COLLEGE
OF
THE DESERT
Planning and
Institutional Effectiveness (PIE)
Handbook
April 2011
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College of the Desert
PIE Handbook
Table of Contents
I. INTRODUCTION 5
II. THE PLANNING PROCESS 7
III. COLLEGE STRATEGIC PLAN 17
IV. Academic Calendar 22
V. Appendix A - PLANNING ASSUMPTIONS 23
VI. Appendix B – PLANNING DEFINITIONS 25
VII. Appendix C – ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES 30
VIII. Appendix D - Key Performance Indicators, Benchmarks 40
IX. Appendix E – STRATEGIC PLANNING FORM (Goals, Objectives, Action Plans, Assessment) 41
X. Appendix F –PROGRAM REVIEW ANNUAL UPDATE 44
Academic Program Review Update Worksheet 45
Academic Program Review Update Form - <Program Name> 46
Academic Program Review Update – SAMPLE 50
Student Affairs Program Review Update Worksheet 54
Student Affairs Program Review Update Form 55
Support Services Program Review Annual Update Form 61
XI. Appendix G – ANNUAL PLAN PROGRESS REPORT FORM 62
XII. Appendix H – 5-yr Program Review - Academic 64
XIII. Appendix I – 5-Year Program Review – Student Affairs 82
XIV. APPENDIX J – 5-Year Program Review – Support Services 100
XV. Appendix K – PROGRAM REVIEW SCHEDULES 107
xvi. APPENDIX L – SUMMARY - INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS PROCESS 110
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I. INTRODUCTION
Planning is generally defined as a set of actions and decisions made which lead to the development of strategies and the implementation of activities to help the college accomplish its adopted mission. Planning provides a venue to allocate resources, adapt to changes in the environment, and coordinate activities leading to fulfilling the vision, mission and goals.
The institutional effectiveness standard for accreditation requires a planning process that uses the results of evaluations in the planning of activities designed to accomplish the college mission.
The annual process utilizes the college’s core functional planning documents – the Educational Master Plan, the Resources (Finance, Human Resources and Technology Plans) & Facilities Master Plan, College-wide goals, objectives, and success factors (aka benchmarks, key performance Indicators (Appendix B)).
The specific purposes of an annual plan are:
ü To establish a relationship between the long-range strategic plan and the chosen annual goals and strategies of the college
ü To provide a linkage between the strategic plan, unit planning and budgeting
ü To provide a basis for assessment of institutional progress in a fiscal year
ü To establish and maintain an effective institution
ü To guide the work of the institution
Background
The college’s strategic planning process builds upon the 2003 Education and Facilities Master Plans created by an outside consultant. During 2004 and 2005, several interim processes were developed that guided the college toward master planning. In 2006, a Strategic Educational Master Plan Process Committee (SEMPPC) began developing a process to create a current strategic master plan. In 2007, SEMPPC became the Planning Council charged with creating a current strategic plan. The Planning Council is a collegial consultation committee comprised of all employee groups, Academic Senate and Leadership. A consultant was engaged to assist the college in completing and implementing a new strategic education master plan, and a draft was complete by the end of the spring semester 2008. By the end of the fall semester, FY08-09, the draft plan had been finalized into Version 2.
In preparing for FY08-09, the Planning Council developed a priority process for allocating funds based upon the new vision and mission statements, goals, objectives and outcomes assessment. On January 1, 2009, the College Council merged with the Planning Council into one senior planning and decision-making council, College Planning Council (CPC).
For FY09-10, the College Planning Council revised the templates for Unit Plans that establish goals, strategies, action plans, and outcomes using program reviews for both academic and support services.
Institutional Effectiveness
Institutional Effectiveness is defined as the extent to which an institution achieves its mission and goals. The College’s institutional effectiveness process is an on-going, college-wide process of planning and outcomes assessment for the purpose of documenting that the college is achieving its mission and goals and continuously improving its programs and services. At the unit level, the process includes 1) developing a unit purpose or mission statement and annual objectives/action plans and/or student learning outcomes to support the college’s mission and goals, 2) developing procedures/assessment methods and criteria for measuring the success of the unit’s objectives/action plans/learning outcomes and 3) documenting the results to show that the unit is continuously improving its programs and/or services. The process is a continuous planning-implementing-improving cycle that is applied at every level of the college.
