Strategic Planning - June 2011
Planning is one of Mesa's strengths and the 2010-11 academic year saw the culmination of our college-wide integrated planning efforts led by the Strategic Planning Committee. The committee's recommendations have been reviewed by the President's Cabinet and by the individual participatory governance groups. Comments and suggestions were incorporated into the plan.
The resulting product is an integrated, aligned planning structure that links overall institutional planning with planning at the program level. Program reviews are clearly linked to resource allocation and institutional planning. Data on institutional effectiveness informs the process. An annual review of the effectiveness of the college's planning efforts will occur each spring and will inform the next year's goals, objectives and annual priorities. The Strategic Planning Committee's work has been summarized in the new Institutional Planning Manual (access online at right). The manual describes the current status of planning, recognizing that there is still work to be done to define some of the individual processes. This work will be continued in 2011-12 by the newly-formed Planning and Institutional Effectiveness Committee.
The new Planning and Institutional Effectiveness Committee is one of two participatory governance committees charged with planning that report directly to President's Cabinet, the other being Program Review. The Planning and Institutional Effectiveness Committee is designed to advance the overall planning work for the College, whereas the Program Review Committee advances planning at the unit level - program or service area. These two committees work in tandem as illustrated on the Integrated Planning Process diagram (approved by President's Cabinet, March 1, 2011). The recommendations of each committee are submitted independently to the President's Cabinet for review and adoption.
Following the sustainable continuous quality improvement model, the Planning and Institutional Effectiveness Committee is also responsible for assuring that the College's planning framework is consistent with accreditation standards; for guiding the annual assessment of progress on stated goals, objectives and priorities and recommending changes as indicated; and for assuring the integration of planning across the campus. Parallel to the work on the Integrated Planning Model, the Program Review Committee has also been at work to simplify and streamline the Program Review process. Key features include an annual process and a Goals Matrix that links resource allocation requests to program goals.
As noted above, the Program Review Committee and the Planning and Institutional Effectiveness Committee are co-equal committees, each charged with a different aspect of the college's planning. The new planning model integrates the research function into both committees: Planning and Institutional Effectiveness and Program Review.
