SECTION II: INSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE

CONTENTS: SECTION II

INTRODUCTION
FINDINGS OF THE INSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE COMMITTEE
SECTION II: INSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE
CURRENT MISSION STATEMENT
HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY
HISTORY OF THE MISSION STATEMENT
RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS: SECTION II
COMPLIANCE TABLE: SECTION II
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS: SECTION II
APPENDICES

INTRODUCTION

In the spring of 1997, the Sam Houston State University SACS Self-Study Steering Committee entrusted its Institutional Purpose Committee with the comprehensive charge of examining the University’s current mission statement in order to determine if a revision or refinement were needed for compliance. Having established that Sam Houston State University does, in fact, comply with the guidelines established by the SACS Criteria, the Institutional Purpose Committee began deliberations early in the fall semester of 1997 and forwarded its preliminary report to the Steering Committee in December. A subsequent report was presented at the end of May 1998, and another in mid-July of the same year. During this process, the Institutional Purpose Committee carefully considered the appropriateness of the mission statement, especially as it related to the recent growth and development of the University. The Committee also examined the link between the mission statement and institutional effectiveness.

FINDINGS OF THE INSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE COMMITTEE

In the report which follows, the Institutional Purpose Committee addresses "must" statements from Section II of the SACS Criteria for Accreditation and, in the order in which the statements appear in the Criteria, reports on the University’s compliance or noncompliance with these imperatives. Following the "must" statements and findings, the Committee makes recommendations and/or offers suggestions, according to the University’s compliance status.

SECTION II: INSTITUTIONAL PURPOSE

1. An institution must have a clearly defined purpose or mission statement appropriate to collegiate education as well as to its own specific role (Criteria 17).

2. This statement must describe the institution and its characteristics and address the components of the institution and its operations (Criteria 17).

3. The official posture and practice of the institution must be consistent with its purpose statement (Criteria 17).

4. Appropriate publications must accurately cite the current statement of purpose (Criteria 17).

5. The formulation of a statement of purpose represents a major educational decision. It should be developed through the efforts of the institution’s faculty, administration and governing board. It must be approved by the governing board (Criteria 17).

The Institutional Purpose Committee determined that Sam Houston State University complies with all of these imperatives.

Current Mission Statement

The University Mission Statement, adopted in 1986, comprises ten general objectives, supported by seven specific objectives concerning instruction, five related to research, and four pertaining to public service. The mission statement, which appears in such institutional documents as the undergraduate and graduate catalogues and the faculty and student handbooks, reads as follows in its entirety:

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approves for Sam Houston State University a mission (role and scope) statement, consistent with Section 61.051(d) of the Texas Education Code on January 24, 1986. The Table of Programs was updated to reflect the Coordinating Board-approved expansion on October 17, 1997. [See Appendix A to this chapter of the self-study report.]

Sam Houston State University is a multi-purpose state university that exists to meet the needs of a civilized community by providing to the community educational opportunities and resources of the highest quality. The university has evolved into a federation of colleges and programs which provides a climate of intellectual freedom with academic programs to enable its students to become informed, thoughtful, and productive citizens with the skills necessary to evaluate critically and to appreciate the cultural and aesthetic values of life. To fulfill its mission, the university is committed to:

Maintain excellence in instruction, research, and public service.

Secure and retain a highly qualified and dedicated faculty and support staff.

Maintain high academic and professional standards for faculty, students, and staff.

Admit and retain qualified and motivated students.

Provide a library of the highest quality capable of supporting instruction, research, and public service programs.

Provide an intellectual and social climate conducive to the fullest development of students.

Provide a state-of-the-art computer facility capable of supporting instruction, research, and public service programs.

Admit transfer students from other degree-granting institutions and from junior or community colleges in accordance with applicable standards.

Provide early admission programs to gifted high school students who meet the necessary entrance requirements.

Provide the necessary physical facilities and resources for the attainment of the university’s goals.

