The College recognizes the widely diverse educational backgrounds of students and seeks to provide appropriate educational services to meet the wide-ranging needs of our special student population. The College also seeks to instill in students a feeling of individual worth and to provide opportunities for personal achievement.

The College recognizes the individual's need for constant intellectual growth, for exposure to a variety of value systems, and for the need to cooperate as well as compete. The College seeks to fulfill the ancient Greek ideal of "a sound mind in a sound body," that those who pass through its doors may better serve the community, the state, and the nation.

THE MISSION, ROLE AND SCOPE OF THE COLLEGE
Bismarck State College provides a high quality learning-centered education that maximizes student learning and makes students partners in their education. As a comprehensive community college in the North Dakota University System, Bismarck State College offers broad-ranging, flexible, and innovative educational opportunities. We participate in partnerships that promote economic development, we provide cultural enrichment, and we champion integrity, citizenship, and the improvement of life through lifelong learning.

The Bismarck State College service areas include the immediate, contiguous geographical region for most programs, and statewide, regional or nationwide areas for select, unique programs. The college places primary emphasis on high quality, student-oriented teaching, but it recognizes the importance of promoting research, public service, economic development, and cultural awareness.

Since its founding in 1939, Bismarck State College has evolved from a locally based junior college to a state college whose mission fits within system and core missions of institutions governed by the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education. The institution emphasizes the necessity of remaining open to evolutionary change to best fulfill present and future demands which will be placed upon it.

VISION STATEMENT
BSC, Your Lifetime Link to Learning.

THE PURPOSE OF THE COLLEGE
The purpose of Bismarck State College is to provide an educational environment of the highest caliber at a reasonable cost; to maintain a warm and wholesome social atmosphere; to provide opportunities for advanced knowledge, improved skills, high ideals and ethical standards; and to make learning an enjoyable, rewarding experience.

THE GOALS OF THE COLLEGE

1. Encourage student-centered learning through campus- wide Learning First strategies and innovative teaching.
2. Provide a flexible and technologically enhanced learning environment.
3. Expand the diversity of students attending Bismarck State College by anticipating and acknowledging the changing demographics of our state, and by providing appropriate programs, events, and services.
4. Provide academic support services and developmental education courses for student success.
5. Document student achievement and institutional effectiveness that provides accountability to the public, the North Dakota University System, and accrediting bodies.
6. Facilitate BSC’s continued planned growth by developing business, industry and educational partnerships and responding to educational and training needs.
7. Use planning, continuous improvement, professional development, on-going research, and analysis of data to develop and expand educational and training opportunities.
8. Create an environment that promotes awareness, collaboration, fair-mindedness and mutual respect within our learning community.
9. Seek external funding for projects and programs supportive of and compatible with the college and its mission.