Learning Resources

Abstract: A high-level document enumerating the institution’s five strategic goals and strategies for achieving each goal. The goals are framed as increasing and enhancing each of the following qualities:

1. Student Success
2. Intercultural Understanding
3. Research Capacity
4. Entrepreneurial Capacity
5. Sustainability

Abstract: Securing financial viability requires an engaged board that is monitoring the right trends and campus indicators, asking the right questions of campus leaders about the institution’s finances, and doing the scenario planning and stress testing necessary to transform a business model under stress.

The governing board’s fiduciary duty to steward the institution’s financial health requires that boards and leaders consider business model transformations, and plan for a range of scenarios like mergers, affiliations, strategic partnerships, and even—when all other options are exhausted—final transformations such as campus closures when continued mission fulfillment is impossible.

This is part one of a two-part webinar series delivered in partnership between SCUP and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), “Higher Education Business Models Under Stress: Planning for Successful Transitions”. This series will help build your fiduciary understanding of your institution’s business model as you prepare the campus for a range of possible business transformations, from mergers, strategic affiliations, corporate partnerships, or even the ultimate scenario of a campus closure. View the recording for part two, “Graceful Business Model Transitions: Planning and Executing a College or Campus Closure”.

Abstract: The global COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the world of higher education. As institutions look to the future, beyond the end of the pandemic, significant uncertainty exists. There is little question that colleges and universities will have to do a better job at planning, and boards at governing, to flourish in the years ahead. In this article an integrated model centered around three different time horizons, three areas of planning, and three types of governance is presented. The model can serve as a framework to demonstrate how these are all related, self-reinforcing, and usable as an aid for institutional leadership.

Abstract: An effective mission statement can act as an institution’s North Star—providing a distinct, constant direction that a college or university can travel towards. But frequently, college and university mission statements are too broad, too vague, or too outdated to help institutions navigate today’s challenges and opportunities.

This toolkit will help you craft a mission statement that is both inspirational and useful. It will walk you through the steps of evaluating your current mission statement, facilitating the key conversations and decisions that underpin an effective mission statement, and writing a mission statement that serves your institution.

Abstract: Higher ed's apocalypse is entirely avoidable. Reframing four of higher education's greatest challenges—demographics, defaults, disillusionment, disruption—can help you ask the right questions and create learner-centered experiences while fulfilling your institution's mission. This session will show how Innovation Theory can help institutions thrive in learning's new golden age rather than falling under the scythe of the industry's most daunting challenges, the most urgent of which is COVID-19. The theory-based framework we discuss will give you a new lens through which to analyze your challenges and guide your strategic decision making.

Abstract: Strategic planning processes need to be more engaging, relevant, and effective—especially within the disruptive context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results-Based Strategic Design (RBSD) is an alternative approach to strategic planning that combines design-thinking methods with a focus on outcomes. By shifting from 'planning' for an unknown future to 'designing' human experiences, RBSD emphasizes student experience rather than institutional preservation, concrete problem solving, early adoption over prioritizing consensus, and strategy as behavioral change. In this session, you will learn how RBSD can help you supplement, restart, or reframe planning processes at your institution.

Abstract: Core to the mission and vision of Lorain County Community College is the belief that “Every Student's Dream Matters,” that every student, regardless of their background, can succeed. LCCC built its culture of student success upon strategies that include a broad community-based strategic planning process, transparent dialogue about institutional data, an organizational structure that fosters responsiveness, and strategic finance principles that align resources with mission. Come learn how LCCC, as a mission-driven institution, identifies game-changing innovations and aligns resources to bring them to scale.