Strategic Plan

Vision Statement

Lamar State College Orange will be the college of choice serving Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. As an exemplary place of learning, Lamar State College Orange will prepare the workforce of tomorrow. Our students will arrive with the hope of a productive future and leave with the knowledge and opportunities for success that a Lamar State College Orange education provides.

Mission Statement

Lamar State College Orange transforms lives and communities through the continual pursuit of academic, professional, and personal excellence. We provide new and unique opportunities for growth and success. We are the bridge connecting those we serve to a bright, Orange future.

Core Values

  • Quality: Providing excellence through education
  • Growth: Building a shared vision of opportunity and advancement
  • Service: Meeting the needs of the communities we serve
  • Innovation: Creating an array of unique educational opportunities
  • Success: Achieving personal and professional goals

Goal Statements, Strategies, Outcomes, and Targets

GOAL 1: Lamar State College Orange will provide programs and services that meet the highest standards of excellence (derived from core value of Quality).

  1. All faculty and staff will engage in professional development activities.
  2. Conduct institutional and locally developed research to determine student needs and challenges, and use results to improve services.
  3. Conduct surveys and other evaluations to determine the needs of our campus and community.
  4. Maintain accreditation in programs regulated or monitored by outside agencies
  5. Attract, hire and retain excellent faculty, staff, and administrators.
  1. All LSCO faculty and staff will engage in ongoing professional development in their area of expertise and will annually review policies, procedures, and practices to assure efficient and effective service.
  2. All LSCO faculty will undergo annual evaluation to include periodic peer review, student evaluation, and supervisory observation of teaching, both in face-to-face and online courses.
  3. LSCO will conduct annual surveys of student satisfaction, and service unit directors will submit biennial reports. In addition, the college will administer the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) biennially.
  4. All LSCO programs accredited by external agencies will meet or exceed the standard(s) of accreditation.
  5. LSCO faculty and library staff will collaboratively implement standards and practices appropriate to the field of study for performing and citing research in course assignments.
  • Minimum 8 hours of professional development per staff and faculty member per academic year, with all courses and programs reviewed and revised once every three years
  • 1 peer evaluation/observation per faculty member per biennium
  • Information Services will annually provide 6 training sessions related to LSCO applications and/or State of Texas mandates
  • Annual institution-wide satisfaction survey and efficiency review of policies, procedures, and practices to drive continual quality improvement
  • Spring 2020: all academic and technical faculty will teach and require students to use the most current style guides applicable to research and publication in their respective disciplines or fields

Goal 2: Lamar State College Orange will engage our students and a wide circle of partners to build and realize a shared vision of opportunity and advancement for a bright Orange future (derived from core value of Growth).

  1. LSCO faculty and staff will meet with leaders from local industry to:
    • identify their workforce training needs and learn how LSCO can partner to help fill them;
    • review ACGM/WECM and/or workforce training guides to determine outcomes and review LSCO’s course and program inventory; and
    • create new programs or restructure existing programs to provide opportunities for students to successfully pursue academic transfer or compete for high-paying jobs upon graduation.
  2. Grow the community’s college-bound culture and increase the college’s enrollment by communicating with potential students regarding
    • the advantages of earning a college degree,
    • the opportunities for employment or advancement that college could open to graduates, and
    • the local businesses or industries where graduates will be eligible to apply and work.
  3. Collaborate with local school districts to determine academic educational goals that their dual credit students wish to pursue.
  4. Review academic requirements at transfer institutions for meeting those goals; create or repackage courses and programs to meet student needs.
  5. Facilitate efficient admission, advising, and registration services at LSCO.
  1. LSCO will engage in a data-informed, data-driven process to:
    • identify new or expanding job and career opportunities;
    • define the knowledge, skills and abilities a candidate for employment in the field should possess; and
    • partner with local business and industry to develop programs and facilities to allow LSCO graduates to successfully compete for employment or career advancement.
  2. LSCO will systematically conduct wide-ranging outreach efforts to listen to and inform our area’s diverse population of the advantages and opportunities.
  3. LSCO will work with school district partners to create bridge programs and new pathways that seamlessly align secondary and post-secondary curricula and ensure college readiness to grow and strengthen the community’s college-bound culture.
  4. All LSCO faculty will regularly engage in collaborative processes to conduct ongoing course and program development or redesign.
  5. LSCO faculty and staff involved with dual credit will actively participate in academic advising and recruiting each semester to promote increasing enrollment of dual credit students at LSCO following high school graduation.
  • Annual meeting with university, business, and industry leaders; acquisition of property and development of facilities* for
    • new Maritime and logistics program (Fall 2019)
    • pre-engineering program (Spring 2020)
    • new Academic building (Spring 2021)
      *contingent on program and funding approval
  • A minimum of one public service outreach initiative per semester promoting the value of education to the community’s growth and prosperity
  • Enrollment: total headcount
    • 2,800 (Fall 2019: 2020 Vision target 2,586)
    • 3,000 (Fall 2020: 2020 Vision target 2,513)
    • 3,250 (Fall 2021: 2020 Vision target 2,675)
    • 3,500 (Fall 2023)
  • New programs
    • pre-medical professional (Fall 2019)
    • Maritime (Fall 2019)
    • Logistics (Spring 2020)
    • Print professional (Spring 2020)
    • pre-ENGR (Fall 2020)
    • pre-trade professional (Spring 2021)
  • A minimum of one new bridge/curriculum alignment initiative per academic year