Instruction

Excellence in instruction is considered foremost in enhancing the educational process. The university has assembled a community of teaching scholars whose goal is to give meaning to the separate elements of our civilization so that students of all disciplines can analyze, study, and organize the diverse elements of knowledge, thereby giving conscious direction to the human mind. To fulfill its commitment to excellence in instruction, the university seeks to:

Proclaim a unity of knowledge by emphasizing the mutual interdependence of all studies.

Provide a strong liberal arts framework for all instructional programs.

Provide pre-professional, professional, and technical training in a variety of specialized programs.

Offer a wide range of academic studies in both undergraduate and graduate programs to prepare students for meaningful careers that will contribute to their personal welfare and to the cultural and economic development of the state, the nation, and the world.

Provide doctoral curricula for which there are needs and in which the university and its faculty have competencies.

Provide a professional staff to assist the student body in academic, career, and personal counseling.

Provide a supervised extracurricular program offering students opportunities to develop interests and skills in group activities and leadership through participation in student government, interest-centered organizations, social groups, honor societies, and athletic, forensic, journalistic, and fine arts activities.

Research

Creative activity is recognized as an indispensable function of the institution if its instruction is to have the relevance, freshness, and effectiveness expected of an institution of higher learning. Knowledge is indeed an end in itself and one which has value that may properly be called inestimable since it cannot be expressed in terms of any other value.

The university holds that the term research applies to creativity in all fields. To encourage the discovery and advancement of human knowledge, the university seeks to:

Provide an environment that encourages systematic inquiry into both practical and purely intellectual problems.

Encourage the intellectual development of its students and faculty through access to the record of human experience.

Support responsible inquiry of old and new ideas by testing their validity and significance.

Share the results of its research activities with the academic community, the business and professional world, and the public at-large to enhance the overall quality of life.

Provide academic, pre-professional, and career curriculum research opportunities in the applied arts and sciences, the physical and life sciences, teacher education, the fine arts, business administration, criminal justice system, the behavioral and social sciences, the humanities, and other related fields.

Public Service

The university acknowledges its responsibility to serve as the nucleus for the cultural and intellectual development of students and members of the community outside the framework of formal coursework. To provide this service, the university seeks to:

Share its expertise and resources with individuals and groups through consultant services and applied research.

Work with other consortia, institutions, agencies, and civic groups to exchange ideas, to share mutual concerns, and to foster intellectual growth.

Provide its expertise to other public institutions at the local, state, national, and international levels.

Provide services such as continuing adult education, correspondence courses, institutes, conferences, and services to educational, business, community, and social organizations.

Within this mission, the university seeks to maintain sufficient flexibility to develop its creative resources to the fullest so that it can adapt to changing educational and social needs. It is committed to the development of innovative programs, while at the same time striving to maintain the highest quality in the traditional curricula. The university operates on the assumption that a free society depends upon an enlightened citizenry capable of making wise and responsible choices and that it can make an important contribution to the development and guardianship of such enlightenment. (1998-2000 Undergraduate Catalogue 92-94)

The Institutional Purpose Committee determined that while the mission statement itself would benefit from more economical phrasing and some more expansive description to account for recent developments in the University, Sam Houston State University’s official posture and practice are consistent with the statement. Compliance with this SACS criterion is best demonstrated in the context of the history of the institution and of its evolving mission statement.

History of the University

In 1879, the Texas legislature established the Sam Houston Normal Institute to train teachers for the public schools of Texas. During the following four decades, this institution offered instruction in the natural sciences, agriculture, home economics, manual training, geography, sociology, and foreign languages. It awarded its first baccalaureate degree in 1919.

The next twenty years witnessed rapid and dramatic changes, including a name change to Sam Houston State Teachers College in 1923. Two years later, the college was admitted to membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) as an accredited institution of higher learning. The college expanded its programs, shifting the institution’s curricular focus from exclusively teacher training to preparation in a variety of fields, and a graduate degree was authorized in 1936.

