CRC’s Planning Guide describes the college’s integrated planning and resource allocation processes. This guide begins with CRC’s Integrated Planning Model, a visual representation of the planning components and environmental factors influencing and informing institutional planning. A description of the process and timeline for each component in the model is under College Planning Overview, below.
The Planning Guide details the ways in which constituent groups participate in and contribute to CRC’s long and short term planning. The College follows the Participatory Governance Decision-making Process for constituency input and vetting in planning processes. Institutional planning at CRC stems from the college’s Mission, Vision, and Values. The planning processes also reflect the College's commitment to equity. See also:
The objectives for CRC’s planning processes are guided by:
- Transparency of processes
- Data-driven plans
- Equity-minded decisions
- Consultation with constituencies
- Communication with stakeholders
Download a larger version of the Integrated Planning Model (Flowchart).
This guide details the major components of planning, including descriptions of the processes and timelines. District-level planning informs college-level planning in the following ways:
- The structure of the College’s Strategic Plan is the same as the District Strategic Plan
- Through the participatory governance process, many members of the college participate:
- in the generation of both the District and College Strategic Plans
- on district committees whose responsibilities are to implement the District Strategic Plan and to identify and respond to issues that arise
- The District’s Strategic Plan is one of the major inputs into the College’s Strategic Planning Process
Download a larger version of the Planning Guide Table.
It is important to note that College-level planning is integrated by the following processes:
- The Strategic Plan, Institutional Learning Outcomes, Outcomes Assessment, and Participatory Governance Processes are all mapped to the College’s Mission
- All planning and resource allocation processes are informed by and linked to the strategies in the Strategic Plan
- The assessment of all college plans contributes to the assessment of the College’s Strategic Plan
- The assessment of all participatory governance processes contribute to the assessment of how well the college executes its mission
- The schedule of college planning processes has been aligned to facilitate integration
Evaluation of Planning Processes
The CRC Planning Guide is approved through the Participatory Governance Decision-making Process is reviewed and updated annually by the Institutional Effectiveness Committee to maintain its relevance. In addition to the annual review of this guide, each component of the College’s planning processes are evaluated on a regular and ongoing basis. The college’s Integrated Planning Process is evaluated by the Institutional Effectiveness Committee.
CRC’s planning processes are designed to further the mission, vision, and values.
Purpose of Mission, Vision, Values
The Mission Statement concisely explains our educational purpose, intended student population and the types of awards we offer. It describes our commitment to student learning.
The Vision Statement articulates our current and future objectives as a college.
The Values Statement guides guide our work at the college and ensures that the work described by the mission and vision is guided by the shared principles of the campus community.
Process for Updating Mission, Vision, Values
Mission Development Process: Every six years the Institutional Effectiveness (IE) Committee initiates the Mission, Vision, and Values revision process. This begins with collecting constituency feedback on the relevance of the current Mission, Vision and Values, using surveys and community forums. The IE Committee uses feedback to inform revisions. The revised Mission, Vision, and Values are vetted through the Participatory Governance Decision-making Process.
Once approved, the Mission, Vision, and Values guide the development of all institutional plans, including our Strategic Plan. They are embedded in the College wide Integrated Planning and Resource Allocation processes and published in the College catalog and website.
The Los Rios Community College District (LRCCD) Mission and Strategic Plan provides a context and framework for the College’s Mission and Strategic Plan.
The LRCCD Mission and Strategic Plan are reviewed and updated/generated on a six year cycle, unless conditions in the organization or the environment necessitate a different cycle. The implementation of the LRCCD Strategic Plan is assessed annually.
CRC’s Strategic Plan articulates the overarching goals for the college and identifies strategies the college will implement to fulfill its mission and realize its vision. The Strategic Plan is the foundation for all of the college’s Planning and Resource Allocation Processes. Currently, the Strategic Plan serves as the college’s educational master plan outlining the primary goal areas and strategies to accomplish those goals.
College Strategic Plan Process
The college reviews and develops its Strategic Plan on a six-year cycle, unless conditions in the organization or the environment necessitate a different cycle.