GOAL 3: Lamar State College Orange will continually strive to meet the growing and changing needs of our students, local business and industry partners, and area school districts (derived from core value of Service).

  1. Engage civic, workforce, and school district partners to determine the needs of the community and develop plans in response.
  2. Host, support, and participate in local nonprofit and community initiatives and projects.
  3. Provide continually improving support services to students.
  4. Provide continually improving customer support services interdepartmentally.
  5. Maintain transparency and facilitate public access to information pertaining to college policies, programs, and practices.
  1. All LSCO program directors and designated administrators will meet at minimum annually with representatives from local civic, business, industry, advisory committees, and public school leadership to collaboratively develop and revise program and service initiatives.
  2. LSCO will host a minimum of two public service events annually, and all LSCO faculty and staff will attend and/or participate in a minimum of two public service, community service, or outreach events or projects annually.
  3. LSCO professional staff will continually engage in a data-informed, data-driven process to identify areas where service to students and internal customers can be improved, and will annually develop or revise policies, practices, and procedures resulting in measurably improved service.
  4. Information Technology and Finance and Operations will provide technical service and training to all campus constituencies in the development and use of computer applications and budget and finance management strategies and practices.
  5. LSCO will develop and implement policies and best practices for efficiently converting and archiving a broad array of college publications and making them generally accessible.
  • Biannual meetings with business and industry leaders
  • Quarterly meetings with K-12 partners
  • Dual credit enrollment:
    • 1,000 Fall 2019 (Vision 2020 target 520)
    • 1,100 Fall 2020 (Vision 2020 target 550)
    • 1,200 Fall 2023
  • After one year of benchmarking, student satisfaction survey and institutional climate survey results will show continual annual 3% rise each year until 2024
  • Provide technical personnel and resources for two student orientation sessions annually and facilitate training for all end users on budget, requisitions, travel policies, and Human Resource-related documents

Goal 4: Lamar State College Orange will create and continually adapt a broad array of educational opportunities to help our students and community respond to the challenges posed by an ever-changing world (derived from core value of Innovation).

