Vision Statement

Transforming lives through learning.

Mission Statement

As the community’s college, MVCC is committed to equity and student success by providing accessible, high-quality educational pathways and enrichment opportunities with support services in an inclusive environment.

Values & Credo Statement

MVCC holds the values of civility, equity, and community in the highest regard. To that end, members of the MVCC community will;

• Model the Way
• Inspire Confidence
• Encourage Excellence
• Embrace Community

Each member of the MVCC community commits to:

1. Making every interaction is an opportunity to engage in building trust and creating positive relationships.
2. Recognizing that everyone deserves the courtesy of their respect and undivided attention.
3. Fostering a culture of inclusion and excellence.
4. Making teamwork and clear communication essential to our success.

And Strives To:

1. Be the best version of their self every day and assist anyone who needs help.
2. Listen to others and respond with truth and tactful candor.
3. Communicate effectively and give others the benefit of the doubt.
4. Foster an environment of shared responsibility by holding themselves and others accountable for our individual and collective work.

Equity Statement

Equity: MVCC is committed to ensuring that underserved students receive what they need to be successful, through the intentional design of the college experience, in order to close existing opportunity gaps.

Anti-Racism Statement

MVCC recognizes that this institution was founded in a time and place in which racism was embedded into every aspect of society. MVCC was built upon the traditional ground of the Haudenosaunee people of the Oneida Nation. Enslaved people were not fully emancipated in New York until 1827, and the Utica-New Hartford school border remains one of the most segregated in the country. We acknowledge that while the intent of current MVCC employees is to provide “accessible, high-quality educational opportunities to meet the diverse needs of our students,” our existing institutional structures are rooted in racist policies and white privilege and have inherent systemic biases, in that they produce or sustain racial inequities, or situations where racial groups are not standing on equal footing.

With this understanding, MVCC will prioritize time and resources toward 1) self-examination of implicit unconscious, institutional, and systemic biases to clarify areas in which there are inequitable policies, practices, and procedures, and 2) implementing strategies with the goal of eradicating these biases in our curriculum, classrooms, offices, policies, practices, procedures, and decision-making. These strategies will include, but are not limited to:

• Denouncing racism and inequity in all aspects of the College and the communities we serve.
• Taking a strong public position against racism and inequity while working to build community systems for equity, inclusion, and racial justice.
• Relentlessly pursuing and rooting out systemic biases, with the willingness to get uncomfortable and make mistakes during the process.
• Pushing ourselves to create environments and strategies that acknowledge opportunity gaps and increase completion rates for student success by offering inclusive and equitable experiences for students and implementing innovative and unconventional tactics that create systems of inclusivity and increase student success.
• Delivering high quality academic and training experiences that include partnering with employers to build equitable hiring outcomes and income equity.
• Ensuring that our college community policing practices are welcoming, bias-free, and serve to reduce racial stress for students and employees through continuous reflection, education, and improvement.
• Recruiting and hiring faculty, staff, and administrators who reflect the racial composition of our community and also indicate a commitment to antiracism and racial justice with the aim of creating an environment that prepares students to live and work successfully in a diverse and inclusive world.
• Providing avenues for difficult conversations to occur that seek to bring about understanding and substantive change.
• Tracking our successes and failure with disaggregated data based on race that drive curriculum improvement and institutional changes leading to equitable and inclusive outcomes.
• Considering intersectionality, how not only race but other factors of identity, including but not limited to gender, social class, ability, language, LGBTQ+ identification, and religion, are also factors in institutional inequities and including these as part of policy and procedure considerations.

Inclusivity Statement

MVCC is committed to establishing and maintaining an inclusive culture that fosters equity across dimensions of diversity including but not limited to:

• Age, marital/parental status, veteran status
• Race, color, national origin, creed, ethnicity, geographical location, immigration status
• Sex, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation/attraction
• Social class, background, economic circumstances
• Religion, political beliefs, culture
• Physical and/or mental abilities

We are committed to ensuring that underserved students receive what they need to be successful, through the intentional design of the college experience, in order to close existing opportunity gaps. To that end, MVCC is firm in its commitment to value, respect and embrace the richness of a diverse community where everyone feels respected and valued for being who they are, trust that they can speak up and be treated fairly; and feel a true sense of belonging.