SCUP
Learning Resources

Decision Making

Blog Post

6 Integrated Planning Strategies and Tips We Learned at SCUP 2023

 Every year at SCUP’s annual conference, over 1,000 of higher education’s leaders and innovators gather to share how they are advancing integrated planning at their college or university. Out of the wealth of tools, strategies, and tips shared at SCUP 2023, which took place earlier this month in Cleveland, here are six that stood out.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

A Call to Action for Student Success Analytics

 Optimizing student success should be Institutional Strategy #1.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Academic Planning in a Political System
Tool

An Integrated Approach to Scenario Planning

 No one can predict the future. That doesn’t mean it needs to be a total surprise. This toolkit will walk you step-by-step through scenario planning with instructions, examples, and worksheets that you can use to start scenario planning at your institution immediately.
Blog Post

Back to The Future

 October 2021 marks Planning for Higher Education’s 50th issue! To celebrate, we’re looking back at earlier articles in Planning to reflect on how things change (and, sometimes, how they don’t). Although not a totally new concept, the need for data-informed decision-making in higher education today requires contemporary knowledge and skill from institutional research (IR) colleagues. They transform data into actionable information nuanced with contextualized insights that are essential in integrated academic planning.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Book Review: Shared Leadership in Higher Education
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Can You Trust Your Eyes?

 Volumes of data are available to administrators to support decision-making. But that doesn’t mean that what’s been presented is accurate. When data are misused or misconstrued, senior leaders at higher education institutions may make the wrong conclusions, ineffective policies may be enacted, and students may not be successful in completing their academic goals.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Consortia

 Consortia, their impact on cooperating institutions, and critical factors in inter-institutional planning were the subject of a recent study for the United States Office of Education. This article, by staff members of one of the the studied consortia, is devoted to a discussion of the process of consortium decision-making.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Decision-Making Challenges in Student Affairs
Conference Presentations

Decisions That Stick: Applying the CBA Matrix to Complex Projects
ebook

Doing Academic Planning

 This reader was developed to provide academic planners with tools to facilitate the transformation of higher education institutions from provider-centered cultures and organizations to leamer-centered franchises.
Webinar Recordings

From Academic Program Decisions to Results

 The decision-making process is only the beginning—how do you build a robust program portfolio in a way that ensures educational quality, financial sustainability, and meets the needs of your students? We will provide real-world examples of ways to effectively build quality online programs and courses that improve student access and retention, including performance metrics and faculty engagement.

This is part three of a three-part program series, “Integrated Planning to Build a Thriving Academic Program Portfolio.”

Webinar Recordings

Instructional Economics

 All program decisions have financial consequences—and some may surprise you. We will share a methodology for analyzing instructional economics and strategies for incorporating this data into the program decision-making process for long-term financial health.

This is part two of a three-part program series, “Integrated Planning to Build a Thriving Academic Program Portfolio.”

Conference Presentations

Integrated Planning for an Innovative and Efficient Design Process

 Designing a forward-thinking research building without identified occupants is a bold undertaking.
Conference Presentations

Problem-Solving Skills
Conference Presentations

Promoting Decarbonization and Wellbeing through a Residence Hall Renovation
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Reduce Curriculum Costs While Increasing Student Enrollment

 Results of the study supplied evidence needed to support tough institutional decisions. The 13 Kentucky colleges and universities that participated in the research now have critically important data to use in making choices about how they best serve their students, maximize scarce resources, and sustain financial stability.
Conference Presentations

Renew, Revise, or Reject: Presidential Turnover and Strategic Planning Impacts

 Since the average presidential tenure is now fewer than six years, campuses need to design and implement circumspect planning which will prove stable even in the event of leadership changes. Using examples from eight institutions across the U.S., this session explores the challenges to campus strategic planning when new leadership arrives.
Webinar Recordings

Strategic Planning That’s Truly Strategic

 What do strategic plans do? What does it mean to be “strategic”? These are among the questions addressed in a recent year-long study of 108 active college and university strategic plans. Hear directly from the researchers as they highlight a few important insights they discovered during their analysis, like how to avoid the many pitfalls of strategic planning and ensure a process focused on strategy and outcomes.
Conference Presentations

Strategic Restructuring: Creating an Office of Strategy, Planning, and Analysis

 Institutions require accurate data to support decision making and planning, so they can and should carefully consider how this data is organized.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

Survival of the Financially Fittest

 Leaders must look closely at financial trends that may reveal signs of trouble—in the short or immediate term—and have the courage to act to address them.
Conference Recordings

The Planning Continuum

 We’ll discuss how Purdue University’s culture of continuous planning leverages data, facility information, and design to engage new stakeholders, implement a campus-wide vision, and fast-track decision making.
Conference Recordings

Using Occupant Evaluation Data to Inform Higher Education Design

 Campus facility design is a complex process that involves many sources of opinion and influence. Educational environments must enhance evolving pedagogies, support learning, administrative, and social functions, and accommodate ever-changing institutional needs.
Conference Presentations

What’s In It For Me? The Benefits of Data Asset Management

 Data is a pillar for organizational mission and for driving results. Planners must not undervalue the importance of data-informed decision-making and its link to institutional wellbeing and sustainability. Montgomery College's (MC) integrated planning incorporated robust community input that culminated into a successfully built plan that supports agility and flexibility.
Planning for Higher Education Journal

When the Labor Market Signals Change . . .

 By aligning employer input, enrollment and student success data, funding considerations, and institutional mission, Coastal Bend Community College developed transparent criteria to guide difficult program sunset decisions.