SCUP: The Nexus of Planning in Higher Education

The Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) was established in 1965. It is a community of planners who serve higher education.

The society supports all functional areas involved in planning—from academics to facilities, from administrative and financial operations to student life, and from the campus architects to those hired to support the institution’s many planning projects.

SCUP’s unique strength is that it facilitates opportunities for its members to share best practices in integrated planning on campuses. There are many ways in which SCUP supports integrated planning. The society provides:

• Information on planning best practices as well as higher education trends.
• Training on a variety of planning-related topics including effective approaches to integrated planning, in the form of regional events, annual conferences, workshops, and no-travel webcasts and virtual conversations, for people who are new to planning or who are taking on additional planning responsibilities.
• Opportunities to interact with and discuss planning cross-functionally in a collegial atmosphere with individuals from a wide variety of campuses and firms.

SCUP supports integrated planning that is holistic, systemic, and crosses functional and operational boundaries. Effective integrated planning is rewarding: diverse issues are addressed and implications are understood. These are the attributes of successful integrated plans.