Planning for Higher Education Journal Author Guidelines for Planning Stories

Outline

Project Title: Provide a focused, concise and descriptive title.

Author: Full name, brief bio

Contact Information: Address, Phone number and email of author

Abstract: Summary of article, approximately 100 words.

Key words: Approximately 5-10 key words

General case study framework:

• Linear Analytic: Issue / problem/ solution
• Comparative: Two or more cases
• Chronological: events over time
• Theory Building: unfolding ideas
• Unsequenced: description of a case

Framing Your Planning Story

As you conceive, design, and flesh out your Planning Story, please consider the following words, which are from relevant portions of the website for the SCUP Planning Institute. If you consider these words and frame your story with these perspectives and ideas in mind, that will go a long way toward creating a story that is valuable to your peers and colleagues

• “Integrated Planning is the linking of vision, priorities, people, and the physical institution, in a flexible system of evaluation, decision-making and action to shape and guide the entire organization as it evolves over time within and without its community.” (Robert Koester, Prof of Architecture, Ball State U.)
• 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.
• Integrated planning processes require that higher education professional be able to influence those working above and below them and to work successfully with peers in other functional areas. Understanding how the nature of these relationships—up, down, and sideways—affects the planning and change processes can make a significant difference in achieving the institution's goals.
• And the following, which are the Six Planning Competencies that are taught by SCUP’s Planning Institute:

1. People—the ability to understand and identify the players who are or should be part of the planning process and their roles
2. Language—the ability to use a common planning vocabulary to interpret and translate the ideas of all players
3. Process—learn how to create and facilitate an integrated planning process; provide guidance and leadership through all stages of planning, including managing change
4. The Plan—the ability to recognize and produce the elements of an integrated plan that can be implemented and evaluated
5. Planning Context—the ability to collect and filter relevant information of the internal and external environment
6. Resources—the ability to identify alternative and realistic resource strategies and align them to stated plan priorities, thus grounding the plan in fiscal realities.

Project Description / Problem Statement

1. Provide the name of the college, university, or system, and the background context of the project including its relationship to existing plans or planning processes.
2. Describe the initiative’s primary intent and outcome, as well as key stakeholder groups that are involved and that it benefitted.
3. The first sentence of the project description should serve as a summary statement and be able to convey key priorities if it were to stand alone.

Methodology

1. Describe the major goals and objectives of the initiative. How was the initiative conducted? Describe the integrated planning process that was used.
2. Indicate how each objective was evaluated.
3. Describe how the evaluation process was approached from an administrative standpoint. How were the major outcomes and the data elements?
4. Who is responsible for assessment related to this specific project?

Results and Findings / Quantifiable/Qualifiable Outcomes

Use statements to indicate the outcomes that have been realized. Identify both quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (opinion or survey- based) outcomes. As appropriate, indicate future intended outcomes.

Challenges/ Limitations

Describe challenges (institutional or external) that had to be overcome in order to complete the planning process/project goals. As appropriate, discuss adjustments that had to be made in addressing the problems encountered.

Potential for Replication

Every change has the potential for replication, but adjustments or changes are often needed for the program to be successful elsewhere. What adjustments should be considered in applying these changes in another setting? Were there special circumstances pertaining to the primary stakeholder groups impacted and/or other factors in the environment that warrant consideration?

Additional Resources

If appropriate, list program or data sources specifically relevant to the change. Provide project-specific website URL featuring the given innovation, if one exists. Also provide links to any reports or case studies that have already been published about this project.

Conclusions and Recommendations

What is the recommended solution to the problem as stated earlier? What is unique or noteworthy about this project? What are the “lessons learned?” What should have been differently? What was done correctly? How does this project advance knowledge on this topic?