Blog Post

As integrated planners, our responsibility reaches more than just our departments. And at SCUP, we see our responsibility beyond just our current community, to the higher education community as a whole. Part of our strategic plan, and frankly, the mission of SCUP, is to help promote integrated planning solutions, ideas, and concepts to a wider audience. Using the power of our community, we aim to influence the future of planning at institutions everywhere.

My role, and that of our senior team, is to connect with other higher education organizations to make integrated planning more than a concept; we want to make it the norm. By its nature, integrated planning requires buy-in from all areas and perspectives on campus.

Most recently, we’ve engaged in conversations with several higher ed associations about how we can formulate content that forges together multiple disciplines into the greater integrated planning concepts. While there is work to be done here we cannot underestimate, nor ignore, the critical ties between institutional and student success with the hard work already taking place on campus.

We’re also very active in the conversations at CHEMA (the Council of Higher Education Management Associations) where the senior leadership of 44 associations are sharing experiences, developing collaborative projects and focusing on improving the national dialogue around higher education’s value.

But our work does not stop there. We are helping curate the conversation with accrediting bodies, connecting with leaders of influence, capturing critical voices in the national dialogue around higher education, and helping clear the way for true, meaningful discussions. Ultimately, we want to change the way we all approach planning, with an eye towards more purposeful, more defined, and more sustainable work.