From its founding as a Quaker school for boys to its evolution into a military school and, ultimately, into the thriving coeducational civilian institution it is today, Widener University has been no stranger to change and transition. It may come as a surprise, therefore, that although it had a mission statement and goals, prior to 2004 the…

The Balanced Scorecard is a planning model used extensively in business to provide direction and accountability to an organization. Despite the demonstrated success of the model, it has not been widely used in higher education. This article compares and contrasts the use of the Balanced Scorecard by two small, private colleges. The article…

Too often, Boards of Trustees feel that final approval of the institution's Strategic Plan is sufficient. However, most Plans will only be successfully implemented if the Board has complete ownership and a commitment to be actively involved in many areas of the institution (not only fund raising). This article describes a successful process and…

In the current highly competitive higher education market in North America, many colleges have identified the importance of upgrading their existing residential housing facilities as part of their strategy to attract and retain students. The case study discussed in this article describes the successful planning process used by Perkins+Will and…

The long-range planning and implementation approach to campus planning for the University of Michigan Central Campus is described as a model for effective facilities development. A planning study in 1963 resulted in a development pattern that has seen little major modification since then. (MSE)

The Division of Student Affairs at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor engaged in an iterative strategic process to create and implement a set of long-range goals. This strategic journey continues to evolve, uniting a guiding framework of strategic planning steps, a reflective process with an assessment component within each step, and a group…