MISSION
Owens Community College is the conduit to changing lives for the better in northwest Ohio. Through affordable, accessible, high quality education and training, and connecting with business and industry through relevant programs, we create pathways to a better quality of life and progress for the Region.
VISION
Owens Community College will be the connector between people, industry and dynamic growth in the Region. By creating solutions to the education, training and workforce needs of the Region, we will be an indispensable partner and a first choice to students, employers and the northwest Ohio community.
OUR VALUES
INCLUSIVE
Every student, employee, and member of the community is treated with respect and has a home here. We serve our communities and we remove the barriers so that high quality education and training are accessible to everyone. Our team will work daily to nurture empathy and meet the needs of all types of learners, employees and visitors.
TRANSFORMATIONAL
We change lives: those we touch and those we may never even meet. Beyond our students and our employees, transformation reaches to their families, employers, neighborhoods and broader community. The meaningful interaction, the critical learning, the care and understanding that is inherent in our relationships transforms lives and positively impacts the entire region.
INTENTIONAL
We are connected to the community and deliberate with our choices to expand, grow and change such that our institution is positioned and ready to succeed. We live for today, with an eye toward the future.
ADAPTIVE
We encourage creativity and collaboration to allow our team to develop forward-thinking solutions for our students and partners that ensure not only relevance and sustainability, but a flourishing, prosperous institution for the community.
EMPOWERING
We foster opportunities for our entire college community to help them create paths and determine “what’s next” in the way that best suits them.
PREAMBLE
Owens Community College is for everyone. We are open to anyone who wants to learn, to attain a skill, to earn a credential or a degree. We are here to support individuals who want to take the first step toward a new future or to have a second chance in finding their life’s purpose. The people of Owens are committed to the community college mission, and they want to help students, to meet them where they are in support of their academic and career success. Owens is connected throughout the community and partners with employers, collaborative educational institutions, organizations, and others to serve those who seek pathways toward a better life in northwest Ohio and beyond.
STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT
Owens Community College is committed to educating students by means of free, open, and rigorous intellectual inquiry. The College is committed to creating a community dedicated to an ethic of civil and free inquiry, which respects the autonomy of each member, supports individual capacities for growth, and the differences in opinion that naturally occur in a public higher education community. Owens Community College embraces its duty to equip students with the opportunity to develop the intellectual skills they need to reach their own, informed conclusions. The hallmark of an Owens education is to think critically, to question deeply, and to approach challenges not with preconceived answers, but with an open, inquisitive mind. This ability to think, not what to think, is the power of independent thought. How to analyze and to apply are what a student cultivates while at Owens. Furthermore, it is Owens Community College’s duty to treat all faculty, staff, students—everyone, as individuals, to hold them to equal standards, and to provide them with equality of opportunity.