Following World War II, an increase in the number of students and faculty, as well as a wider range of faculty research activities, initiated the emergence of a multi-purpose institution. By 1960, about 25% of the graduating seniors were receiving degrees in fields other than teaching: the social and communication sciences; the biological, physical, and soil sciences; business administration; the fine arts; the humanities; and education. A growing emphasis on research allowed faculty to make significant contributions in their fields beyond the classroom, and these activities were accompanied by an increasing diversity in the student body as more out-of-state and foreign students began seeking degrees at Sam Houston. In recognition of these developments, the Texas legislature changed the institution’s name to Sam Houston State College in 1965; in the same year, the legislature also established as an integral part of the institution The Institute of Contemporary Corrections and the Behavioral Sciences.

During the following years, a rapid increase in the enrollment of students with diversified backgrounds, interests, and aspirations necessitated continuous examination of programs, faculty, and facilities at all administrative levels. The number of graduate degrees conferred increased significantly in the late 1960s, and in 1969, recognizing the changes that had taken place during the course of the institution’s history, the Texas legislature changed the name of the institution to Sam Houston State University.

In the 1970s, the University continued to expand its offerings to keep pace with its dynamic environment by adding degree programs in such fields as computing science and environmental science. The institution also added new graduate degrees, including the Master of Library Science, the Master of Fine Arts, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice. These additions were accompanied by significant improvement in faculty credentials and growth in faculty research activities; as the listing of faculty and their degrees in the undergraduate and graduate catalogues and the record of creative and scholarly accomplishments suggest, the importance of faculty credentials and research activities persists.

Currently, Sam Houston State University, a member institution in The Texas State University System, is organized academically into four colleges: Arts and Sciences, Education and Applied Science, Business Administration, and Criminal Justice. Students are offered an extensive range of bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as three doctoral degrees (See Appendix A for a list of degrees offered on the main campus of Sam Houston State University.)

In 1995, Sam Houston State University joined an alliance of six state universities and the North Harris Montgomery Community College District (NHMCCD) to establish The University Center in The Woodlands, located approximately forty miles south of the main campus. The partner universities offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees of the same quality as those provided on their respective main campuses. The University Center began offering courses in the summer of 1997 and dedicated the classroom/laboratory facility adjacent to Montgomery College on January 8, 1998. (See Appendix B for a list of degrees offered by Sam Houston State University at The University Center.)

History of the Mission Statement

The mission statements of Sam Houston State University in the 1960s and 1970s reflected the dynamic growth of the University during that crucial period of expansion.

The 1960 institutional self-study concluded that "Sam Houston always has been a one-purpose institution, a teachers’ college. In no way has the college deviated from this purpose throughout its eighty-one years of existence." This statement was consistent with the 1879 act of the Texas state legislature which created Sam Houston Normal Institute as an institution whose sole purpose was the training of teachers for the public schools of the state.

It was a major shift and expansion of the stated mission, then, when the 1976 statement asserted that Sam Houston State College is a multi-purpose liberal arts and teacher training institution which offers broad undergraduate programs and selective graduate programs in the fields of teacher training, the sciences, the fine arts, business and applied arts, and the humanities.

The 1976 mission statement reflected an expanded vision not so much of programs offering degrees as of components necessary to support and enhance those programs. Hence, it explicitly mentioned research opportunities, a professional staff, computer capabilities, a library of the highest quality, a public service division, and extracurricular programs.

The current mission statement, printed in its entirety above, was developed through the efforts of the institution’s faculty and administration, approved by the governing board, and adopted in 1986; it has appeared in all subsequent catalogues. The existing statement elaborates on the objectives of the University defined by the 1976 statement and categorizes them under the headings of instruction, research, and public service. In addition, it updates and specifies in somewhat greater detail the directions set by the 1976 statement.

The current mission statement appears in such appropriate institutional documents as the undergraduate and graduate catalogues and the faculty and student handbooks.

6. An institution must study periodically its statement of purpose, considering internal changes as well as the changing responsibilities of the institution to its constituencies (Criteria 17).

