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Workshop

Planning Institute: Foundations

October 20-21, 2025
Online | 11:00–5:00 PM Eastern
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Laying the Groundwork for Strategic Planning

The Foundations workshop is based on the SCUP Integrated Planning Model, part of the SCUP Planning Institute.

Successful planning starts with engagement, reflection, and action. Successfully used at countless institutions, our methodology will help ensure that the right people are involved, the right information is analyzed, and the right process is followed for your institution. At SCUPs Planning Institute, we help bring clarity to a complex process and bring your community together to unleash your institution’s potential.

We’re here to help those who are:

  • Trying to design a planning process that works for their institution’s unique culture and structure
  • In need of guidance when it comes to identifying and engaging stakeholders
  • Analyzing institutional culture and operations in an effort to find a better path forward
  • Aiming to create a plan that differentiates your institution based on its strengths and its role in the world around it

Workshop Details

Many strategic planning models don’t work in higher education because they’re not designed for higher education. Strategic planning processes designed for corporations or non-profits don’t account for higher education’s complex environment and the unique challenges it faces.

The SCUP Integrated Planning Model is different. It has been developed exclusively for higher education. Our model will help individuals, teams, and institutions solve their thorniest problems. When you use the SCUP Integrated Planning model, you will get an accurate picture of your external environment, ask hard but necessary questions, and build actionable plans. The result? You’ll do more than implement a strategic plan. You’ll foster a campus-wide culture of institutional planning that is future-proof and sustainable.

This workshop guides you through the foundations of the SCUP Integrated Planning Model. After each workshop, you will go back to your campus with tangible takeaways and tools that you can use to grapple with practical problems.

Who Should Attend

SCUP’s Integrated Planning Model is widely applicable and easily adaptable. It can be used to solve departmental issues or reach an institution-wide goal. It can be tailored to any institution, regardless of size or type.

Key Integrated Planning Competencies

  • PLANNING – Planning Knowledge
  • PLANNING – Manage Process
  • PLANNING – Communicate about Planning
  • PLANNING – Institutional Context
  • INSTITUTIONAL ACUMEN – Stakeholder Engagement
  • MANAGEMENT – Build Teams

Learning Outcomes

  1. Assess your institution’s readiness for change so you can remove change inhibitors and pave a pathway to success.
  2. Identify and analyze stakeholders for your institution’s planning efforts, convince necessary stakeholders to adopt integrated planning practices at your institution, and create a communication plan that ensures a transparent and inclusive planning process.
  3. Analyze your institution’s internal and external environment, including global forces and trends, internal mandates, and competitors.
  4. Adapt integrated planning to your institution’s unique situation.

No AIA or AICP credit is offered for the workshop.

Schedule 10/20/25 and 10/21/25 from 11am-5pm (ET)

Facilitator

Dana Prymak
Dana Prymak
Associate Director, Strategic Planning and ForesightThompson Rivers University
Randy Simon Headshot
Randy Simon
Director, Capital Plan & Space ManagementGeorgia Institute of Technology