Statement on Adherence to the College Planning Cycle
STATEMENT ON ADHERENCE TO THE COLLEGE PLANNING CYCLE
adopted by the College Planning Council, September 22, 2008
[1] The College Planning Council is chiefly responsible for the maintenance by the college of an on-going, systematic cycle of evaluation, integrated planning, resource allocation, implementation and re-evaluation based in deep analysis of District and institutional research data and assuring broad involvement and participation in the institutional planning cycle.
[2] The College Planning Council is chiefly responsible for the maintenance by the college of its adherence to sustainable continuous quality improvement in terms of the four criteria specified for this level of institutional commitment by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges in its “Rubric for Evaluating Institutional Effectiveness – Part II: Planning”:
- The institution uses ongoing and systematic evaluation and planning to refine its key processes and improve student learning.
- There is dialogue about institutional effectiveness that is ongoing, robust and pervasive; data and analyses are widely distributed and used throughout the institution.
- There is ongoing review and adaptation of evaluation and planning processes.
- There is consistent and continuous commitment to improving student learning, and educational effectiveness is a demonstrable priority in all planning structures and processes.
[3] A principal focus of College Planning Council meetings is monitoring the fulfillment by CPC standing committees of their responsibilities in the planning cycle as specified in the College Participatory Governance Document and in the College Planning Policy and Procedure Manual, particularly in terms of [a] conformance with the consolidated schedule of planning-related timelines provided in the Manual; [b] transparent, continuous linkage of budget decisions with planning priorities based on authorized assessment measures and by District or College Research Office data; [c] the broadest possible involvement in and awareness of planning decisions through informed dialogue among all college constituencies; [d] critical evaluation of cyclical performance.
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[4] The approach to current planning cycles is based on evaluation of past cycles, in which unit plans were adopted, along with cluster decisions periodically derived from those plans in distinct areas such as future staffing and facilities priorities as well as college decisions derived in turn from cluster decisions in those areas. But it was not clear from unit or cluster plans how over-all budget decisions resulted from them since plans were not comprehensive across the whole range of current and intended unit and cluster activities, making if difficult to consider individual priorities in the general context of competing priorities. The college periodically updated its strategic plan, specifying the college goals that fulfill its mission, but cluster plans did not clarify the extent to which college goals were served by the priorities linked to them, and no college plan generated from the cluster plans was evident incorporating those college goals into comprehensive priorities for all activities. The purpose of this Statement is to formalize the steps taken by the College Planning Council in addressing these concerns.
[5] The central item in each CPC agenda is review of the college plan and of the cluster plans which it incorporates, with CPC decisions, wherever feasible, made in the context of implementing or altering planning priorities. Cluster and unit agendas are similarly structured, with decisions at the cluster and unit level, wherever feasible, made in the context of their respective plans. This fulfills the 2006 Self Study recommendations to “give College Planning Council meetings the planning focus they need by completing cluster plans sufficiently functional to enable CPC to reach its decisions within the framework of the college plan and through the ongoing review of that plan.” Implementing the 2006 Self Study recommendation to “enable the College Budget Committee to perform more fiscal analysis and evaluation functions,” reports of the College Budget Committee and Research Office provide perspective on long-term trends. As provided in the Planning Manual, plans indicate both current and intended priorities sufficiently to enable funding reductions when strategically necessary and funding increases when strategically possible, addressing the 2006 Self Study recommendation for plans “from which all educational, personnel, and facilities priorities can be directly derived.”