About Baker

Our Mission

The mission of Baker College is to provide quality higher education and training which enable graduates to be successful throughout challenging and rewarding careers.

Ten Guiding Principles

Highly Effective Programs and Delivery Systems

Baker College offers highly effective academic programs which are accessible, market-driven, career-focused, and which lead to employment and career advancement for its students.

Baker College, a leader among institutions of higher education in assuring career readiness and employment of its graduates, offers academic programs that emphasize employability and career advancement. To that end, the College will:

  • Design and deliver timely academic programs that lead to careers for which employment opportunities exist.
  • Include learning and work experiences within each program which reinforce collaboratively-developed student learning outcomes and which are tied to standards set, established, or validated by accrediting/approval bodies, advisory boards, employers, and/or industry.
  • Require competency-based evaluations within courses to ensure that students/graduates possess cognitive, practical, and professional skills necessary for obtaining gainful employment.
  • Embrace external and internal accountability, using external measures where available and appropriate, and developing internal accountability measures where no appropriate external measures exist.
  • Practice consistent program assessment which enhances effectiveness and utilizes the principles of continuous quality improvement.
  • Develop and nurture faculty and staff who serve as effective program champions.
  • Employ and retain system and campus academic leadership who are accountable for program effectiveness and operational efficiencies.
  • Provide career services and lifetime employment assistance for its graduates.
  • Enforce high standards within the academic enterprise by monitoring compliance with institutional policies and procedures.

Baker College, recognizing that programs must be completed to assure career readiness and employment, proactively addresses students' needs and actively facilitates students' learning and persistence. To that end, the College will:

  • Provide holistic and proactive advising to students that addresses career selection and promotes persistence to graduation.
  • Provide convenient scheduling options to students by delivering courses and programs through a variety of equally-effective delivery methods, including both traditional and innovative models.
  • Enhance students' learning and success by providing appropriate and effective support services which are intentionally integrated into the students' educational experience.
  • Provide work experiences for students that result in learning that builds on and complements classroom experiences.
  • Employ and retain an appropriate balance of full-time and adjunct faculty who work collaboratively to support the College's mission, possess appropriate academic and professional credentials, and have relevant work experience.
  • Support faculty through orientations, professional development, and mentoring in developing and practicing innovative and proven teaching practices that facilitate students' learning while addressing students' learning style needs.
  • Develop faculty who participate in meaningful and appropriate assessment at the course and program levels in order to improve students' learning.
  • Conduct faculty observations and evaluations that result in continuous improvement of teaching and learning.
  • Encourage and support faculty in expanding the scholarship of teaching and learning.
  • Study the best practices of other institutions in the course of revising processes and services.
  • Employ and retain system and campus academic leadership who are accountable for the quality of teaching and students' success.

Right to Try

Baker College is committed to an admissions philosophy which encourages enrollment of all persons who have attained a high school diploma or its equivalent.

Baker College takes great pride in providing high quality, accessible post-secondary education through the belief in and practice of a Right to Try principle. The College believes that all people have potential and deserve access to quality higher education. Furthermore, the College asserts that those individuals who have a sincere desire to study and apply themselves will benefit from the vast array of programs and services the College offers. To that end, the College will:

  • Reach out to a wide variety of market segments, including all categories of traditional and non-traditional students.
  • Grow and maintain a student population that mirrors the many diverse cultural, educational, and demographic characteristics of its various communities.
  • Maintain the comprehensive support systems necessary to ensure the success of a diverse student population and the attainment of the mission of the College.
  • Expand to new markets when strategically and politically appropriate.
  • Support students' transitions into college life through timely and innovative best-practice remediation and skill development that supports and enhances students' abilities to meet college-level expectations.
  • Encourage a sense of shared ownership in the education of students, with a clear understanding of the responsibilities of both the College and the student.

Disciplined Fiscal Management

Baker College employs successful business practices and maintains a strong focus on responsible financial management.

