Parkland College Strategic Plan for Excellence 2008-2013

Introduction
Parkland College continues to experience significant change in terms of technology, pedagogy, student needs and preparation, and community employment needs and expectations. A college-wide planning process enables Parkland to better respond to changing external and internal needs. Parkland College must strengthen ties to the community it serves to enhance its premier community college status in the state, region, and nation.

The Parkland College planning process is based on its mission and purposes statement and continues to evolve and be reviewed and refined. The following three objectives, however, remain constant:

• To develop a participatory, consensus-based planning process that involves the internal and external College community.
• To integrate the vision, goals, and strategies of the College's strategic plan into budget and operational planning.
• To develop the capacity to identify, collect, and interpret significant information about important influences on the College's future.

The strategies in Parkland College: 2008-2013 will enable the College to address and achieve these objectives. The result is a consensus-driven, integrated, and efficient planning process. The College Planning Committee sincerely thanks the many community and College members who provided their valuable input.

This plan reflects a deepening awareness not only of how much Parkland College has accomplished since its formation in 1966, but also of the many opportunities that lie ahead. This plan builds on these accomplishments by focusing on continuously improving the quality of teaching and learning and the services that support them.

A Vision of Parkland in 2013

By the year 2013, Parkland College will remain the area’s preferred learning provider. The following statements correlate with the four goals of the Strategic Plan:

1. Parkland will be the “gateway to higher education” for individuals, employers, employees, and K-12 students.
2. Because of its high standards in learning and training, Parkland will be globally competitive.
3. Parkland will remain a leader in making learning available anytime, anyplace.
4. Diversity and inclusiveness will permeate Parkland’s learning culture, our hiring practices, pedagogy, programs and services, curricula, and policies.
5. Parkland faculty continue to move from being purveyors of knowledge to orchestrators of learning.
6. Parkland students, no matter where they are in the world, will have access to student support services, including library resources, online technical assistance, tutoring, financial aid, career planning, and mentoring.
7. Learners will become culturally sophisticated and view the world as an extended neighborhood.
8. More learners with advanced degrees will choose Parkland as their preferred institution.
9. Individuals who are underprepared for college-level learning and who have minimal career opportunities will be supported by a training continuum in which they can access adult education, short-term skills training, job-readiness skills, life-skills training, and connections to employers.
10. Parkland College will be a place of perpetual learning for all levels of learners.
11. Parkland will continue to be a convener and a safe, common ground for solving our community’s most challenging problems.
12. Parkland will be a community center for learning where values and a positive work ethic are modeled alongside technical skills.
13. Mentoring of students will continue to be a key learning and retention strategy.
14. The makeup of Parkland’s faculty and staff will reflect the diversity of our students.
15. Parkland’s Core Values will guide the direction of the College and the decisions made on a daily basis.
16. Curricula will continue evolving to be more modular, more flexible, and accommodate different learning styles and the personal schedules of learners.
17. Business and industry will choose Parkland to provide their employees with opportunities to attain certifications that meet worldwide quality standards.
18. Curricula will reflect the skills most in demand by employers: communication, problem solving, critical thinking, work ethic, and ability to work in teams.
19. Parkland’s Adult Degree Re-Entry Center will become an educational “broker” offering students access to learning opportunities and degree programs from around the world.
20. “Human Development Partnerships” will be established between Parkland and employers to actively recruit, train, and hire students into career programs that increase the economic well-being of this region.
21. Four-year universities will form alliances with Parkland to provide undergraduate education.
22. The learning emphasis will focus on what the student knows when she/he leaves the College.
23. Maintaining Parkland as a premier learning institution will continue with the ongoing professional development of faculty and staff.
24. The Parkland College Foundation will annually raise a minimum of three million dollars in private support.
25. Parkland’s Alumni Association will be an active, vital resource for fundraising, mentoring, business partnerships, technical expertise, and learning opportunities for students.
26. To compete in the highly competitive global learning marketplace, Parkland will establish itself as a brand name in education, nationally and internationally.

Goals and Strategies for 2008 – 2013
Draft 3/22/07

In order to realize its vision, Parkland College has established the following four strategic goals. The related strategies that follow each goal will be implemented through the operational planning process.

Goal A: Parkland College will build on its reputation for academic excellence, innovative use of technology, and accessible and flexible course delivery.

Continually evaluate the quality of student learning outcomes and alignment of instruction with appropriate standards of student performance in all academic programs and disciplines.

Support faculty in the development and dissemination of improvements in teaching and learning strategies, innovative applications of instructional technology, course design and re-design, alternate modes of instruction, and related pedagogies that address students’ diverse challenges and learning styles.

