Section 1.01 Mission Statement

The City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) delivers exceptional learning opportunities and educational services for diverse student populations in Chicago. We enhance knowledge, understanding, skills, collaboration, community service, and life-long learning by providing a broad range of quality, affordable courses, programs, and services to prepare students for success in a technologically advanced and increasingly interdependent global society. We work proactively to eliminate barriers to employment and to address and overcome causal factors underlying socio-economic disparities and inequities of access and graduation in higher education.

Section 1.02 Vision

The City Colleges of Chicago aspires to be a premier, first choice educational destination highly accessible to diverse student populations in Chicago and around the world and widely recognized for excellence and leadership. Through the power of education, we inspire and transform the lives of our students and those connected to them, enhance the communities we serve, and catalyze positive socio-economic change.

Section 1.03 Core Values

The City Colleges of Chicago believe that knowledge, skills, education, and life-long learning are fundamental to the achievement of equal access and the opportunity to make a better life.

Accordingly,

• We are student centered. Our students always come first. We provide the academic programs and support required to ensure student success. Their success is our success.
• We value teaching and learning. We believe an engaging student learning environment fosters growth and development. We actively seek faculty who meet globally competitive standards, collaborate and foster exceptional learning environments, and who utilize innovative practices that enhance student learning.
• We value rigorous assessment of the academic process. We believe in providing valid and reliable assessments to measure and improve student learning and effective teaching.
• We are an open-door institution. We welcome one and all to visit, enroll, learn, and reap the rich rewards that education enables.
• We provide an individual educational plan for each student. We welcome students “wherever they are” and assist them in achieving their educational goals and full potential.
• We are committed to affordable and accessible education. We actively strive to deliver quality educational services at costs that are within the reach of our diverse student population.
• We value and actively promote diversity. We believe diversity enhances the richness of the educational experience and leads to understanding, tolerance, and an appreciation of the differences embodied in each of us. We believe that faculty and staff diversity should reflect the demographics of our student body.
• We believe in excellence regarding hiring standards and performance expectations as applied to teaching, management, operations, and services.
• We are responsive and aligned with the dynamically changing curricular needs of our stakeholders, and we value community service and partnerships.
• We value the creation of paradigms for change to ensure social and economic barriers to employment are eliminated.
• We are committed to ethical conduct. We operate with the highest level of integrity, respect, honesty, and accountability in a fully transparent environment.

Section 1.04 Service Excellence Mission Statement

The City Colleges of Chicago is committed to addressing the diverse needs of our college community by developing and implementing system-wide customer service standards and practices that will permanently improve the quality and consistency of services delivered to our students, faculty, and staff. This will in turn fulfill the educational and career needs of our college constituencies by vastly improving student recruitment and retention, raising student course completion rates, elevating overall student performance levels, expanding student career and educational opportunities, and successfully transitioning those students seeking to bridge over to four-year institutions.

Section 1.05 Service Excellence Initiative Vision Statement

The City Colleges of Chicago will be recognized as the premier provider and model for excellence in customer service to its students, faculty, and staff constituencies, and the neighboring communities, amongst all two-year educational institutions in the metropolitan Chicago area, thus making us the first choice educational destination and provider for all diverse populations preparing for the demands of the twenty-first century.

Section 1.06 Statement of Service Excellence

Service Excellence is a guiding value in the day-to-day operations of the City Colleges of Chicago. At CCC, when we say “Service Excellence,” we mean a comprehensive, collaborative, and system-wide approach that applies critical thinking which initiates a customer/student-centered approach to attracting, maintaining, and fostering relationships of lifelong learning.

The City Colleges of Chicago demonstrates Service Excellence by:

• Professionalism – friendly demeanor, willingness to serve, respectful, acknowledgment of customer, “on- stage” demeanor;
• Accountability – owning the issue/concern, knowing your job, following up;
• Active listening – anticipating the issue, knowing the student’s needs;
• Respect – service with a smile, the Golden Rule; and
• Training – educating all CCC employees, educating the customer.

Section 1.07 City Colleges of Chicago Academic & Student Policy

City Colleges of Chicago Academic & Student Policy defines the rules and policies that apply to any and all students enrolled in any academic program, plan, or course, or accessing any service offered by the City Colleges of Chicago. It also applies to all college personnel, faculty processes, academic offerings and matters.

City Colleges of Chicago Academic & Student Policy applies when approved by the Board of Trustees of the City Colleges of Chicago District No. 508 unless a new board rule has superseded the text in policy.

Board approved policy appears throughout this document in normal black font with section headings. Procedures (not board approved) appear at the end of the document in Appendix-Procedures. Policies that have procedures are so indicated by the phrase, “Procedures: [name of the procedure]”, which appears below the policy title. The name of the procedure hyperlinks to the procedures content in the Appendix where it will appear in a shaded box with italicized font and a heading that includes the policy title and the word, “procedures.”

Students, faculty and staff are responsible for reading and understanding City Colleges of Chicago Academic & Student Policy. Students who have questions regarding their academic status should consult with a College Advisor or the Office of Student Services at their college. The rules and policies contained in this document align with and support the Board Policies and Procedures for Management & Government of the City Colleges of Chicago.

Section 1.08 Accreditation

All seven City Colleges of Chicago are independently accredited by the Higher Learning Commission​ (HLC). Some programs also maintain their own specialized accreditation. Click here to find more information about each of the colleges accreditation status.