Strategic Planning Guidelines Form
Strategic Planning Guidelines
Policy Number:
OPER_0076
Garden City Community College develops a Strategic Plan that enables it to articulate its strategic goals, inside and outside the College, and to achieve those goals more successfully. The planning horizon is three years, with a new strategic plan being developed in the final year of each three-year cycle. Strategic Plan performance is reviewed on an annual basis.
The strategic planning process is overseen by the Vice President for Instruction and Student Services (VP), who facilitates the process by communicating with administrators. The Strategic Planning Council (SPC) performs the development of the strategic plan. The SPC generates a draft Strategic Plan, presented by the VP for review by the President’s Cabinet to approve or return with suggestions for modification. The President, who may also approve or return with suggestions for modification presents the approved Strategic Plan to the Board of Trustees.
The SPC is also responsible for reviewing plan performance each year. The SPC identifies information and reports needed to evaluate the performance of the plan, which the VP facilitates by assigning reporting requirements. The SPC may also review any of the presumptions on which the plan is based as part of this review. The SPC generates a Plan Performance Re
port including suggestions for mid-cycle revision, presented by the VP for review by the President’s Council to approve or return with suggestions for modification. The Executive Vice President presents the Plan Performance Report to the Budget Committee as an input to the annual budgeting process (see Policy on Operational and Budgetary Planning).
Background and Guidelines
Goals of Strategic Planning
- To provide a reasonable, broadly participatory process leading to the development of a plan for a three-year planning period.
- To review and evaluate factors likely to affect the performance of the College in achieving its mission over the planning period.
- To review and evaluate factors likely to impact the relevance, effectiveness, and attractiveness of the College’s programs over the planning period.
- To conduct an objective review of the effectiveness of prior plans and planning efforts.
- To identify synergies between College activities and the outcome objectives identified by the Kansas Board of Regents.
- To designate specific measurable goals for College performance over the planning period, identify standards for performance measurement, and establish targets for success.
- To outline institution-level initiatives aimed at achieving College goals.
- To recommend processes that will assist the College in implementing the goals and objectives contained in the Strategic Plan, and evaluating whether its work is achieving its goals.
General Planning Guidelines
Garden City Community College operates Strategic Planning with these broader requirements in mind:
- Linking Planning and Budgeting. A budget that considers and reflects the priorities established in the strategic planning process, and a planning process that realistically factors in the availability of resources.
- Responding to Planning Environment. Shared directions and purposes that respond to significant local, regional, national, and global trends and needs are critical to success.
- Enhancing Institutional Mission. Long-range planning tailored to the needs of a heterogeneous array of programs, different in size and development, requiring flexible policies and guidelines for planning at the program level.
- Promoting Collaborative Processes. Broad participation of faculty, staff, students, and administrators that supports a collegial, open, and participatory management style.
Planning Outputs
- The VP is ultimately responsible for the completion of the Strategic Plan according to the timelines described in this policy.
- The final version of the strategic plan is to include sections addressing:
- College Mission
- Prior Performance Summary
- Significant Influences on Projected Performance
- Strategic Goals and Objectives (including measures, assignments, and timelines)
- Institutional Initiatives, which may include endorsement of departmental or divisional initiatives.
- The VP is also responsible for overseeing the development of a Strategic Plan Summary addressing points of interest for student and community stakeholders. The Strategic Plan Summary (and any selected support components the College chooses to make available) is published on the GCCC website.
Changes to Strategic Planning Processes
It is recognized that portions of the strategic planning process may need to be changed periodically for improving the overall planning process. Recommended changes may affect small portions of how committees operate or affect the entire planning process, and may come from the Board of Trustees, committees, or individuals.
It is the responsibility of SPC chairs to keep abreast of the proposed changes, assure that a democratic process is used to make the changes, communicate the proposed changes to affected stakeholders, facilitate the changes through the process for policy change (when necessary), and make sure that all supporting documents such as committee charges and procedures manuals are amended.
Procedures
A. Strategic Planning Timeline
|
Deadline
|
Year of Cycle |
Activity |
Responsibility |
|
Fall Inservice (August)
|
Every |
Kickoff of the planning performance review process, examining performance on strategic objectives for the prior year. Communication to all departments regarding standard reporting responsibilities.
|
Strategic Planning Council |
|
September 15 |
Every |
Identification of any necessary additional reporting from all College departments, specifically identifying department initiatives requiring internal performance review.
|
Strategic Planning Council |
|
October 1 |
Every |
Reports relevant to strategic planning provided to SPC.
|
All Departments |
|
November 1 |
Every |
Interim departmental/division progress reports provided to SPC.
