TRC new strategic plan looks forward

With the approval of the new strategic plan for Three Rivers College, the staff plans to work toward a more forward focused approached.

The plan, which the board of trustees approved Wednesday, looks at improving the tools, processes, curriculum and student success at the college.

Dr. Wesley Payne, TRC president, said the last strategic plan — Vision 2020 — focused more on fixing things while this new one ­— Aspire 2025 — is more about going forward.

“It was about ‘we have identified these things and we need to fix them,’” he said. “This plan has a very different feel to it. This plan is about building on that foundation and growing in creative, meaningful ways.

“There are still some things we identified as ‘we need to still work on fixing that,’ but if you look at the thematic elements of this, it’s about going forward.”

The process of developing a new strategic plan is one the college goes through every five years. It maps out what areas the administration hopes to focus on in the next five years. Vision 2020 ends with the fiscal year on June 30.

Developing the plan started in September with weekly meetings of the 51-member committee. Members of the committee include representatives from every campus and every level of the college, including adjunct professors and students.

As part of this process, the members received information from the directors of different programs at the college and could ask questions or gain additional information. They toured a variety of facilities, including the TRC farm.

They also took the information they learned back to their areas of the college to get input from colleagues.

Innovation

Under the first key area, the plan lays out a focus on new products, tools and processes to enhance performance.

For instance, three bullet points discuss online courses. One is to “develop the infrastructure to support fully online degree programs.” Another includes “appropriate oversight of fully-online programming.” The third is to “improve student support for online learning.”

This move is a national trend for both colleges and universities as technology develops and the needs of students change. Over 40 community colleges alone offer degrees at least partially online, according to bestcollegereviews.com.

The plan also discusses better utilization of Office365 to improve operations, provide additional avenues for communication through technology, enhance cybersecurity and data security, and upgrade outdated systems.

The overall goal for this area of the plan is to bring the institution to the next level, committee chair Dr. Maribeth Payne said.

Institutional sustainability

The plan also addresses improvements to the operational performance of the college, with the goal of providing the “necessary support for students and employees to thrive.”

Under this category, the goals include improvements both internal and external to the college.

Externally, it includes maintaining compliance with local, state, federal and accreditation agencies and continuing “to improve community image and relationships.”

In connection to the community, it addresses the need to respond to changes in the needs of the community.

The plan encourages the college to expand the efforts to both seek and manage external funding sources and grant projects.

Internally, the plan addresses the use of date-informed decision making within “all planning and budgeting practices.”

It also addresses the need to ensure employee staffing and to develop a “plan to address future personnel needs” while increasing employee “knowledge and skills.”

Along with upgrading outdated facilities, the plan encourages TRC to “institutionalize a positive student-focused culture.”

Instructional excellence and relevance

This next category mainly looks at ways to ensure the curriculum being taught is “timely and relevant content” for students.

While several of the bullet points related back to previously stated areas, such as respond to needs of the community and updated technology for online learning, it also brings up new pieces for consideration.

One point is to have an “inclusive environment in support of all adjunct instructors.” However, it also addresses promoting quality instruction in all areas and providing timely feedback to students.

Student success

Under the last category, the college addresses reducing barriers for students to encourage better personal and academic success.

Some of these also relate back to earlier topics, such as ensuring technological and computing literacy skills for students.

Several of the bullet points address course offerings for both competition and transfer of credits for students. One brings up a better alignment of advising with university transfer programs with the goal of improving transfer rates.

The plan also discusses a new course scheduling process. It suggests this to better ensure classes are available when students need them to complete their studies on time.

Moving forward

While the board approved the plan, that isn’t the end of its process.

Later this month, the college will host a strategic planning retreat. There, department leaders will sit down and discuss ways their area of the college can address parts of the plan.

The president’s cabinet will meet at least once a year for the duration of the plan to continue those conversations and check in on where the college is at with meeting these goals.

The board of trustees will hear a mid-point progress report on the strategic plan.