiring demonstrated potential for admission and a high level of accomplishment for graduation, the College provides a diverse student body with opportunities to achieve academically, creatively, and professionally in the liberal arts and sciences and in professional fields such as engineering, education, architecture, and biomedical education. The College is committed to fostering student-centered education and advancing knowledge through scholarly research. As a public university with public purposes, it also seeks to contribute to the cultural, social, and economic life of New York.

Vision

“Open the doors to all. Let the children of the rich and the poor take their seats together and know of no distinction save that of industry, good conduct, and intellect.”   Townsend Harris, Founder, 1847

Since its founding, The City College of New York has provided a world-class higher education to an increasingly diverse student body--serving as one of the single most important avenues to upward mobility in the nation. Access to excellence remains the vision of the College today.

The College strives for excellence in its wide-ranging undergraduate and masters programs (including programs in the only public schools of engineering, architecture, and biomedical education in the city) and in its 13 on-site CUNY doctoral programs – all of which are designed to prepare students for successful careers as well as for continuing graduate and post-graduate education. The College’s commitment to excellence is further exemplified by its emphasis on scholarly research and the integration of this research with teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

City College’s commitment to access is two-fold. It strives to offer an affordable education and to recruit and support a diverse student population, reflective of both New York City and the global society in which we live. This commitment to access stems not only from a belief that every student prepared for a rigorous college education deserves access to and support for it, but also that excellence itself requires the broad inclusion of, in the words of Townsend Harris, “the children of the whole people.”

Finally, the College will strive always to use its most valuable resources – a talented and dedicated faculty and staff and an inclusive and ambitious student body – to take a leadership role in the immediate community and across the nation.

Goals

1. The College will graduate students who, in addition to demonstrating knowledge and skills in their chosen majors, are able to:
   
   
   • Demonstrate critical thinking and levels of oral and written communication that will serve them well during their university years and in their postgraduate, professional, and personal lives
   • Demonstrate the skills necessary for quantitative reasoning and analysis, evaluation, and synthesis that will enable them to integrate new information and become life-long learners
   • Demonstrate an appreciation of arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences, regardless of their fields of concentration, and an awareness of values, cultures, languages, religions, and histories other than their own
   • Demonstrate the creativity, flexibility, and problem-solving ability needed to succeed in the ever-changing work and educational environments of the 21st century
     
     
2. The College will achieve recognition for itself and for CUNY as it seeks to enhance the reputation and visibility of its programs by:
   
   
   • Showcasing the achievements of its students, faculty, and staff
   • Enhancing its flagship and premier programs
   • Attracting faculty recognized for major contributions to their fields
   • Increasing external funding for research and scholarship
   • Developing new programs, especially innovative interdisciplinary graduate programs
     
     
3. The College will continue to fulfill its responsibilities as a public college to address cultural, social, and economic needs by:
   
   
   • Encouraging community service, study abroad, and other public-service programs
   • Providing special expertise and human resources for greater New York City health care, education, engineering, architecture, sciences, social services, and arts
   • Offering ongoing community support, service, and training through its Centers, Institutes, leadership programs, and offices of Student Life and Adult and Continuing Education
   • Hosting a broad annual array of celebrations, performances, lectures, symposia, and other events designed to celebrate culture and stimulate thinking and reflection