Core Values and Strategic Plan

Core Values

Integrity: We take accountability for our actions and adhere to the highest ethical standards in all our professional obligations and personal responsibilities. We demonstrate respect for self, others and place.

Academic Excellence: We are committed to a dynamic intellectual community, high academic standards, strong academic programs, exceptional teacher-scholars, engaged students and lifelong learners.

Liberal Arts Education: We encourage intellectual curiosity and foster each student’s ability to think creatively and analyze, synthesize, apply and communicate knowledge from many sources.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: We create and nurture a diverse and inclusive community demonstrated through our thoughts, words and actions. We value and respect the unique perspectives, backgrounds and experiences every individual has to offer.

Student Centeredness: We are devoted to nurturing thriving scholar-citizens through the intellectual, ethical and social development of each individual student.

Innovation: We act with an entrepreneurial spirit to imagine and implement creative, bold and sustainable solutions in our pursuit of excellence and continuous improvement.

Public Mission: We demonstrate social responsibility in meeting the educational and professional needs of our community, our state, our nation and the world.

Mission

Founded in 1770, the College of Charleston is a public university grounded in the principles of the liberal arts and committed to developing ethically centered, intellectually versatile and globally fluent citizens who create innovative solutions to social, economic and environmental challenges.

Vision

The College of Charleston will be a transformative national university redefining liberal arts education through innovation.

Strategic Plan

For more than 250 years, the College of Charleston has been a leader in quality education, student life and affordability. While the College values its traditions, it will continue to grow and innovate. Today’s students, faculty, staff and alumni can and will be just as influential as the College’s founders.

During the strategic planning process, the campus community identified three key pillars on which to build a future. The pillars are student experience and success, academic distinction and employee experience and success. The strategic plan steering committees are tasked with meeting the goals established by these pillars in the strategic plan.  

With the Strategic Plan in place, the College has the roadmap for continued transformation.

Now is the time for the College of Charleston to realize its potential and raise itself onto the national stage – a place where it belongs.