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ABOUT CHAS
Statement of Principles
Students who matriculate at CHAS institutions are among the brightest and
best prepared in the nation and, when they enter college, they are hopeful
and often optimistic that they will succeed. Yet too many of them fail to
achieve their highest potential, and disproportionate numbers of those are
students of color. Because of the similarities among our student
populations and our common mission as private liberal arts colleges and
small universities, we believe in collective study of our challenges and
development
of solutions. Working together, we will efficiently and productively
transform our campuses into optimal learning environments for all students.
We share a common approach to this project and
base our work on common assumptions:
We believe that all students who matriculate on our campuses are capable of
succeeding. Because of our belief in the capabilities of our students, we
will devote Consortial efforts to promoting high educational achievement,
not remediation.
Our most important mission is to transform institutional barriers into
gateways to high achievement. Any student can experience difficulties; it
is the role of the faculty and college or university administration to
anticipate difficulties and provide appropriate preventive measures and
interventions to help students over the hurdles that they encounter.
Accordingly, the institutional environment and support systems available
should be focus of attention, not individual students.
We
also believe that attention must be directed to the “whole student.” Thus,
we will continue to address the academic, social-cultural, and financial
support systems needed to promote high achievement, leadership, and high
levels of student engagement within our institutions.
Correspondingly, success of our efforts
depends upon attention to the “whole college/university.” Each person on a
campus can and does make a difference in the lives of students and their
feelings of belonging and their motivation to succeed. Thus, we must
involve people from all over the campus and help them recognize the role
that they play in this important enterprise.
Our explicit purpose is to promote improved outcomes for students of color
at CHAS institutions. However, we firmly believe that our actions will
benefit all students, whether directly through participation in the same
programs or indirectly through the enhanced, healthier educational
environment that ensues when all students receive the resources to thrive
academically and personally.
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