The Institutional Effectiveness Committee uses data from the previous process to develop the process and timeline for the upcoming strategic plan. These data include:
- Internal scan conducted via surveys
- Campus focus group meetings
- External scan of the surrounding community and the population as well labor market data
- Institutional set-standards and student achievement data disaggregated by student demographics.
The college facilitates cross-constituency dialogue, data review, gap identification, and analysis of past initiatives. The IE Committee synthesizes community input and develops the initial Strategic Plan draft.
The proposed Strategic Plan is vetted through the Participatory Governance Decision-making Process.
Once approved, the Strategic Plan guides the development of all institutional plans, is embedded in the Integrated Planning and Resource Allocation processes, and published on the college website.
College Strategic Plan Evaluation
The college tracks its progress on accomplishing its Strategic Plan through the Strategic Plan Goals and Indicators of Achievement.
The purpose of Program Review is to evaluate program effectiveness and plan for program improvement in order to support equitable outcomes in student achievement. Through evaluation of student learning outcomes assessment and disaggregated student achievement data, programs engage in critical dialog and reflection on student learning. Programs then document the strategies and resources needed for continuous improvement, while also aligning with the College’s Strategic Plan. Each strategy and resource documented must link back to an element of the college’s Strategic Plan. Through this mechanism, the program review process serves as an essential component of the College’s integrated planning and resource allocation processes.
Program Review Process
Every program will complete a comprehensive program review every six years on a staggered schedule, with a subset of programs completing their Program Reviews in either the fall or spring term. The staggered cycle was scheduled randomly by Career and Academic Communities and Division/Areas.
The program review entails the following components:
- Reviewing and updating (as needed) program purpose(s)
- Reviewing and discussing disaggregated student achievement and outcomes data to identify strengths and opportunities
- Reviewing and recording what has been accomplished over the program review cycle
- Identifying strategies and resources that would improve the program that are aligned to the college’s strategic plan
- Describing the scope and potential impact of these items strategies and resource requests.
- Identifying long-term planning implications
- Supporting the communication of manager feedback to the program prior to finalizing the program review
Program faculty and staff review have the ability to update their program review on an ongoing basis to address changes and ensure resource requests are up to date. The program review process is intended to be collaborative and completed in either the fall or spring semesters.
Program Review Evaluation
The Research and Equity Office administers an survey to evaluate the program review process at the end of each academic year. The Institutional Effectiveness’ Program Review subcommittee reviews the evaluation results and makes recommendations for improvement. The Research and Equity Office implements improvements to Program Review on an ongoing basis based on the subcommittee’s recommendations.
The Unit Plan is a critical component in the College’s integrated planning model. The Unit Plan contains an aggregated list of the resource requests from each program in the Unit (aka Career and Academic Community and/or Division/Area) for each resource type (e.g. equipment, technology, faculty, classified staff, supplies, facilities, etc.).
The Unit plan also contains information related to these resources, such as the related planning agenda item and college strategic goals, the departmental priority, a brief rational, and desired outcome. The information in the Unit Plan informs the identification and prioritization of resource requests from the Unit that will be submitted in the areas of permanent personnel, equipment, and instructional technology. The Unit Plans also inform dialogs and decision-making in the area of facilities, professional development, technology, and the development of the College’s grants and research agenda.
Unit Prioritization Process
Throughout the year in support of the College’s resource allocation processes, each Unit engages in a process that identifies and prioritizes the most important resource requests in their Unit Plan in the given resource category. Although the specifics of this step vary across the units, the essential components of these prioritization processes include the following:
- A review of the requests identified in the Unit Plan
- The identification of the requests that will be forwarded into the current allocation process
- A process by which representatives of the each department/program in the Unit work together to obtain a prioritized list of resource requests based on the criteria used in the associated resource allocation process
- The communication of the prioritization process and outcome to all Unit members
- In general, Unit rankings are informed by:
- The degree to which the proposal will improve program or service effectiveness
- The degree to which the proposal supports the Strategic Plan
- Quality of the data and rationale provided
- Urgency
The College’s resource allocation processes evaluate and prioritize the resource needs of the College, resulting in a recommendation to the President about how resources can be most effectively used to achieve the College’s goals and mission. The Resources Committee outlines resource allocation processes and timelines in the Resource Allocation Guide.