College of the Desert takes seriously its commitment to student success, achievement and quality in every aspect of the institution. COD assesses its effectiveness for accountability purposes to the public, the state legislature and various accrediting agencies. The Accrediting Commission of Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) requires that colleges have an on-going, institution-wide planning and evaluation process that results in continuing improvement and demonstrates the college is effectively accomplishing its mission. COD’s institutional effectiveness process is designed to capture, organize and report evidence that complies with this requirement.
Assessing institutional effectiveness is a cyclical process. An illustration of this cycle is shown in Figure 2, page 10. However, the events are more dynamic than can be portrayed with boxes and circles and do not always occur in as orderly a fashion as depicted. It is recognized that planning and assessment take place in countless encounters, discussions, and meetings during the ordinary workday and throughout the year. Using information to make decisions is continuous. Nevertheless, a formal cycle is required primarily to capture, organize, synthesize, and document the results of these on-going exchanges.
II. THE PLANNING PROCESS
Planning is the process by which the college accomplishes its mission. The institutional mission provides the impetus for achieving student learning and other goals that the institution endeavors to accomplish. Planning occurs and benefits everyone at all levels within the college, from the smallest unit to the college as a whole. Through the planning process, units examine where they are now, think about where they want to be or how they can be improved, and then create a plan for how to get from where they are to where they want to be. College of the Desert uses a “bottom-up” approach to planning organized around four levels of planning. The first level is the program. Programs can be disciplines within a division, such as Accounting in the Applied Sciences and Business Division, or they can be offices or programs within a unit, such as the Financial Aid Office within Admissions and Registration unit, or Maintenance and Operations within the Facilities unit.
The next level of planning is the unit – examples are instructional divisions, Admissions & Records or Information Systems. Generally, several programs will make up a unit, especially in the case of divisions such as Social Sciences or Communication, each of which contain several programs; however, it is possible that a unit may consist of only one program, especially in the areas outside Academic Affairs. For example, the Public Information Office contains only public information. Such exceptions aside, the plans developed at the unit level are based upon the plans developed by the programs that make up the unit.
The third level of planning is the area, of which the college has four: Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Business Affairs (now contains Human Resources), and the President’s Office. The plans developed at the area level are based upon, build upon and include the plans of the units that make up that area.
The fourth and largest planning area is the entire college. The college level plan is developed by the College Planning Council and its task forces. It uses the program/unit/area level plans to develop the overall goals of the college. Figure 1 (see next page) displays how the college is organized into programs, units, and areas.
Planning IE Process (Rev: 12/08, 6/09, 8/12/09, 8/25/09, 9/4/09, 9/10/09, 9/14/09, 9/22/09, 10/26/09, 10/29/09, 01/05/2010, 01/07/2010, 2/17/2010, 2/26/2010, 3/02/2010, 4/01/2010, 5/19/2010, 09/29/2010, 09/30/2010, 10/22/2010, 11/18/2010, 11/19/2010, 11/23/2010, 04/18/2011)
Page 1 of 113
President (Area)UNIT / PROGRAMS
President Office / Executive Assistant, Board of Trustees Admin Assistant
Information Technology & Institutional Research / Help Desk, Datatel, The Learning Center, Voice Services, Educational Technologies, Faculty Services, Campus Email, Research, Planning
Institutional Effectiveness & Public Information Office / Institutional Effectiveness, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, Publications
Figure 1 - College of the Desert Planning Chart
Academic Affairs (Area)UNIT / PROGRAMS
VP Office
Business, Technical and Workforce Education / Administration of Justice, Agriculture, Air Cond/HVAC, Architecture / Environmental Design, Architectural Technology, Building Inspection, Construction Management, Automotive, Business & Hospitality, Culinary Arts, Digital Design, Drafting / CAD, Work Experience, Tech Prep, PaCE, BTWE Div. Office
Liberal Arts & Sciences / Speech, Mass Communication, Literature, Journalism, Foreign Languages, English as Second Language, Adult Basic Education & Non-Credit ESL, Comm. Office
Math, Chemistry, Geology, Physics, Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences, MASC Office
Art, Liberal Arts, Anthropology, Geography, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Social Science, Sociology, Theatre Arts, Dance, Music, SSAR Office
Nursing, ECE,
Physical Education & Athletics / Home Health Aide, Nursing Assistant, Emergency Medical Technician, Registered Nursing, Vocational Nursing, Early Childhood Education, HS ECE Div. Office
Physical Education, Recreation, Athletics, P.E./Athl. Div. Office
Library, Distance Learning & Off-Campus Programs / Library, EVC, MTC, etc.