Baker College is a tuition-driven institution. Sound business practices and prudent fiscal management are essential for both the health and longevity of the institution. To that end, the College will:

  • Provide timely, accurate, and relevant financial data to all key stakeholders.
  • Maintain a meticulous budgeting and financial reporting process.
  • Monitor key indicators on a perpetual basis.
  • Invest prudently in property, plant, technology, and human capital.
  • Maintain a low debt-to-equity ratio by using long-term funding only for major plant additions.
  • Use current operating capital to fund the vast majority of fixed assets for fiscal year operations.
  • Operate a lean corporate structure that affords a balance between customer affordability and quality.
  • Perform at a high level on both internal and external audits.
  • Demonstrate a strong internal control structure.
  • Set aside capital reserve on an annual basis, the contribution and utilization of which will be intentionally planned.
  • Employ fiscal policies that result in the ethical stewardship of all resources entrusted to the College.
  • Utilize a fair and competitive benefit package.

Customer Focus

Baker College is an institution at which outstanding customer service is embedded in every aspect of its operations.

Baker College creates an environment where all internal and external customers feel valued through the enthusiastic and gracious treatment prevalent at all levels of the organization. To that end, the College will:

  • Maintain and foster a "Students First" philosophy.
  • Require supervisors and leaders to model and reflect excellent treatment toward our ultimate customers, our students.
  • Deliver a uniquely impressive experience to all first-time visitors.
  • Provide quick and easy access to services and personnel.
  • Provide personal interaction and a human connection to all customers.
  • Listen to our customers' voices, address their issues, and keep our promises to them.
  • Empower employees to make decisions that will lead to the best possible outcome.
  • Reinforce perpetually that customer service is vital to the continued success of the College.

Baker College considers information systems and technology to be at the hub of excellent customer service. The College promotes a competitive service advantage by continuously improving its information and technology performance, opportunities, and resources. To that end, the College will:

  • Meet or exceed customer satisfaction related to information and technology resources.
  • Ensure that its personnel have the technological resources and training necessary to effectively and efficiently perform their work.
  • Provide innovative technologies, perform proactive and cost-efficient upgrades and replacements, avoid unnecessary complexity, and facilitate training needs as technologies are enhanced.
  • Provide information technology and infrastructure that is consistently reliable, available, and secure while maintaining fiscal responsibility.
  • Provide systems that support the collection, storage, and access of data and information to enhance customer service, continuous quality improvement, and data-driven decision making.

Willingness to Change and Adapt

Baker College is a very agile organization which changes and adapts to internal and external conditions through the utilization of continuous quality improvement principles.

Baker College recognizes that its willingness and ability to change/adapt is essential to the success of the institution and its students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders. To that end, the College will:

  • Promote entrepreneurship and innovation leading to change processes that involve all stakeholders.
  • Inspire and support "change champions" who help the College continuously improve while preparing for the future.
  • Demonstrate its commitment to being a quality-driven learning organization through its dedication to developing the potential talents of students, faculty, staff, other stakeholders, and the institution as a whole.
  • Identify, develop, and support leaders who have a vision of the College as a true learning institution, while inspiring collaborative change.
  • Create change processes that are collaborative, solution-centered, and inclusive of all necessary internal and external stakeholders.
  • Support change processes by fostering an institutional mindset that values data-enriched decision-making processes, management by fact, and evidence of institutional effectiveness.

Strong Image

Baker College achieves wide recognition among its stakeholders as the preeminent career college in its market areas.

Baker College's high-quality career education and training programs are portrayed to the public through consistent branding and marketing, employee professionalism, and the pristine appearance and safety of its facilities. To that end, the College will:

  • Conduct ongoing marketing campaigns that creatively represent the value of its career-oriented programs and the success of its graduates.
  • Ensure that all internal and external communication is consistent with our mission and meets established standards of quality.
  • Maintain a "Just Like New" philosophy through ongoing capital replacement planning that eliminates all deferred maintenance.
  • Require employees to dress and comport themselves in a manner that is professional and reflects exemplary institutional values, either in the course of business or in the public eye.
  • Expect courteous, respectful, and ethical conduct from everyone in the campus community.
  • Provide a safe, secure, comfortable, and welcome environment for all students, employees, and guests.
  • Practice a policing approach that educates the campus community toward the prevention of reportable crimes and incidents.

