Academic Catalog

Mission, Governance, and Accreditation

Snow College values its mission and position within the Utah System of Higher Education. The college is committed to building and sustaining a culture of assessment and evidence-based institutional decision-making; this is crucial to foster student achievement and to enable the institution to fulfill its mission.

Mission and Core Themes

The statements define Snow's mission, aspiration, and imagined future. From these three statements, several core themes emerge.

Mission Statement

We empower each student with a personalized path to success through comprehensive education, advanced technical training, and the confidence to create a thriving future.

Aspirational Statement

Snow College aspires to have each student graduate debt free, gain a resume-worthy experience, and develop a plan for the future. Students who find Snow College find themselves.

Visioning Statement

As Utah’s rural community college, Snow College envisions a future defined by purposeful growth, personalized education, and strong community and industry alignment. Over the next three to five years, the College will work to ensure sustainable increases in enrollment, retention, completion, and graduation by delivering a student experience rooted in personal connection, affordability, and access.

Through strengthened general education, advanced technical training, and student-led enterprise opportunities, Snow will develop students’ durable skills in communication, leadership, and problem-solving, empowering them for success in any path they pursue.

Recognizing the diverse needs of adult learners, the College will expand flexible learning options to support lifelong learning and career advancement. To prepare students for the evolving workforce, Snow College will embed early certificate options, real-world experience, and AI readiness into its programs, aligning offerings with regional job demands and creating strategic partnerships across industry and within the Utah System of Higher Education.

Snow College embraces continuous improvement and will prioritize operational efficiency and effectiveness by aligning budgets with strategic goals, providing leadership development for employees, and implementing systems to measure impact, ensuring every initiative advances the College’s mission to transform lives and fuel regional prosperity.

Snow College will continue to be a place where students find themselves as it aspires to help students graduate debt-free, gain resume-worthy experience, and develop a plan for the future.

Core Themes in the Governing Statements

Throughout these governing statements, three core themes emerge, and these form the basis for Snow College's efforts to measure mission fulfillment.

  • Enrollment: Ensure positive and sustainable growth in enrollment through effective, data-driven recruitment and retention strategies.
  • Workforce Readiness: Empower students with durable skills and workforce readiness.
  • Operational Excellence: Strengthen institutional capacity and operational excellence.

Key metrics in each theme area help Snow College measure the successful implementation of the college's educational goals and objectives, inform decision-making, and drive plans for continuous improvement.

College Governance

An institution in the Utah System of Higher Education, Snow College is a degree-granting institution of higher education (see Utah State Code 53H-1-S102) with the primary role as a community college. Snow College also fills the technical college role within its designated service area (see Utah System of Higher Education Policy R315-5). 

Snow College is supervised by an institutional Board of Trustees. The trustees approve policies that govern the day-to-day work of the institution.

Institutional and Programmatic Accreditation

Snow College is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. 

Accreditation of an institution of higher education by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities indicates that it meets or exceeds criteria for the assessment of institutional quality evaluated through a peer review process. An accredited college or university is one which has available the necessary resources to achieve its stated purposes through appropriate educational programs, is substantially doing so, and gives reasonable evidence that it will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Institutional integrity is also addressed through accreditation.

Accreditation by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities is not partial but applies to the institution as a whole. As such, it is not a guarantee of every course or program offered, or the competence of individual graduates. Rather, it provides reasonable assurance about the quality of opportunities available to students who attend the institution.

Inquiries regarding an institution’s accredited status by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities should be directed to the administrative staff of the institution. Individuals may also contact:

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
8060 165th Avenue N.E., Suite 100
Redmond, WA 98052
(425)-558-4224
www.nwccu.org

Specialized Accreditation

Snow College also has specialized accreditation for the following programs: