VISION IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT (VIP):
Building Sustainable Local/World Community

Background

Community/technical colleges are one of the significant educational and social innovations of the 20th Century.  A key foundational mandate for community colleges was to accomplish for higher education what mandatory schooling had accomplished for K-12 – universal access.  This strategy of “democratizing higher education” is unique in the industrialized world, with many countries continuing to seek to increase educational quality by restricting, not broadening, access to higher education. 

An additional community/technical college mandate is to prepare our students to prosper in the social and economic environment of our times. Many of the 21st century economic and social challenges are dramatically different than those of the 20th century.  We must, therefore, “reengineer” ourselves to address these new challenges and circumstances. 

VIP MISSION/VISION

Each participating institution will ensure that its institutional vision/mission statement/s encompass the concept of building sustainable local/world community.

VIP FIRST GOAL

Participating institutions will collaborate on the development of a VIP “Innovations Distribution Lab” to prototype robust and agile community and technical college infrastructure designs, core operating systems, curricula, student support programs, delivery modes, and new educational products that address the 21st Century Vision: Building Sustainable Local/World Community.