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Our Vision
Jefferson Community College will be a dynamic educational leader, transforming lives and our community.
Our Mission
Learning is the focus of Jefferson Community College. Through excellence in teaching, innovative services, and community partnerships, the College advances the quality of life of our students and community.
Core Values
Student success is our purpose at Jefferson Community College. To meet that purpose we strive for excellence through the following core values.
Learning: We view learning as a life-long process and education as a shared experience; we are a community of learners.
Accountability: We accept responsibility for our actions and their consequences.
Creativity: We embrace innovation, exploration, and imagination in the classroom and in day-to-day campus life.
Access: We believe that education should be available to all those who value and desire it.
Community: We recognize Jefferson as part of a larger, dynamic community and commit ourselves to both our immediate College community and the community at large.
Sustainability: We use resources in responsible ways to achieve balance among our economic, environmental, and social practices and policies.
Traits of Excellence
Students at Jefferson are expected to understand and commit to the Traits of Excellence. Commitment means understanding their accountability and individual responsibility for each of these four traits:
- Interdependence
- Fairness
- Discovery
- Self-Awareness
Students are expected to demonstrate their commitment to each trait in several ways.
Strategic Directions
Theme 1: Student Success and Completion
Embrace a student-centric culture where student success remains the highest priority of the institution, anchored by excellent academic programs and student services.
Theme 2: Educational Opportunities
Proactively identify and respond to evolving educational opportunities as comprehensively as possible by providing affordable, quality learning opportunities in the locations, timeframes, and formats that best serve student and community needs.
Theme 3: Growth and Infrastructure
Improve the capacity and flexibility of the college infrastructure to accommodate higher enrollment, new programs, and evolving student needs.
Theme 4: Sustainability
Ensure long term sustainability by managing expenses and revenues responsibly without compromising educational outcomes.
Theme 5: Organizational Excellence
Cultivate a culture that values and promotes excellence and furthers a climate that empowers our workforce, tolerates risk, embraces change, and seeks continuous improvement.
Ways the College Fulfills its Mission
Jefferson Community College is committed to building community and facilitating success by providing an educational, social, and cultural environment in which all members of the community can learn, question, grow, and contribute effectively to a changing world. In meeting that commitment, the College fulfills its mission through:
- Providing Associate Degree programs in the arts, sciences, and professional fields enabling graduates to transfer and continue their study.
- Providing Associate Degree and certificate programs in career-oriented fields designed to prepare graduates for employment in a variety of vocational and technical areas.
- Providing opportunities for lifelong learning and for specific job training through certificate, workshop, seminar, and community service programs.
- Providing library, media, and other technical resources to support courses, curricula, and life-long learning activities of the College and the community.
- Providing assessment, advisement, and counseling services to assist students in establishing and achieving their educational, vocational, and personal goals.
- Providing appropriate equipment, facilities, and human resources to support academic programming and support services.
- Providing a wide range of cultural programming for the members of the College community and area residents.
- Providing community service through the availability of College staff, facilities, resources, and programs.
- Providing appropriate instruction, support services, and facilities for all members of the campus community—including the academically talented, the academically disadvantaged, and the learning and physically disabled—to advance and enrich the educational experience.
- Expanding educational opportunities by establishing partnerships with area businesses, colleges, schools, and community organizations and agencies.
- Promoting an understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures.
- Promoting the College’s General Education Objectives and Statement of Student Development.
- Promoting a friendly spirit across the campus in the belief that this provides a better environment for learning.
Accreditation
Jefferson Community College was chartered in 1961 and was initially accredited in 1969 by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 3624 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-2680, 215-662-5606. The College’s accreditation was re-affirmed by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education on June 25, 2015.
In addition to its Middle States accreditation, the College is fully accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing and/or ACEN, 3343 Peachtree Road NE Suite 850 Atlanta, GA 30326, 404-975-5000 and by the National Alliance of Concurrently Enrolled Partnerships.
Jefferson is a member of the Servicemembers Opportunity College (SOC) and the Servicemembers Opportunity College Associate Degree Network (SOCAD). Jefferson is also a founding member of SUNY Colleges in the North Country, a higher educational consortium.
About the College
Jefferson Community College is one of 64 campuses—and one of 30 community colleges—which comprise the State University of New York (SUNY) system; it is the only institution of higher education whose campus is within a 50 mile radius of the city of Watertown, NY.
The College is supervised by the State University of New York and sponsored by Jefferson County. Its service area is largely rural, with agriculture and tourism the dominant industries. In 1985, the US Army posted the 10th Mountain Division at nearby Fort Drum, bringing some 30,000 new residents to the area and doubling the population of the Watertown metropolitan area. The Fort Drum area has experienced even more recent growth.
Jefferson admitted 119 full- and 221 part-time students to its first class in September of 1963. In the fall 2015 semester, Jefferson’s total headcount was 2,099 full-time and 1,822 part-time students.
The College offers 17 A.A.S. career curricula, 20 transfer A.A. or A.S. curricula, and 9 certificate programs. Six degree programs are available entirely online. To ease transfer, Jefferson has articulation agreements with colleges and universities across the United States, as well as two jointly registered programs (Business Administration and Liberal Arts—Childhood Education) with SUNY Potsdam. Additionally, through Jefferson’s Higher Education Center initiative, the College has partnered with several four-year institutions to provide opportunities for community members to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees locally.
Along with its credit-bearing programs, the College offers a variety of workshops, seminars, and workforce trainingopportunities. Cultural events, open to the public, routinely include film and theatrical events, lectures, seminars, and art exhibitions. Library resources are open to the public and community members are encouraged to use them. Personal, academic, and vocational counseling are provided to both students and the community.
The Center for Community Studies at Jefferson conducts community-based research and provides a forum for the productive discussion of ideas and issues of significance to the community. Additionally, a SUNY Small Business Development Center was opened on the campus in 1986.
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- Price Range $3,864 in-state, $5,832 out-of-state
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