Mission, Values and Vision

Our Mission

The Office of Equity and Pluralism is committed to advancing diversity and pluralism at the college among its employees and students, in order to promote student achievement.

To attain this end, we will do what is necessary, ethical, legal, and within our power, including—but not limited to—the following:

  • Work to eliminate discrimination and to advance equal access in all opportunities, programs, and facilities
  • Provide ongoing education and training in cultural competence
  • Support classroom instruction that encourages academic success for all students
  • Act in accordance with applicable federal laws, state laws, and College policy

See how we connect with the BC mission

Our Values

  • Collaboration and Teamwork, Diversity and Inclusion
  • Open and Honest Communication
  • Respect, Responsiveness and Integrity
  • Excellence in Service

Our Vision

Members of Bellevue College composed, in 1992, the BC Affirmation of Inclusion, in response to an incidence of racist graffiti on our campus.  The College community wanted to take a strong public stand against this kind of intolerant and hateful behavior, and to make it clear that the culture we seek to build here at BC—and to share with humankind, as we send our graduates out into the larger world—is a culture based on inclusion of diversity, tolerance of difference, mutual respect, and equitable access to power among all.  As a result, our college community learned and grew in new ways.  In an expression of our already established Pluralism initiative at the College, we took an ugly racist incident and used it to continue laying the foundation for what has become the start of a profound institutional self-transformation, still in the making.  The BC Affirmation of Inclusion not only represents an institutional touchstone for Pluralism, but also serves as the Vision that ultimately brought into being the Office of Equity and Pluralism, and that still guides its operations from day to day:

Bellevue College will create an environment in which every member of the campus community feels welcome to participate in the life of the college, free from harassment and discrimination.

We value our different backgrounds at BC, and students, faculty, staff members, and administrators are to treat one another with dignity and respect.

taken from the BC Affirmation of Inclusion, 1992

Last Updated December 9, 2013