Respond to student demand for online course and program offerings, access to technology, and innovative applications of instructional technology to include hybrid and other course delivery options in all academic departments.

Promote awareness and access to global/international perspectives across the curriculum.

Prioritize the maintenance and replacement of instructional equipment, and implement the Campus Master Plan.

Goal B: Parkland College will expand already thriving relationships with secondary education, the private sector, and local government in District 505 to promote seamless transitions, maximize access and opportunity, and foster a better understanding of the multiple programs and services offered.

Fully develop business and university partnerships to increase educational opportunities for students. Expand articulation and offer additional dual credit courses with District 505 schools to facilitate students' transition to post-secondary education.

Engage our partners in business, industry, and the trade unions to develop, deliver and assess technical, career and professional programs. Partner with the business community and area agencies to mutually refer, support, and better serve small and underserved businesses as well as large businesses.

Concentrate on communicating and marketing the opportunities, outcomes, and benefits of Parkland College to our P-16 partners, parents, alumni, and the greater community.

Capitalize and build on the strengths of the College: affordability, small class-size, outstanding faculty, dedicated and knowledgeable staff, flexible and relevant programs and services, and outcomes (student success).

Continue to develop new and expand existing partnerships that will lead to successful achievement of the goals and strategies as outlined in the focused strategic plans in agriculture, health, information technology, and industrial technologies.

Develop or augment recruiting partnerships in areas of high need and/or low enrollments and aggressively market programs of study that meet the employment needs of the community and the interests and talents of students.

Goal C: Parkland College will be responsive to the call for accountability and assessment by monitoring, improving and reporting the institution’s effectiveness.

Effectively respond to the educational, financial, and support needs of an increasing number of students who are not prepared or are underprepared for college-level work and/or who are at risk.

Monitor and make progress toward recruitment of a faculty and staff whose composition reflects the diverse population being served. Develop annual staffing plans based on enrollments, programming, and resources. Continue to evaluate the full-time/part-time teaching faculty ratio appropriate to each department and program.

Effectively assess and measure learning outcomes to ensure that students are receiving the highest quality education.

Support, assess, and publicly account for Parkland's retention efforts.

Assess and measure instructional support units to ensure they are achieving their stated goals.

Goal D: Parkland College will focus on promoting the concepts of civic engagement, service, volunteerism, responsibility, citizenship, and ethical decision-making.

Fully develop a collegiate community of learners that emphasizes the importance of personal and institutional values and a positive work ethic, as well as job and career skills, including communications, basic computer use, problem-solving and critical thinking/decision-making, interpersonal/conflict resolution, and the ability to work in teams.

Encourage students to develop an attitude and work ethic that will assist them in a diverse society and job market where rapid changes are commonplace.

Effectively promote the mission, programs, and services of Parkland College so that constituents, including businesses, chambers of commerce, and community organizations, fully realize the comprehensiveness and excellence of Parkland College programs and services.

Provide professional development opportunities that address the history, culture, objectives, and statement of values of the College. Parkland will facilitate leadership development and the value of recognizing one’s full potential.

Promote the concepts of environmental literacy, responsibility, and engagement within the college and the community.

Definition of College Planning Terms

Strategic Planning: The effort to identify the most important trends and forces that will have the greatest impact on Parkland College over the course of the next five years; to analyze and interpret this information in order to identify key planning assumptions; to use these key planning assumptions to identify and develop consensus for a strategic plan for the College.

Strategic Plan: An outline of key planning assumptions, a vision statement, strategic goals, and strategies for effectively managing and taking maximum advantage of the most important trends and forces that will affect the College over the next five years.

Key Planning Assumptions: A list of statements about current and projected trends and forces that will most significantly impact the College's future direction.

The Vision Statement: A description of how the College envisions itself five years from now, especially in light of current trends, forces, needs, and planning assumptions.

Strategic Goal: A general statement arising from the vision statement which identifies where the College intends to position itself in order to deal effectively with current and future trends and forces.

Strategy: A more specific, but not necessarily measurable, statement of the most important steps to take for accomplishing a particular strategic goal.

Annual Planning: The effort to collect, sort, evaluate, and budget for action proposals that would most effectively implement the goals and strategies that arise from the strategic plan.

Environmental Scanning: The surveying, collecting, and analyzing of external trends and forces (economic, demographic, political, educational, technological) and internal forces and trends (faculty, staff, and student opinion; staffing allocations; curriculum developments; institutional effectiveness; instructional effectiveness) that directly bear on the College's future.

Performance Indicators: Quantifiable measurements, agreed to beforehand, that reflect the critical success factors of an organization.

Parkland College • 2400 West Bradley Avenue • Champaign, IL 61821 • 217/351-2200 • 800/346-8089
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