Mission
and Vision

Statement of Mission

Dyersburg State Community College (DSCC) is an open-access higher education institution that seeks to provide high quality educational opportunities through its excellent technical and transfer degree programs, certificates, and workforce development initiatives. The College provides leadership in public service and collaborations with education, business, and industry partners to promote success and innovation to improve society at large through education. DSCC focuses on innovative approaches to student success and academic excellence. The College is strongly committed to the development of economic and community partnerships and civic and cultural opportunities.

The College focuses on executing this mission through the following core values:

• Opportunity: We aspire to be the College of Choice for area dual enrollment, traditional, and adult students, regardless of technical or transfer pathway.
• Student Success and Exceptional Student Service: We are invested in ensuring that our students have the best opportunity for academic, career, and personal success through which they can achieve their full potential and life goals.  Students are why we exist.
• Academic Excellence and Innovation: We ascribe to the tenets of academic rigor and development of instructional modalities that promote student success and instructional and academic creativity.
• Integrity: We believe in building trust with students, staff, and the community through responsible actions and honest relationships.  We stand for honesty and truth.
• Unity and Compassion: We strive to work together as a team with our employees, students, and community partners because we realize we are all stronger together.
• Impactful Communication: We endeavor to communicate with external and internal constituencies in a clear, concise, and timely manner to tell the story of the College, its students, and the DSCC community in a manner that values the contributions of all who are engaged and encourages all members to share openly and honestly.

Institutional Mission Profile

Dyersburg State Community College is a comprehensive two-year institution serving nine rural counties in northwest Tennessee, including Crockett, Dyer, Lake, Lauderdale, Obion, Henry, Haywood, Weakley, and Tipton. The College provides educational opportunities through its home campus in Dyersburg, the Jimmy Naifeh Center at Tipton County in Covington, and the new DSCC Henry County Center in Paris. In Fall 2022, 2,739 students enrolled at Dyersburg State, including 715 dual enrollment and middle college students. Thirty-one percent of Dyersburg State students in Fall 2022 were adults ages 25 and older, and 35% were low-income students. Additionally, in 2021-22, the College provided 23,915 hours of workforce training. Dyersburg State offers 13 associate degrees and 24 certificate programs, including the College’s notable Nursing, Emergency Medical Technician, Paramedic, and Business Administration programs. The College will introduce a Surgical Technology Program at the Jimmy Naifeh Center in Tipton County in Fall 2023. DSCC is proud to be the first community college in Tennessee to offer a program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities; the Eagle Access program has grown from four to nine students in the first year. During the 2021-22 academic year, 559 awards were conferred at Dyersburg State, including 170 Associate of Applied Science degrees, 152 technical certificates, and 237 associate degrees designed to transfer to a university. As a member of the Achieving the Dream Network, the College’s major focus is to close completion gaps for Pell-eligible students. Strong partnerships with area high schools contribute to successful dual enrollment programs. In Fall 2023, 28 high school students from cohort one of the Middle College program will continue their education, and 25 new students will begin cohort two. The Middle College program serves as a pathway for students to achieve secondary and postsecondary goals simultaneously. Dyersburg State offers the Associate of Science degree in Business Administration to incarcerated students at the Northwest Correctional Complex and West Tennessee State Penitentiary. Fifteen incarcerated students graduated in 2022-23, with 12 students recognized as members of the College’s Alpha Epsilon Alpha Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. The College offers various student support programs to multiple subpopulations, including Pell-eligible students, first-generation students, adult students, underprepared students, dual enrolled students, and veteran students.