Strategic by Design: Iterative Approaches to Educational Planning

Oh, no! You won't be getting a printed SCUP–45 Preliminary Program in the mail this year. Instead, SCUP is going green and regularly updating this digital version (PDF), which you can download at any time.

Check it out! You don't want to miss higher education's premier planning conference, and your one chance this year to assemble with nearly 1,500 of your peers and colleagues: July 10–14, Minneapolis.

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SCUP Link

In the push for accountability, colleges and universities resort to simplistic, linear thinking when planning—an approach not well-suited to academia. In this well-regarded recent article from SCUP's Planning for Higher Education, Shannon Chance shares her view that:

[I]t is not enough for institutions to simply shed mechanistic and deterministic traditions—the greatest rewards will accrue to institutions that are conscientiously, and consistently, proactive.

Helpful precedents for non-linear planning already exist on university campuses that offer studio-based curricula. Planning strategies employed in architecture and other design programs incorporate non-linear, iterative, synthesizing processes. The studio format itself requires high-order thinking in even the earliest classes; as such, studio-based curricula can serve as models for preparing educational planners to develop and implement responsive, well-synthesized plans. Universities can—and should—learn from the design studio example. Doing so can improve their strategic planning processes and foster critical thinking and adaptive learning among students, faculty, and administrators in all fields.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA - "Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats"
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA - "Smart Planning in an Era of Uncertainty"
• April 7, Houston, TX - "Sustaining Higher Education in an Age of Challenge"

'Design Thinking' and Higher Education

Do you "bristle" at the thought of running a university more like a private sector business? Steven Bell proposes that instead you consider "design thinking."

Design thinking is no panacea for all that ails higher education. Resolving challenges such as low retention and graduations rates, escalating textbook costs, an over-dependence on adjunct faculty, lean budgets, for-profit competitors and myriad other problems will take more than a business as usual approach. However, higher education is not a business, and faculty and students will always respond caustically if they believe corporate solutions are being foisted on them by an unsympathetic administration.

This is where design thinking can make a difference. It's more than a short-term strategy for boosting profits. It's a roadmap for future-proofing one of society's most valued resources. And since it involves no acquisition of or investment in sophisticated new technology, only a desire to try a new way of identifying and tackling institutional challenges, it's right for the times. Those who want to engage with these ideas can begin with the Deep Dive video mentioned above or choose from a host of blogs written by experts in design thinking and user experience.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

Book Review: A Guide to Planning for Change

From the January–February–March 2009 issue of Planning for Higher Education, this "SCUP Links Blog" post provides an opportunity for you to share comments or additional resources/links about the review by Sandra L. Kortesoja of the book, A Guide to Planning for Change. You can read the entire article here [LINK TO COME], in Planning for Higher Education.

Ask Good Questions by Starting with Key Decisions

The "blurb" on this article reads, "The most effective data-collection efforts build on a clear understanding of the decisions the data should inform." Sure. Deborah Keyek-Franssen and Charlotte Briggs write about this with regard to technology needs assessment, but their lessons learned are useful for all campus responsibilities:

Conducting a campus-wide needs assessment is a lot of work. Starting with clear goals and a good plan vastly increases the probability that the assessment will go smoothly and yield genuinely useful information. Although front-loading your team’s time and energy into the initial planning phase might feel overly bureaucratic or academic, it pays off later when you can return to your overarching decision question and tacit principles as touchstones in moments of disagreement or doubt. Every institution is different—there would be little impetus for needs assessments otherwise—so it’s important to align your plan with your institution’s mission and strategic plan. You also need to be realistic about how technology is viewed in relation to the institution’s identity and aspirations. Planning a needs assessment for an institution that can’t afford to innovate is very different from planning an assessment for an institution that showcases its technology as a prime indicator of its competitiveness.