Ou r P roc ess
In March, 2012, Dr. Vicki P. Hawsey, President of Wallace State Community College, launched the development of a new five-year plan with the establishment of a Strategic Planning Task Force, comprised of approximately forty representatives of various campus and community constituencies.
The Task Force met off campus at a two-day planning retreat on March 15, 2012. The retreat began with background briefings from the College Dean, the Executive Vice President, the Dean of Financial Affairs and the President. A facilitator, a planning and effectiveness consultant from a neighboring state, guided the group through a number of collaborative exercises and work sessions. The retreat culminated in the production of a written compendium of views on the future direction of the college.
This five-year strategic plan is based on the work of the Task Force before, during, and following the March retreat.
PRIORITIES AND
READY
FOR COLLEGE
GOALS
Strateg ic Priority 1
To strengthen portals of entry, including recruiting, outreach, and marketing, and points of entry, such as physical and electronic contacts, through innovative and effective methods and practices
The terms “portals of entry” and “points of entry” represent two dimensions of the same challenge, how to best reduce barriers of access to the college’s programs and services. Increasingly, prospective students and other stakeholders reach out to a community college through the Internet and all its modalities, including search engines, social media, and other communication mediums. But the first actual points of entry are also critically important, a guiding principle that requires superior and market-tested levels of customer service and entry efficiencies.
Goal 1: To develop enrollment management strategies that maximize growth and that advance the institutional mission
Goal 2: To develop infrastructure and technologies that optimally position the college in a dynamic global marketplace
Goal 3: To implement at all points of contact a superior and market-tested model of customer service marked by quality, efficiency, consistency, adaptability, and effectiveness
egic Strat 2 ty Priori
To enhance student success through multi-dimensional programs and intentionality of services that improve preparedness, build self-esteem, and remove barriers to academic and personal success In an educational milieu of increasing numbers of underprepared students, the college must develop holistic strategies for developmental education that engage diverse learners across multiple fulcrums of opportunity before, during, and after entry. However, it is a core institutional value that all learners can benefit from access to wide-ranging support services that promote open personal and professional inquiry in an environment characterized by academic freedom, acceptance, and safety. Goal 1: To maximize the success of developmental students through holistic strategies characterized by innovation, effectiveness, and best practices
Goal 2: To develop a comprehensive network of support that empowers learners and reduces barriers to student success
READY FOR WORK
gic 3
Strate To enhance workplace preparedness through programs and services that broaden vocational engagement, that improve in vital, innovative rity io r P ways the institutional response to the present and future needs of business and industry, that represent synergistic partnerships that promote the college’s mission and vision, and that produce graduates with the adaptive skills and training needed to succeed in the millennial workplace environment
It is a critical part of the college’s mission to offer programs and services that effectively respond to both the present needs of business and industry and the dynamics of rapid economic change. To this end, the college must be positioned to understand the needs of regional employers and to come to terms with the engines of change, including trends and innovations that shape the marketplace. Goal 1: To systemically strengthen and enhance institutional awareness of the present and future economic landscape Goal 2: To develop synergistic partnerships that advance the mission of the college
READY FOR
LIFE
To develop multiple strategies of resource acquisition to support a culture of learning
Strat e Prior gic ity 4
In recognition of the precarious nature of funding and the college’s interest in reducing the financial barriers to entry, the institution will need to aggressively pursue multiple revenue sources and strive always to recognize opportunities to utilize economies of scale and other measures of good fiscal stewardship and effectiveness.
Strategic Priority 5
To hold as a foundational principle that the dynamics of change will be grounded in a culture of evidence marked by integrity, accountability, and a belief in a continuous cycle of institutional effectiveness
It will be a critical underpinning of the college’s strategic initiatives for the next five years to have in place a framework for data-based decision-making. The college will continue to be an innovator and a beacon of opportunity for diverse learners, but its strategies will be contextualized by meaningful data both to provide context for analysis and to serve as a crucible for determining effectiveness. Goal 1: To develop and maintain baseline institutional data utilizing the sixteen core indicators of effectiveness recommended by the American Association of Community Colleges and other established measures of performance
Goal 2: To utilize institutional data through environmental scanning and other methodologies to promote a personal and institutional culture of integrity and inquiry To establish transformational learning opportunities within, across, and beyond the college’s curriculum that prepare participants to lead successful and fulfilling lives without boundaries
Goal 1: To develop and implement cross-disciplinary communities of learners that enhance engagement among all campus constituencies
Goal 2: To offer online and web-enhanced courses that utilize multi-dimensional sources and constructs that challenge the limits of learning
Goal 3: To challenge the college’s community of learners to think critically and transformationally about themselves and their place in the post-modern economic, social, and cultural milieu
Goal 1: To maximize current revenue sources through proactive communication and management strategies
Goal 2: To aggressively pursue new revenue opportunities to support present and future programs and services
S
trategic The college will embrace the challenges inherent in a changing educational landscape and be an agent of positive change in aggressively seeking ways to Priority 6 enhance the learning partnership for a broad community of participants. The development of credit and non-credit courses and programs will be based upon an institutional belief that learning has no borders, that curricular and co-curricular offerings are grounded in the dynamics of change and effectiveness.
READY
FOR COLLEGE
READY FOR WORK READY FOR
LIFE