Learning Resources

Abstract: This article presents a range of approaches for linking budgeting to planning. After briefly discussing the natures of planning and budgeting, it presents four conceptual categories of ways to link the two. The article defines these as structural, adaptive-incremental, devolved, and holistic/advanced. No one approach will be correct for all institutions. Even where there is a system in place to link planning and budgeting, this is unlikely to be enough unless there is firm, skilled, aligned, and distributed leadership to keep the system on track toward institutional goals.

Abstract: In times of rapid economic and technological change, how can schools continue to provide relevant educations? At leading universities in Mexico and Singapore, bold shifts in pedagogy and planning are reimagining the very core of the college experience. Their approach is simple but revolutionary—emphasize learning techniques more than industry-specific knowledge; celebrate spaces and curricula that bring people together to accomplish shared goals; and cultivate opportunities for students to positively impact their community. Through inventing the 21st-century campus, these universities are creating students who are curious, well-rounded, and ready for tomorrow—where the only certainty is change.

Abstract: Much like routine dental exams, accreditation reviews can create anxiety and generate short-term institutional activity that simulates long-term healthy habits. Authentic, ongoing planning and assessment aligned with accreditation standards reduces anxiety and produces successful results through holistic, efficient, and sustainable efforts. This session shares how one institution efficiently integrated and aligned planning and assessment activities with accreditation standards and cycles. We'll discuss how you can adapt a similar process at your institution so your institution can avoid redundant activities while achieving optimal institutional wellbeing.

Abstract: Student success analytics promise to dramatically improve our capacity to increase student success across the entire spectrum of the student life cycle and throughout the student experience. Institutions will move beyond institutional accountability statistics to improve performance at the level of student success processes, practices, and interventions. Ultimately, these new processes, practices, and interventions promise to enable institutions to reinvent and personalize approaches to success.
By leveraging analytics and data science, leading-edge institutions “optimize” student success for individuals and cohorts by making student success a mission-critical, overarching institutional strategy. “Student success science” is a critical ingredient in reimagining higher education. This article provides a road map for institutional leaders on how to raise their analytics IQ so that they can leverage these practices to better serve their students, improve performance, and demonstrate value.
The use of analytics is potentially a key ingredient in sense making and decision making in all aspects of institutional performance and is critical in improving student success. Enlightened higher education leaders are committing to analytics and data science that deliver active interventions that improve student success.

Abstract: The Glendale Community College integrated strategic planning model represents a significant paradigm shift at the institution. Rather than focus exclusively on the production of a strategic plan, the college now seeks to vertically integrate planning at the departmental, divisional, and college levels and horizontally integrate planning with resource allocation and assessment across the organization. This disruptive innovation allows the college to remain true to its mission and ensures the allocation of resources to strategic priorities linked to student success.

Abstract: A reprint of the 1976 article with a new 2015 introduction by the author.

Original abstract: Drawing on his experience as Provost for Planning at West Virginia University, Raymond M. Haas deals in the following article with the importance of a proper charge to the Planning Office as a means of achieving integrated planning. He further proposes that the role of the Planning Office should be clearly coordinative in the nature--to the point where its only responsibility for actual planning should be in planning the planning process. Finally, he argues that "... integrated planning can be achieved only when planning is a regularly scheduled activity which occurs frequently, and which produces results that manifest themselves in the allocation, reallocation, and effective use of resources within the institution." The author's remarks have been adapted from his presentation at the Society's 11th Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

Abstract: Postsecondary institutions are increasingly becoming more diverse. To ensure that the campus culture is appreciative of such diversity, many institutions are including language in their policies and implementing programs that demonstrate their commitment to diversity. One such means for communicating institutional commitment to diversity is through the strategic plan. As the basis for establishing institutional priorities and determining which initiatives get funded, the strategic plan can reflect the institution’s true commitment to diversity by purposefully incorporating plans for diversity throughout the document. This research sought to understand what was already being done in regard to diversity and strategic planning at both the system and individual institution level so that information can be relayed about what works and has the greatest impact and therefore should be considered when developing a strategic plan that pays attention to and appreciates diversity. Findings suggest that although institutions are including diversity initiatives in their strategic plans, there needs to be greater attention paid to diversity within the strategic plan.

Abstract: Many institutions of higher education develop assessment systems to demonstrate evidence of value added and to meet accreditation requirements. The sustainability of such assessment systems is usually defendant on creating a culture of assessment, which entails establishing shared values and principles and implementing practices designed to meet organizational goals. A survey of 119 assessment professionals revealed both the challenges and facilitating factors in creating and sustaining a culture of assessment. This article presents the survey results organized by an institution’s stage of development in establishing a culture of assessment: beginning, progress, or maturation. The article also provides specific examples to help institutions move along the continuum or improve their current practices and concludes with a discussion of policy implications

Abstract: The Balanced Scorecard is a planning model used extensively in business to provide direction and accountability to an organization. Despite the demonstrated success of the model, it has not been widely used in higher education. This article compares and contrasts the use of the Balanced Scorecard by two small, private colleges. The article includes examples of how the model was implemented, how it is used for cyclical improvement, and how it can be used to improve communication concerning institutional planning.