Accountable for Mission, Stated Values, and Public Trust

Baker College accepts full accountability for its mission and takes responsibility for the trust and faith placed in the institution by its many stakeholders.

Baker College is accountable to its students and other stakeholders for high rates of graduate employment and high rates of graduates employed in their field of study. To that end, the College will:

  • Provide the Career Services Department with the necessary human resources, training, and technology to meet graduate employment goals.
  • Provide access, coaching, and counseling to students selecting a field of study and graduates seeking employment.
  • Share among all employees and departments the responsibility for the successful employment of graduates.
  • Report all employment-related performance measurements ethically and objectively.
  • Provide lifetime employment assistance to graduates.
  • Provide when appropriate a meaningful and relevant work experience (internship, externship, clinical, etc.) for all students.
  • Strive for 100 percent employment of available graduates.
  • Employ strategies to increase Cohort Graduation Rate and other measures of institutional effectiveness.

Baker College is accountable for the responsible, accurate, and ethical administration of all student financial aid programs. To that end, the College will:

  • Provide consistently-reliable documentation and communication to students throughout the entire financial aid awarding process.
  • Demonstrate compliance with all federal and state regulations in the administration of financial aid.
  • Provide employee training and the technological resources necessary to achieve the goals for the delivery of financial aid.
  • Provide eligible students with a comprehensive financial aid package in an effort to minimize the dependency on student loans for the direct costs of education.
  • Provide current and prospective students with timely, accurate, and transparent data relative to cost of attendance.

High Work Ethic of Employees

Baker College employees possess a strong work ethic, an intense commitment to the mission of the College, and high standards of personal accountability.

All employees, regardless of position, will champion the mission, purposes, and guiding principles of Baker College. To that end, each Baker College employee will:

  • Demonstrate an outstanding work ethic.
  • Maintain an appropriate skill set for the position.
  • Produce work of measurable high quality.
  • Embrace accountability for positive outcomes.
  • Desire to work in a continuous quality improvement environment.
  • Focus on the student/customer/client.
  • Seek creative solutions to typical and atypical work issues that arise as a part of the job responsibilities.

Employees of the College in leadership and supervisory positions will foster environments that allow employees to excel. To that end, the leadership of the College will:

  • Lead from core values based on the mission, beliefs, and guiding principles of Baker College.
  • Contribute substantively to quality mentoring and leadership development.
  • Initiate succession planning that ensures that the Mission of the College remains vibrant and vital.

Family and Team Atmosphere

Baker College actively promotes a familial and team-oriented environment in which employees flourish.

Baker College believes that employees are our most important asset. To that end, the College will:

  • Create a work environment that values the importance of professionalism, mutual respect, tolerance, and understanding for all employees.
  • Manage human resource issues in a constructive and non-punitive manner.
  • Seek and value employee ideas and opinions.
  • Empower employees to determine their work schedules and priorities within the parameters of their job responsibilities.
  • Nurture clear and supportive communication and positive relationships within and between departments, campuses, and the system.
  • Employ face-to-face communication whenever possible.
  • Use productive conflict resolution methods to defuse or eliminate disputes.
  • Require supervisors and leaders to understand the work/life cycles of their employees, and to provide support.
  • Model and reflect the work/life cycle of employees and the treatment of our ultimate customers, our students.

Community Orientation

Baker College is a community-based organization which builds lasting relationships in all of its service areas.

Baker College views the local community as its primary source of students and employers of our graduates. To be successful as an educational institution and as a business, Baker College must model corporate citizenship that reflects positive social values in all its pursuits. To that end, the College will:

    • Require and support civic and professional involvement as a cornerstone of its institutional life.
    • Promote volunteerism from a capable and willing staff.
    • Lead in an intentional, focused, and effective manner.
    • Create collaborative initiatives that are mutually beneficial to students, employers, and the community at large.
    • Promote lifelong learning through comprehensive K-16 partnerships.
    • Build extensive employer networks that further the mission of the College.
    • Support local businesses and agencies to the fullest extent possible.
    • Play a major role in community development and economic growth.

     

The Baker College System