WCC Strategic Plan
It’s here! After many months of research, community input, meetings, discussions, and decision-making, we are pleased to share WCC’s “5-Year Strategic Plan”. This is the first of several final documents related to WCC Strategic Planning. The intent of this Strategic Plan is to provide an enduring vision for the future that is flexible and adaptable to the unknowns inherent in long-term planning. This document focuses on goals and objectives. Additional plan details are captured in separate documents, such as the Annual Implementation Plan, which also will be shared via this website.
Below is a link to our 2022 Annual Progress Report, which captures highlights from our fourth of five years on the path to better serving our students and communities. We are proud to share a small portion of the immense work put in by our WCC faculty, staff, and partners!
Below is a link to our 2021 Annual Progress Report, which captures highlights from our third of five years on the path to better serving our students and communities. We are proud to share a small portion of the immense work put in by our WCC faculty, staff, and partners!
Below is a link to our 2020 Annual Progress Report, which captures highlights from our second of five years on the path to better serving our students and communities. This was an historic year of improvements, enhancements, and COVID-responsive adjustments. We are proud to share a small portion of the immense work put in by our WCC faculty, staff, and partners!
Our first year of implementing our five-year strategic plan was immensely productive! Read about it in this 2019 Annual Progress Report. Thanks to the many individuals and teams who poured time and passion into this important work!
Below is a link to an executive summary providing the basic what, why, who, and when of SMART Strategies that will be implemented during the 2022-2023 academic year to advance Wilkes Community College’s 5-Year Strategic Plan. Each academic year over the strategic plan’s five-year period, the college will review progress made, lessons learned, resources available, and evolving circumstances in order to adjust or add SMART Strategies for implementation that best accomplish the goals and objectives set forth to benefit students and communities it serves. While this document contains only a brief summary of detail for each SMART Strategy, more detailed activities, assignments, budgets, timelines, success metrics, and other critical elements will be managed by Implementation Teams as working documents throughout the year.
Below is a link to an executive summary providing the basic what, why, who, and when of SMART Strategies that will be implemented during the 2021-2022 academic year to advance Wilkes Community College’s 5-Year Strategic Plan. Each academic year over the strategic plan’s five-year period, the college will review progress made, lessons learned, resources available, and evolving circumstances in order to adjust or add SMART Strategies for implementation that best accomplish the goals and objectives set forth to benefit students and communities it serves. While this document contains only a brief summary of detail for each SMART Strategy, more detailed activities, assignments, budgets, timelines, success metrics, and other critical elements will be managed by Implementation Teams as working documents throughout the year.
Below is a link to an executive summary providing the basic what, why, who, and when of SMART Strategies that will be implemented during the 2020-2021 academic year to advance Wilkes Community College’s 5-Year Strategic Plan. Each academic year over the strategic plan’s five-year period, the college will review progress made, lessons learned, resources available, and evolving circumstances in order to adjust or add SMART Strategies for implementation that best accomplish the goals and objectives set forth to benefit students and communities it serves. While this document contains only a brief summary of detail for each SMART Strategy, more detailed activities, assignments, budgets, timelines, success metrics, and other critical elements will be managed by Implementation Teams as working documents throughout the year.
Below is a link to an executive summary providing the basic what, why, who, and when of SMART Strategies that will be implemented during the 2019-2020 academic year to advance Wilkes Community College’s 5-Year Strategic Plan. Each academic year over the strategic plan’s five-year period, the college will review progress made, lessons learned, resources available, and evolving circumstances in order to adjust or add SMART Strategies for implementation that best accomplish the goals and objectives set forth to benefit students and communities it serves. While this document contains only a brief summary of detail for each SMART Strategy, more detailed activities, assignments, budgets, timelines, success metrics, and other critical elements will be managed by Implementation Teams as working documents throughout the year.
Each year in mid-January, we present on our progress to date with the Implementation Plan we set out for the year. Here is our latest update for the 2019-2020 academic year!
Strategic Planning: Motivation and Approach
Why and how did we develop a strategic plan? Below is a link to a visual presentation of some of the motivators for developing the plan, the process we employed to orchestrate the planning, and the structures we put in place for teams and documents that optimized our productivity in planning.
If you have interest in learning more, feel free to contact:
Jody Call, MA
Executive Director of Institutional Research and Planning
Phone: 336-838-6233
jrcall337@wilkescc.edu
Curated Research and Benchmarking
We mobilized Working Groups in our strategic planning process to review and synthesize over 2,200 pages of research to fuel goal-setting and focus of our 5-Year Strategic Plan. After all that work, we thought it a shame not to share the resources we found helpful. Below are links to Information Resource Packets prepared for four Strategic Themes inspired by the Aspen Institute. We hope you find some gems of wisdom and insight, as we did.
The Aspen Institute: A Great Resource for Strategic Planning
As we convened leaders and stakeholders to develop a strategic vision for the future of Wilkes Community College, one of the earliest dilemmas we faced was how best to organize our research, benchmarking, goals, and objectives.
Thanks to the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, we benefited from both a research-based framework and a support network associated with it. The Aspen Institute is one of the nation’s leading institutions for the advancement of higher education practices and leadership that significantly improve student learning, completion, and employment after college—especially for the growing population of students of color and low-income students on American campuses. Our WCC President, Dr. Jeff Cox, was selected as an Aspen Presidential Fellow, which gave us a deeper view into the best practices and case studies being curated and connected by the Aspen Institute. This proved invaluable as we organized our teams, analysis, and goal-setting primarily based on the four markers of excellence identified by the Aspen Institute: learning, completion and transfer, labor market outcomes, and equity.
For more information on research, planning, and implementation tools available through the Aspen Institute, visit their website.
