Strategic Planning
Scottsdale Community College utilizes a three-tiered strategic planning process: Tier I is the College Strategic Plan; Tier II plans include the Instructional Plan and the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan. Tier III are the unit level plans made up of sixty plus planning units throughout the college.
College Strategic Plan
At the institutional level, the college strategic plan is focused on SCC’s core objectives. These objectives are engagement, growth, and excellence. These three core objectives each have three implementation strategies. These strategies become the focal point for the college’s committee work. Each strategy in the college strategic plan has a strategy committee made up of administrators, faculty, and staff. The strategy committees are led by co-chairs, one of whom sits on the President’s cabinet and the other representative of the area of focus/expertise. The strategy committee's work consists of leading the implementation of specific tactics throughout the academic year that help the college realize its strategic objective. The Strategic Planning and Allocating Resources Council (SPARC) oversees the entire process including the development of a master planning timeline that guides each strategy team. Each Strategy Committee reports its action items and year-end accomplishments to the President through SPARC. The following year each Strategy Committee embarks on the process again which may consist of new action items or the continuation of multi-year action items. The college utilizes the four disciplines of execution (4DX) to help implement our objectives.
Instructional Plan
SCC’s Instructional Plan promotes student success through active, innovative, relevant, and inclusive instruction. Its mission is to actively engage students in supportive, distinctive, active, culturally relevant, and challenging learning experiences. The purpose of the SCC Instructional Plan is to help students reach their full potential and to meet their lifelong educational, professional, and personal goals. The SCC Instructional Plan provides guidance in the planning of instructional activities and learning support. It is designed to align with the College's Strategic Plan, the Governing Board’s Objectives, and the Chancellor’s Goals. The plan has five primary goals which are supported by specific strategies and action items: Increase equitable student retention, persistence, and retention; Enhance teaching effectiveness and student learning; Increase workforce opportunities and enhance workforce experiences for students; Enhance transfer student enrollment, retention and success; and Engage in continuous improvement and enhance institutional effectiveness.
Unit Strategic Plan
At the unit level, the annual Unit Strategic Planning (USP) process is an integral foundational planning component at SCC. The annual cycle of institutional evaluation and planning at the college is rooted in the vision and mission statements. The USP process provides an analysis of unit health based on criteria defined by faculty, staff and administrators. Unit faculty and staff review and analyze data, provide alternative interpretations, review actions taken in the previous year, and formulate an action plan for the coming year, along with resources needed to carry out that plan. The Unit Strategic Plan is used as the core process for the SCC’s instructional programs and support areas to complete their annual review and resource allocation requests. Completing the USP engages faculty, staff, and administrators in a process that involves reviewing a broad range of relevant data; interpreting the data in terms of demand, efficiency, and effectiveness to understand more clearly what has been happening in their programs, divisions, units, etc.; formulating plans to maintain and/or enhance performance; identifying, justifying and prioritizing the resources they will need to carry out those plans; then justifying and consolidating the requests for resources. All along the way, the process promotes communication and transparency—within programs, divisions, and units, then among various components and levels of the college, and finally with the public.