|
All Departments |
|
December 1 |
Every |
Annual Plan Performance Review submitted to President’s Council. |
Vice President for Instruction and Student Services
|
|
January 1 |
Year 1 and Year 2 |
Strategic Plan revision proposal submitted to President’s Council. |
Vice President for Instruction and Student Services
|
|
January 1 |
Year 3 |
Kickoff of periodic strategic planning process. Collection and review of interim year performance reviews, and outcome documents from interim year Operational and budgetary planning process.
|
Strategic Planning Council |
|
January 15 |
Every |
Annual Plan Performance Review (and tentative Plan Revisions) presented to the Budget Committee. |
Vice President for Instruction and Student Services
|
|
February 1 |
Year 3 |
Development of Summary report on prior Strategic Plan performance.
|
Strategic Planning Council
|
|
February 1 – April 1 |
Year 3 |
Conduct of environment scan review, development of goals and objectives, and institutional initiatives.
|
Strategic Planning Council
|
|
February 15 |
Every |
Presentation of Program Review reports conducted in the previous Fall to the SPC. Departmental annual plans due.
|
Division Leaders
|
|
March 1 |
Every |
Recommendation to President based of review of Program Review reports conducted in the previous Fall. Division annual plans are due.
|
Strategic Planning Council
|
|
May 1 |
Year 3 |
Completed draft of Strategic Plan for review. |
Strategic Planning Council
|
|
June 1 |
Every |
Review and approval of the Annual Operational Plan proposed by the Budget Committee.
|
Strategic Planning Council
|
|
June 15 |
Year 3 |
Revision and finalization of Strategic Plan. |
President’s Cabinet
|
|
July 1 |
Year 3 |
Complete Strategic Plan submitted to the Board. |
President
|
|
August 1-15 |
Year 3 |
Approval of the Strategic Plan and final budget. |
Board of Trustees
|
|
August 15 – 30 |
Year 3 |
Operational planning for implementation of strategic plan (assignment of responsibilities, adjustment of budgets, other required activities) prior to new fiscal year. |
President’s Cabinet
|
|
September 1 |
Year 1 |
New Strategic Plan implementation. |
All Departments/Programs
|
B. Strategic Planning Council Membership
- The Vice President for Instruction and Student Services and the Dean of Academics are the council’s co-chairs.
- Other members of the SPC are drawn from all levels of employees from all areas and
departments, with the goal of incorporating a broad array of expertise and viewpoints.
Members consist of:
- 4 faculty (2 general education and 2 technical education)
- Classified staff- (1 from Student Services and 1 from Administrative Services)
- Student representative from SGA
- Professional staff
- Faculty Senate selects the faculty representatives annually. Student Services directors and Administrative Services directors select the staff. Student Government Association will select the student representative through the student executive council. Since the SPC has ongoing responsibilities for tracking implementation of the plan, evaluating its effectiveness, and recommending adjustments, the President may make additions or changes in the Committee membership at any time.
Strategic Planning Council Communications
This committee meets monthly to review the college planning process. The committee reviews the goals, which have been set by the college, and hears reports from various departments on the status of current goals as needed (in addition to scheduled reports). The committee also works to enhance the effectiveness of the strategic planning process and informs the campus through departmental meetings, email and all-employee meetings.
Plan Review
The Planning Review process begins in August of each year, when programs and departments begin the implementation of action steps toward accomplishing the defined goals. Planning review includes examination of:
- Institutional progress on core performance indicator benchmarks
- Progress reports from any internal and external review teams
- Program Review reports
- Assessment Committee reports
- Internal evaluation reports for any department-level or divisional-level initiatives.
Every year the SPC creates a Plan Performance Review report, which is used by the President’s Council to inform management of the institution, and by the Budget Committee to inform the Operational and Budgetary Planning process.
Strategic Planning Process Inputs
The first stage of strategic planning is an initial assessment about the challenges and opportunities that the plan should address, and a determination of the format for annual planning. The SPC considers a wide variety of information and after consultation with the President's Cabinet and Board of Trustees, discusses and recommends what it believes the scope of the next Strategic Plan should be. The Committee’s inputs include:
Environmental Scan
A fundamental element of the planning process is an environmental scan or SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis that identifies the internal and external constraints and challenges within which strategic planning must proceed.
The SPC determines:
- how and by whom this analysis shall be performed;
- whether it should include surveys or focus groups of stakeholders (e.g., Faculty, Administrators, Staff, Students, Alumni, Board of Trustees Members, Internal subject matter expert analysis);
- what specific topics the analysis must address;
- whether experts or outside perspectives need to be included;
- what institutional data (enrollment, retention, completion, finances) should be considered; and
- The date that the completed analysis shall be available, so that the planning process can proceed using the information the analysis provides.
