Our Bold, Shared Future

OUR BOLD, SHARED FUTURE SHARED SERVICES AND ALIGNMENT UPDATE

Over the last academic year, DCTC and Inver Hills embarked on a process to better align the mission, vision, and values of both colleges.

In 2020, both institutions celebrated 50th anniversaries and, given their shared status, used the tagline, “Two proud histories, one bold future.” Coming off those yearlong celebrations, it seemed fitting to review—through a shared lens—the documents that guide each college’s daily work.

While each college has its own focus, some fundamentals apply to both. In talking with various stakeholders—including students, faculty and staff, and community partners—three tenets revealed themselves as key outcomes for students at both colleges. The mission workgroup embraced the words learn, discover and build a better future as foundational to the work of both colleges. Those three words and phrases have been added to the mission statements of both schools, while maintaining the heart of the former statements.

The respective mission statements now read: • Learn, discover, and build a better future: DCTC is dedicated to education for employment and life-long growth. • Learn, discover, and build a better future: Inver Hills is dedicated to the power and promise of education.

Simple yet meaningful, the refreshed missions capture the shared spirit of what community and technical colleges offer. They will help guide our work as shared institutions into the next 50 years. In 2013, DCTC and Inver Hills began transitioning to a shared leadership structure. Sharing services and expertise between the two colleges is an alignment strategy intended to make core functions more effective and cost-efficient. Our guiding vision is to best meet the needs of our students, business and industry partners, and surrounding communities by working together.

Departments such as IT, Operations, HR, Safety and Security, and Marketing, for example, carry out responsibilities on both campuses. Increased collaboration has resulted in major cost savings for both institutions.

“Navigating alignment has evolved over the years to become less reactive and more thoughtful and student-centric,” said Michael Berndt, Inver Hills and DCTC president. “We have developed a more planful approach that includes an Alignment Committee tasked with clarifying our collaborative vision while bringing faculty and staff together for shared events and training.” President Berndt reported that the Alignment Committee helped to identify and leverage the ways the colleges complement each other, especially in providing more academic and career options for students.

“We want students at both colleges, one technical and one liberal arts, to be more informed about what programs and opportunities each school has to offer,” the president said. “One way we are accomplishing that objective is by having Inver Hills and DCTC counselors and advisors communicate with each other across campuses. We are also looking at more ways faculty at each college can work together.”

President Berndt added that listening carefully to the concerns and suggestions from colleagues at both colleges has been a key component of alignment planning.

“We are always asking how we can do things together,” he said. “Understanding how our distinct college missions strengthen each other is not only integral to that process, but also gives us the wisdom to best serve our students and be a good steward of our resources.”

Learn, discover, and build a better future: DCTC is dedicated to education for employment and life-long growth.

Learn, discover, and build a better future: Inver Hills is dedicated to the power and promise of education.