FOUR GOALS TO IMPROVE MHCC IN 5 YEARS

It’s pretty hard to achieve a long-term goal when you don’t have a plan to get there. This is the reason college students use degree maps to meet the goals listed and eventually get their degree. 

For the same reason, MHCC has adopted four official goals to help fill out a new five-year plan for the college. 

Last school year marked the first for Lisa Skari as president at Mt. Hood. This summer, Skari was asked to give a list of personal goals as current president to the MHCC District Board of directors. Realizing that it’s difficult to give personal goals when you do not know what you’re working toward, Skari decided to create the long-term goals, too.

And so, beginning this year, MHCC will actively, officially be working to improve student success; advance diversity, equity, and inclusion; strengthen community engagement; and increase excellence in operations.  

Getting to these four goals took a lot of listening, Skari said.

After speaking with Mt. Hood students and staff, she knew where everyone saw room for improvement, and talking with the board gave her a solid idea of the direction in which they would like to see the school move.

Externally, the terms of accreditation (formal re-certification process for two- and four-year colleges and universities) for colleges in our region have recently changed. The new terms of accreditation will function like a benchmark test, where Mt. Hood will be compared to other like schools.  

The goals are intended to not only help MHCC maintain its accreditation with minimal recommendations for change, but also to improve the student experience and the school’s relationship with its surrounding community, Skari said.  

Students are the most important factor in these goals, she said. When she announced the plan publicly at the MHCC faculty/staff convocation in the College Theatre on Sept. 17, she invited five students onstage to discuss what each goal meant to them. Each student who spoke about the goals found a way to challenge the administration to be even better in some way.

In response, Skari said the best way for students to contribute to reaching Mt. Hood’s new goals is to give feedback. Tell the administration where there are gaps in the execution of the goals. Support diversity, equity, and inclusion by explaining where those values are not already being implemented.  

In her own effort to reinforce these goals, Skari will be visiting with 50 different school groups in 50 weeks. So far, she has stopped in at three groups (including the Advocate staff). The proverbial door is open for any group or organization on campus to request a visit, but she said she intends to make the first move when necessary and really put in the effort to get to know the student body better.

It’s all part of the new blueprint, Skari said. 

“Each goal is dependent on the other goals. If one goal was eliminated, the rest of them wouldn’t work,” she said. “While none of the goals are necessarily more important than the others, at the end of the day if we aren’t supporting students and their success, we have to ask ourselves, ‘Why we are here?’ ”