Student Affairs (Area)
UNIT / PROGRAMS
VP Office
Enrollment Services / Admission & Records, Financial Aid, Veterans Services, CAL Works, Enrollment Dept. Office
Support Programs and Services / Academic Skills Center, Counseling Center, Career Center, EOPS/CARE, International Education, Student Activities, Transfer Center, TRIO, ACES, Upward Bound, Tutoring Center
Student Health and Disability Services / DSPS, Student Health Center, Student Psych Services, SHDS Dep. Office
Business Affairs (Area)
UNIT / PROGRAMS
VP Office
Business Services / Purchasing, Printing, Inventory,
Facilities / Custodial, Grounds, Construction & Design, Maintenance
Fiscal Services / Accounting, Budget, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Contracts, Payroll, Insurance
Auxiliary Services / Bookstore, Food Service, Desert Golf Range
Human Resources / Recruiting, Staff Development, Personnel Records,
Security / Emergency Preparedness
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Not only does planning focus the activities of the program/unit/area to achieve its goals, it also lets all other units of the college, especially those in the same area, know about the goals on which each program, unit or area intends to work. Thus planning improves the efficiency with which the college functions and avoids conflicting goals among college offices. It also helps individuals make better-informed decisions about allocation of resources and the future of the college. Lastly, planning helps the college meet accountability mandates set by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). In its simplest form, planning consists of three phases: 1) develop a plan, 2) implement the plan and 3) evaluate the results of the plan implementation in preparation of the next plan.
Planning is sometimes confused with being a process to request new resources such as budget increases, new personnel, new equipment or additional space. Planning should not always result in increasing expenditures. Other products of planning include re-allocating resources, improving efficiency and effectiveness, creating strategies to “think outside the box” and business process re-engineering.
Most planning forms do provide an opportunity to request additional resources to accomplish a particular goal; therefore, planning is indeed linked to budgeting. Most of this linkage occurs through the decision of where to re-allocate the existing resources of the program, unit, area, or college to achieve the goals it has set for itself. For example, when a unit decides to request resources to attend a conference to further a goal of staff development, the decision has linked the planned goal to the budget. However, often new resources are requested to accomplish a goal. In those cases there are specific processes by which the requests compete with other requests for the limited new resources available to the college. These processes vary depending upon the kind of resource requested (personnel, equipment, etc.) and are described in Appendix C.
At this juncture, it is important to distinguish between “bottom-up” planning and “top-down” goals. For example, college-wide goals drive area goals; area goals drive unit goals, and unit goals drive program goals. Each level of planning assists the respective program, unit, area and college to achieve its vision, mission, and global goals. Whereas, the “bottom-up” plans are a compilation of goals by level. Each level plan comprises the plans of the levels beginning at the Program level.
Flow of Planning Process and Documents
See Figure 2 (page 10) for an overview of the planning and budgeting process at COD. The figure shows that the planning process is ongoing with program plans providing the input for unit plans that are used to build area plans culminating in the institutional plan. The following shows how the parts of the planning process fit together:
· Institutional goals are developed and updated by the President and CPC from SWOT analysis, outcomes and assessments from area plans. Objectives, action plans and key performance indicators are developed from these goals.
· Institutional goals are often cross-functional and assigned to multiple areas for accomplishment/achievement.
· Using Program Reviews, each program/unit/area prepares its goals, objectives, action plans, KPIs, outcomes and assessment, including any assigned institutional goals.
· Area managers, in collaboration/discussion/dialog with faculty/staff/etc. in their area, prioritize plans and submit them to College Planning Council. (draft statement)
· College Planning Council reviews, analyzes plans to compare and integrate into master plan and prioritizes.
· Vice President Business Affairs forecasts available revenue; analyzes cost of requests.
· President reviews/approves; forwards to Board of Trustees.
· Program/Unit/Area managers measure outcomes and assessment; sustain continuous quality improvement.
The pathway to funding requests is the same for every request, although not every request will find its way to being included in the budget, even those requests for which there is a strong need, such as replacement of faculty or classified employees.