Shaping the Future: Strategic Planning for Small Colleges and Universities.

Jamie Comstock, Butler University
Rand Ziegler

Republished here with permission of the NCA Higher Learning Commission.

Abstract

This paper addresses the importance of strategic planning as a precursor to assessing organizational performance and outlines a change model that has been used successfully at a small college with limited resources. Grounded in extant executive planning processes, this new model demystifies the strategic planning process and establishes procedures that address the practical and logistical issues associated with facilitating a planning process and ensuring that the plan becomes a document that espouses realistic goals, inspires and motivates members of the campus community, and actually provides direction for departments as they create their work plans and allocate resources.