Input from Executive Vice President (CFO)
Although the annual budgeting process begins formally in April, the CFO must provide the SPC with a realistic estimate of the resources (money, people, space, equipment) that the College is likely to have available in the immediate and more distant future. The certainty of these estimates should influence the planning horizon that the SPC suggests. The CFO may provide a range of estimates (both optimistic and pessimistic), but the SPC should avoid developing ambitious strategic goals and objectives for which the possibility of funding is improbable — unless the plans also identify how and from where new resources can be obtained.
The Executive Vice President also provides the SPC will all information collected in the Operational and Budgetary Planning Process during the planning cycle, including Department Plans and Division Plans for the prior 3 years. The Executive Vice President will provide access to documentation from the current years cycle (running concurrently to the Strategic Planning Process) as requested by the SPC.
Assessment Data
In early fall each year, the student learning assessment team begins to aggregate and analyze the prior year’s assessment data. It presents its report along with any recommendations that will influence budgeting to SPC at its first meeting. SPC may request additional information to be reported later. SPC makes its final decision to include findings and recommendations in its budget recommendations at its April meeting.
Program/Department Review Reports
Program and department reviews are conducted on a rotating, four-year schedule. Program/department reviews are conducted during the fall each year. The PDRC receives the completed reviews and determines if each review has addressed all of the required components, and if the findings and recommendations are justified. Each program/department then prepares and presents a summary report to the SPC at its next scheduled February meeting. The SPC reports its evaluation of findings and priorities to President prior to the Board of Trustees April meeting.
Strategic Plan Development
The second stage of the strategic planning process is the development of a set of strategic goals and initiatives for the new plan. The SPC may use open meetings, surveys, or meetings with specific groups (e.g., College departments or programs) as input for these considerations. However, the process begins with input on the overall direction of the College from the Board of Trustees.
1. Board Review of Mission and Vision Statements
The Board of Trustees reviews and, if necessary, revises the College’s current mission statement. The Board of Trustees may propose tentative strategic goals. This work is facilitated at a Board of Trustees meeting or retreat.
SPC Identification of Strategic Goals
After input from the Board of Trustees on revised mission and strategic goals, the SPC meets to determine which strategic goals it believes should be included in the College’s next Strategic Plan. When it has identified a reasonable set of strategic goals, it shares them with the President's Cabinet and the Board of Trustees, receiving their reaction and advice, before proceeding to the next phase.
SPC Identification of Strategic Objectives
The VP facilitates SPC’s work to develop Strategic Objectives that describe short-term or operational activities that will help the College achieve its Strategic Goals. The SPC has the option of developing these objectives during regularly scheduled meetings or at a special retreat. It may split up into subcommittees to flesh out the objectives for each broad strategic goal, and add members to each subcommittee to achieve this. Subcommittees may meet with groups from departments or academic programs that have ideas for strategic objectives. Each strategic objective must identify (a) the individual or group accountable for ensuring the College achieves the objective; (b) the measures that will be used to track progress toward achieving the goal; and (c) the timeline that will target and track achievement of the objective. All goals will be aligned to the five HLC criteria for linkage to the accreditation process overall.
The completed set of strategic goals and strategic objectives are presented to the Board of Trustees no later than their August meeting for their acceptance. After review by the Board of Trustees, the new goals and objectives are inserted into operational planning templates and become a part of the annual budgeting process.
Strategic Plan Implementation
The third and final stage of the strategic planning process is the development of operational plans that translate the broad strategic goals and objectives to specific activities to be engaged in by individual departments. From July to September in the third year of the cycle, based on the completed Strategic Plan, the SPC assigns the specific tasks and responsibilities necessary to implement the desired initiatives.
These directives are provided using the same Planning Template (Appendix A) used in the Operational and Budgetary Planning Process, which enables departments to clearly track and report their progress Appendix A: Operational Planning Template
Definitions
- The mission tells who we are and what we do.
- Operational Plan. The operational plan describes the activities that each department engages in to meet the strategic objectives.
- Strategic Goals. The strategic goals broadly explain what we must do to move from the mission toward the vision.
- Strategic Objectives. The strategic objectives break the strategic goals into short-term activities whose outcomes can be measured.
- Strategic Plan. The plan that results from the Strategic Planning process, a statement of the College’s strategic goals and the Strategic Objectives that will help achieve them.
- Strategic Planning. The process defined in this policy those results in a Strategic Plan.
- The vision is future oriented, telling who we want to become and what we will do in the future.
Policy History:
July 2, 2026: Revised for accessibility and to include policy number