A Lavender's View of Higher Ed.

This is the first blog entry for my Future Professoriate class. The blog will focus on thoughts, musings, and reflections of the class, for the class, and of higher education in general.

The two Mission Statements I pulled were Hollins University and Wellesley College. I chose these two institutions because they are both women’s colleges. Being an alum of a women’s college I know the benefits that they can provide and these are two top liberal arts institutions in the country.

Hollins University is in Roanoke, VA, not far from Virginia Tech. It is smaller than Wellesley with only about 1000 undergraduate and graduate students. It is located on the outskirts of the city, which provide a more rural feel. The mission statement can be found here: http://www.hollins.edu/about/history_mission.shtml

Wellesley has around 2300 students. It is located in the more urban area of Wellesley, MA near Boston. The mission statement can be found here: http://www.wellesley.edu/about/missionandvalues

Both of these mission statements discuss that their primary purpose is educating women. Not all mission statements for women’s colleges do that. Many just indicate that they are educating students. Both of the mission statements (and included in the values listed with the mission for Wellesley) discuss taking what is learned within the institutions into society as a whole. There is also a clear dedication to liberal arts education, service, diversity, and creativity. There is also an essence of the history built by both of these institutions within their statements. They have graduated some great women who have gone on to be strong leaders and that legacy is reflected.

Overall, the mission statements have many similar ideas, which is not too surprising since they are both top liberal arts colleges that are dedicated to educating women. However, one thing that Wellesley did but Hollins did not, was go into further detail of what the institution believed in and valued. It gave the reader a better idea of the institution because it gave more depth to how the institution viewed it’s mission.