At Lane Community College, we're on a journey to transform lives through learning and help students achieve their dreams. As with all journeys, we need to know exactly where we’re going. Planning is the process of creating roadmaps to find our way.
Our mission defines our purpose. Values guide decisions, and our Strategic Plan is the high-level roadmap.
Why We Plan: Our Shared Journey
Planning is a collaborative process and shared journey. Through it, we create goals and can see how our individual and collective actions help us reach our destination of transforming lives through learning.
Planning is the process of analyzing our current situation, creating goals and plans that align to our mission, implementing plans, and monitoring and revising for improvement. During planning we look back at lessons learned and at the road ahead. Thoughtful and inclusive planning ensures that our journey is intentional, coordinated, and successful.
Planning occurs at multiple levels of the organization. It starts at the individual level, moves to programs, departments, divisions, and ultimately the entire college. Institutional Research and Effectiveness coordinates the work.
You help us reach our destination by accomplishing program and departmental goals, which are specific roadmaps for our journey. We need you in order to reach our shared destination.
When we develop plans, we analyze and choose which route will get us closer to our destination. We use these institutional priorities as guideposts:
- Student retention – Are we keeping students engaged and moving forward?
- Workforce development – Are we preparing students for their chosen careers?
- Organizational culture – Are we creating an environment where everyone thrives?
- Fiscal health – Are we using our resources wisely?
These priorities help us evaluate which route makes most sense. One might get us there faster, but another serves more students and builds stronger partnerships. During planning we weigh these factors and choose the best way forward.
Who?
Managers lead the process, gathering input from employees, who know the work best.
How?
The ideal process is collaborative and intentional and starts at the program or department level (e.g., the Academic and Administrative Program Review processes).
Why?
Planning turns our shared vision into reality. It ensures we're not just busy, but purposeful. It connects our daily work to the bigger picture of transforming lives.
Where?
Right here at Lane, we each contribute to the journey. For example, from office and department meetings through to College Council and Board of Education discussions and decision-making.
When?
Planning is ongoing and dynamic. It is a process that yields a plan (e.g., Annual Planning).
All journeys require regular check-in’s to ask: Are we on the right road? Are we effective? Are we meeting our goals? If so, celebrate! If not, let’s find ways to overcome barriers. When needed, we should feel free to adapt goals to better serve our students.
When we plan well, everyone benefits. We know where we're going and how we're getting there. Every employee, department, and division plays a role in helping us reach our shared destination. Planning isn’t just paperwork. It’s our collective effort to transform students’ lives.
We are creating an integrated planning framework that aims to:
- Clarify planning processes at all levels of the college, how they work together, when they are due, and what’s expected
- Align and better connect planning and budgeting
- Enhance communication and transparency
- Help identify opportunities for cross functional collaboration
Contact
For more information, please contact Keith Comer, Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, at comer@lanecc.edu, or Tammie Stark, Project Coordinator 2 Lead, at starkt@lanecc.edu.