  1. Regularly review data sources to identify emerging careers and new fields of study and experts who lead or study them, and reach out to collaborate with those experts or study their publications.
  2. Use results of ongoing research into emerging careers and fields to design new courses and programs.
  3. Periodically redesign courses and realign programs in fields of study where rapid advance is occurring.
  4. Adapt courses and programs to use Open Educational Resources or texts and instructional materials created by faculty and available at low or no cost to students.
  5. Encourage faculty to systematically incorporate emerging research, facilitated by library services, into course and program development to assure that curricula are current and that faculty are adhering to best practices in teaching and student engagement.
  1. LSCO will collaborate with Library Services to develop or revise courses and/or programs to incorporate the use of Open Educational Resources or instructor-developed texts and course materials.
  2. LSCO will provide technical personnel resources to build online/automated processes using known applications to replace manual processes.
  3. LSCO will regularly develop new academic, technical, and workforce education programs in emerging fields of study.
  4. LSCO will regularly develop new low-cost, easy-access continuing education and leisure learning opportunities and programs designed to promote lifetime learning and enrich the lives of Orange area residents.
  5. All LSCO faculty will collaborate with library services to engage in ongoing research and professional development in pedagogy and field of study, and will annually review and revise course- and program-level outcomes and content to assure currency and relevance.
  • Innovative course design leading to use of Open Educational Resources (OERs)
    • 2019-2020: four courses will use Open Educational Resources and/or other approved low-cost faculty-developed resources
    • 2019-2020: partner with Barnes & Nobles to offer the First Day program allowing students to obtain textbook electronically at a significant decrease in cost
    • 2023-2024: 20% of courses in general education and/or technical disciplines will use Open Educational Resources and/or other approved low-cost faculty-developed resources
  • Revise or automate one manual process per academic year, in response to satisfaction survey and efficiency review data.
  • Develop one new continuing education and/or leisure learning opportunity or program to offer each year.
  • Develop one new academic or technical program or pathway per year in response to market study data indicating need or emerging opportunity.
  • Develop one new vocational/workforce course or sequence of courses per year in response to market study data indicating need or emerging opportunity.

Goal 5: Lamar State College Orange will lead our students and the members of our community to achieving their personal and professional goals (derived from core value of Success).

  1. Identify and remove barriers or obstacles to completion, graduation, and/or transfer.
  2. Lower cost of textbooks and other instructional materials.  
  3. Increase tuition assistance and scholarships.
  4. Research student scheduling needs and redesign course schedules to meet them.
  5. Create and maintain learning and support environments to promote course and program completion.
  1. LSCO will work to identify and remove barriers to satisfactory progress, persistence, retention, graduation, and transfer by creating new guided pathways, implementing articulation agreements, and hosting transfer school recruiting efforts to create and/or improve relationships between prospective graduates and advisors at transfer schools.
  2. LSCO will work to identify and remove financial impediments to student academic success and lower student debt at graduation by designing, implementing, and/or expanding scholarship and other financial assistance and support programs, and continually and incrementally expanding the Ron E. Lewis’s library’s collection of traditional textbooks and Open Educational Resources.
  3. LSCO will annually conduct locally generated research and incorporate the data into the implementation of a schedule management system that creates course and activity schedules responsive to student and industry needs.
  4. LSCO will proactively work to hire a highly qualified and diverse faculty and staff as well as to promote deserving employees into positions leading to personal achievement.
  5. LSCO will create or redesign facilities promoting and fostering student achievement and success.
  • Academic Success targets
    • Completion: degrees and certificates awarded annually (all programs)
      • 2020: 516 (Vision 2020 target)
      • 2021: 600 (Vision 2020 target)
    • 3-year graduation rates:
      • 2020: 26% (Vision 2020 target 25.8%)
      • 2021: 27% (Vision 2020 target 26.4%)
    • Persistence rates: any institution
      • 2020: exceed 61% (Vision 2020 target 60.9%)
      • 2021: exceed 61% (Vision 2020 target 61.0%)
  • Financial Aid targets
    • 2019-2020: 10 Ambassador Scholarships
    • 2023- 2024: 20 Ambassador Scholarships
  • Library textbook acquisition initiative
    • 2019-2020: textbooks available for library use for fifty percent of course listings
    • 2023-2024: textbooks available for library use for ninety percent of course listings
  • Hiring targets in different service, support, and instructional areas to support service, quality, and growth initiatives
    • 2021-2022: hire additional faculty members in arts, humanities, math, and the natural, social, and behavioral sciences
    • 2022-2023: hire new faculty to offer new courses in physics, organic chemistry and Engineering
  • Facilities
    • New Academic Building**
    • Fall 2021: Center for Student Excellence
    • Fall 2023: laboratory facilities
      • Engineering: Fall 2021
      • Physics: Fall 2022
      • organic chemistry: Fall 2023
      **target date dependent on the Texas legislature

Next Steps