by Robert A. Scott
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The challenges facing college and university leaders are numerous, including demographics, public sentiment, artificial intelligence, and threatened resources, among others. These challenges require a reconsideration of operations, including the search for new resources, enrollment, fundraising, new and revised or deleted degree programs, and the sale of assets, as well as the reallocation of current resources.
An important step in planning for the future is to learn from the past.
The Roman god Janus had two faces. He could look in two directions at once-forward and backward, to the future and to the past. Janus, whose name comes from the Latin word janua, meaning gate, served as the god of gates and doors, of entrances and exits.
The ability simultaneously to learn from the past and anticipate the future is at the heart of planning. Among Asian philosophers, the ideas of past and future are often paired with looking within and looking without.
This is why a consideration of the past, of heritage and traditions, as well as historical developments, is important in strategic planning. Each campus has a distinctive culture and story as well as core values that must be considered in contemplating the future.
What are the lessons to be learned from past successes and failures or false starts on your campus or on others? This is looking within and without.
The starting point for planning is purpose; the mission of the institution and the goals set for its fulfillment. Next come strategies, alternative courses of action, methods of assessment, resource allocations, rewards, a timeline, and evaluation of results.
By mission, we mean the trustee-proposed, state-approved, and regionally accredited statement of purpose. This legal charter is a guidepost that can be amended but only through a process involving multiple steps. The mission is both a picture and a frame, a description of and a cap on ambition, but not a limit to change when needed.
Colleges and universities have numerous goals because they have multiple stakeholders. Goals are approved by and monitored by the board of trustees.
Strategies must be adaptable and flexible, and consider the internal and external forces at play, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. They should be grounded in data, as well as heritage, and benefit from campus input.
Alternative courses of action are influenced by the local and larger context. Demographic trends, local conditions, and public policies help shape the context that influences potential action. Decisions are made using philosophical, market, and political considerations.
Principles and priorities must be established and employed. A top priority might be to enroll a first-year class of a certain size. Does the institution engage in enrollment by design, the process in which student graduation rates are considered along with the size of the entering class and the yield rate on offers of admission? What is the role of the faculty in such decision-making?
An important principle in strategic planning is assessment. Effective institutions have a regular process and schedule for the periodic review of academic programs and administrative units using historical trends and external comparisons for the alignment of mission, goals, and results.
Resource allocations are critical. Do the allocations support the mission for student success and goals for student graduation? The return on investment needs to be understood. What does it cost to recruit a student, to raise a dollar?
Rewards require resources, too. One of the most prominent rewards offered by colleges to faculty is released time from teaching. How does funding release time support the strategic goals?
A timeline, including milestones, is essential for monitoring progress. The timeline should include a period for reflection and community-wide reviews of goals and progress.
The results desired are that approved goals are achieved and the mission fulfilled.
We should look forward, to be sure, but like Janus, we should look back as well. Looking back not only reveals historic moments of decision, choices, and results, but also heritage. Heritage consists of the values and principles of past decisions, including the founding.
For example, Adelphi University has a mission as the premier liberal arts university in the region with nationally recognized graduate programs. Adelphi’s heritage includes, in addition to the liberal arts and sciences, programs in health care, education, and human services that date to its founding. In the latter part of the 19th century, Adelphi pioneered in physical education, calisthenics, health, and the professional development of women as teachers and school leaders. These became the foundation for future program developments.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the University began the development of nursing programs. After the war, Adelphi developed programs in social work and, in the 1960s, developed graduate programs in clinical psychology. In 1971, the University began offering the Master of Business Administration degree on the Long Island Railroad for the convenience of commuters.
Adelphi also has a heritage of partnering with other universities for program development, such as in audiology. One can chronicle the history of program offerings and see the influence of heritage and the application of principles in developing them to meet societal needs.
In strategic planning, heritage is a touchstone, not an anchor holding back progress. Planning starts with the mission, which is grounded in a heritage of values, beliefs, and traditions that represent identity, legacy, and customs.
If change is constant, then a rigid long-range plan will be outdated quickly. Yet every institution needs a roadmap that sets direction, assists in setting priorities for action and making choices, and expresses a “big” idea, an overarching vision of the goals to be attained, grounded in heritage.
