Riverland Community College

Strategic Vision: Building a Foundational Approach to Excellence 2020-2025

Riverland's strategic framework is a five-year plan that supports the college's purpose and priorities and introduces positive change to meet the challenges of a global, complex and interconnected society.

The 10-month process has included engagement and feedback from many of Riverland’s internal and external stakeholders through a planning retreat, listening sessions, monthly Riverland Council meetings, Employee Conversation sessions, email messages, and more. The result moves Riverland from a blueprint to building a foundational structure that explores our updated vision statement:

We will offer the best opportunity for
every enrolled student to attain academic and
career goals in an ever-changing world.

We will shift our priorities to create a sharper focus on students and continue closing the opportunity gap, aligning with the Minnesota State Equity 2030 objective which states, “By 2030, Minnesota State—together with our partners—will eliminate the educational equity gaps at every Minnesota State college and university."

Throughout the implementation of the Strategic Blueprint of the last five years and the planning process for this plan, the world has changed. We all had to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic, embrace technology to a higher degree, and seek new ways to learn. We have experienced unrest over immigration and the recent police brutality protests. Riverland recognizes on our current plan will need to be agile and respond to emerging and future career goals for every student. We recognize that People, Program, Resources, and Outreach will be more important than ever and will become the pillars of the plan’s foundational structure during the next five years.

An introduction from President Adenuga Atewologun.

During my Riverland tenure, I have asked everyone to
have the audacity to safely break some rules if it leads to becoming exceptional, extraordinary, and excellent. We have moved from reactive to proactive, basing our decisions more often on the data that drives the need for change. I have watched Riverland move from tentative to bold. So, now we move forward, continuing to build a stronger educational foundation for students using gumption and goals that cannot only weather the tests of time but embrace whatever changes lie ahead. People, Progress, and Partnerships enhance the ideas on our new strategic vision and, like the blueprint before this, cannot live upon a shelf to gather dust. This plan must be alive in every employee, student, business, industry and community we serve. Together we can achieve excellence.

Our work continues to be driven by our newly adapted Riverland Mission Statement:

To transform lives through excellence
in service, education, and career training.

The following pages summarize our current ideas, but a living plan needs to adapt, and we encourage anyone to join the journey along the way as we continue the move forward and make Riverland exceptional, extraordinary, and excellent for EVERY enrolled student.