The Planning Process

The development of the new two-year Plan has been an ongoing process over three years, starting in late 2008. It has involved extensive participation by groups internal to the College and external communities with expertise relevant to the planning process. These communities have come together through a structured series of meetings to develop the initiatives in the new plan.

The first meeting was held in October 2008 when the Planning Committee convened to review the planning process. Preliminary discussions continued through the 2008-2009 academic year, and topics included current issues in education and economic concerns. In addition, the committee considered federal issues that could impact the College, including the  reauthorized Higher Education Opportunities Act and the GI Bill.

Regular meetings of the full Planning Committee continued in the 2009-2010 year, and involved faculty, staff and administrators. Among the resources utilized by the committee were the findings of the student, resident, community leader and employee components of the College’s Organizational Climate Survey. This survey was conducted by an independent firm to assess how different communities perceive the College. The findings provided detailed insights into the needs of the many constituencies the College serves. Other discussions during this year addressed the findings of the 2000 Higher Learning Commission reaccreditation visit, innovative practices at colleges elsewhere in the country, and data on student success at the College.

In order to fully understand local issues that would impact the College, the committee reviewed local environmental scans and held an expert panel. Two economic scans were prepared during the cycle, the first of which was used to drive a discussion on the College’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Different approaches were considered that could tackle the identified areas, and these discussions fed directly into the plan development. The Planning Committee initially considered expert panels across a wide range of areas. However, as the planning process continued, it was determined that most areas had been fully addressed through other activities. The only area not fully considered was local and regional planning, and experts from the City of Tucson, Sahuarita and Marana shared their expertise with the committee at a panel held in 2010.

Taking into account the input of all of the participants and the results of the ongoing discussions, the full committee engaged in a series of open discussions to formulate the new initiatives. Nearing the conclusion of the 2009-2010 academic year, the initiatives began to take shape. Initiative development leaders were selected and initiative work groups were established early in the 2010-2011 year. The work groups were comprised of planning committee members and other College employees with expertise relevant to the initiatives.

Developments continued through an iterative procedure in which the initiative leaders and their work groups held discussions and then reported back to the full committee. Feedback from the full committee guided the discussions in follow-up initiative meetings. This process continued from Fall 2010 through February 2011 as the initiatives, strategies and action items were fine-tuned to fully capture the needs of the College and our community.

A draft of the plan was discussed with the PCC Board of Governors at a workshop held on March 9, 2011. Members of the Board provided input and discussed issues relating to the plan content. The feedback was incorporated into the strategies and action items. The Plan was presented to the Board of Governors for formal adoption on June 8, 2011. This two year Plan will run from July 1, 2011 through to June 30, 2013.