ACM History & Vision

---

Allegany College of Maryland, the community's college in Allegany County and serving Western Maryland and the surrounding region, was founded in 1961. In fall 1996, with the College's role in the region continuing to expand, the College was renamed Allegany College of Maryland to reflect changes in its mission.

 

---

We will be the college of choice that transforms lives, strengthens communities, and makes learners the center of everything we do.

 

---

We deliver diverse and relevant education centered around student success in a supportive and engaging community.

 

---

 

---

• To provide convenient geographical access to post-secondary education to people within the service region of the college.
• To provide financial access to a college education by assuring reasonable tuition rates, comprehensive financial assistance, and college scholarship opportunities.
• To provide quality education and services, in a safe and comfortable environment, at a reasonable cost.
• To support an environment that promotes quality teaching and learning.
• To promote a college that enhances lives and the community through education and service.
• To instill in our students a philosophy of lifelong learning.
• To foster a pro-learning campus environment that embraces the values of Allegany College of Maryland.
• To develop the technical competence, knowledge, and other essential skills that prepare students for direct entry into the workforce, for career change and advancement, or for transfer to another college or university.
• To continually assess our programs and services in order to promote and encourage continuous improvement.

---

In developing and implementing the offerings of the College, the Board of Trustees, the faculty, and the staff have steadfastly held, and continue to hold, the following beliefs:

• We believe in democracy as a way of life, and in both the freedoms and responsibilities inherent in a democracy. We believe in preparation for active participation in a democracy.
• We believe that education is a process by which certain objectives of society are reached.
• We believe that education is sustained, utilized, and protected by society.
• We believe that our college, as an essential and integral part of the American way of life, has a direct relationship and responsibility to the community to serve as a leader in educational thought and practice. To this end, the educational resources of the institution are made available for use by the community.
• We believe that education embraces knowledge, training, and aspiration. Consequently, we believe in the dissemination of knowledge, the liberation of minds, the development of skills, the promotion of free inquiry, the encouragement of the creative or inventive spirit, and the establishment of wholesome attitude toward order and change, with an emphasis on ethical and legal concerns.
• We believe that we should educate broadly through a program of general education which introduces the students to the basic fields of knowledge: the arts and humanities, English composition, social and behavioral sciences, mathematics, and the biological and physical sciences.
• We believe that it is our responsibility to guide students in the exercise of self-direction and self-discipline in the solution of their problems, and to instill in them the desire to continue education as long as they live.
• We believe that knowledge alone is not enough. Ethics is indispensable; therefore, our program emphasizes appreciation of and response to beauty, truth, and justice, thus contributing to the general cultural development of the community through the individual.
• We believe in the cooperation of the College with all segments of its service area and in the continual evaluation of the College, its purpose and program, to the end that it may contribute to the maximum development of the individual and the area.