7. The statement of purpose serves as the foundation for all institutional operations, programs and activities. Consequently, the institution must demonstrate that its planning and evaluation processes, educational programs, educational support services, financial and physical resources, and administrative processes are adequate and appropriate to fulfill its stated purpose (Criteria 17).

The Institutional Purpose Committee determined that while the University complies with the second of these imperatives, it does not comply fully with the first. The Committee addresses this instance of noncompliance in the recommendations which appear at the end of this section of the report.

The current Sam Houston State University Mission Statement has served the institution well. In 1988 the SACS Reaffirmation Committee Report concluded that the 1986 mission statement is appropriate to the academic programs, the outreach program, and the research effort of the University. Both the undergirding philosophy of education at the University and the institution’s students are appropriately treated in the statement of mission. The statement is clear, concise and published in The Faculty Handbook and the college catalogue. (SACS Reaffirmation Committee Report 6)

In Sam Houston State University’s Fifth-Year Report to the Commission on Colleges, the mission statement was again cited as the appropriate base from which to continue to set goals and objectives that will enhance the University’s role as a quality institution of higher learning in the state of Texas.

As the current SACS Self-Study Institutional Purpose Committee began deliberations on the appropriateness of the 1986 statement in light of the University’s current growth and development, it became obvious that substantial progress had been made in the University within the past four or five years in a number of areas, especially in the development of new technologies and new academic programs and in the expansion of distance learning activities. More specifically, the President of the University, at the time of his investiture in 1996, set forth as University priorities the following goals:

(1) Sam Houston State University will become a leader in the application of technology to the delivery of our instructional programs.

(2)Sam Houston State University will develop a first-rate student retention program.

(3)Sam Houston State University faculty and staff will focus on the development of fund-raising initiatives.

Taking these charges into account and noting that the University has recently filed substantive change requests with SACS (both to create new doctoral programs and to participate in a joint endeavor with other regional universities to establish The University Center in The Woodlands), the Institutional Purpose Committee recommended in its preliminary report to the Steering Committee that for the 1997-99 self-study the University continue to use the 1986 mission statement, since the University substantially accords with the goals and objectives of that statement.

In the same preliminary report, however, the Committee also recommended that, in keeping with SACS criteria, the University charge the appropriate committee with studying "periodically its statement of purpose considering internal changes as well as the changing responsibilities of the institution to its constituencies." The updating of the statement which must periodically take place is currently in progress.

In addition, the Committee offered for consideration a rewording of the proposed changes in the introductory paragraph of the mission statement and also an updating of the list of goals and objectives. (See Appendix C for full text of the Institutional Purpose Committee’s preliminary report to the Steering Committee, including a chart indicating proposed changes to the mission statement.)

In the process of completing this report, the Institutional Purpose Committee had access to all information about the University’s planning and evaluation processes, resources, administrative educational programs, educational support services, and financial and physical processes. The Committee determined that all such areas are adequate to fulfill the stated purpose of the University. Other chapters in this report confirm the Committee’s findings.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS: SECTION II

The Committee on Institutional Purpose found that the University complies with all but one of the imperatives in Section II of the Criteria. To address the instance of noncompliance, the Committee makes the following recommendation:

The appropriate University committee must periodically review and update the University mission statement. (See Appendix D.)

COMPLIANCE TABLE: SECTION II

II: Institutional Purpose

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS: SECTION II

RECOMMENDATIONS:

The appropriate University committee must periodically review and update the University mission statement.

SUGGESTIONS:

None

Appendices

APPENDIX A: Table of Programs Offered on the Main Campus of Sam Houston State University, as Authorized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, October 17, 1997.

APPENDIX B: Degree Programs Offered at The University Center, North Harris Montgomery Community College District, at Montgomery College, October 17, 1997.

APPENDIX C: The Institutional Purpose Committee’s Preliminary Report to the SACS Self-Study Steering Committee, Fall 1997.

APPENDIX D: Letter from President Marks to Vice President Payne Initiating Review of Mission Statement.