SCUP Planning Institute

Step I:
Foundations of Planning in Higher Education

Target Audiences:

Individuals and teams who want to build an integrated planning process that addresses the complexities of meeting multiple stakeholders’ needs.

Workshop Cost:

Session Overview:

Planning is about developing an explicit way for making choices. An effective planning process focuses the campus, and the various constituencies and players, on what the choices are and how to make them in an integrated way.  Choices made in this way include careful consideration of the real costs and a commitment to allocate the necessary resources to bring them to fruition. What integrated planning truly fosters is a culture of planning that allows institutions to be nimble enough to respond to unanticipated threats and opportunities.

Participants in the initial workshop in the series of three use SCUP’s Walnut College case study to apply the basic elements of integrated planning. The value of evidence-based planning is emphasized, as is the central place that the academic mission holds in focusing and driving campus decisions. Integrated planning promotes institutional distinctiveness that is sustainable.

Four key questions drive planning and the discussions in this workshop:

• Whom do we wish to serve?
• What programs and services will reinforce our distinctive image?
• How do we want to be perceived?
• How will we know we are succeeding?

Step I models the elements of effective planning by creating a collaborative environment through the delivery of the workshop content. It ensures that participants have the opportunity to address the questions they brought, to build national networks for ongoing discussions, and to understand how integrated planning addresses issues of accountability and accreditation.

Starting in July 2009, completing Step I will be a requirement to register for Step II.