Strategic Planning Survey 2007 Overview

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Overview:
The strategic planning survey was developed by the Strategic Planning Council as a means to launch the planning process at the college.  With emphasis of this process being inclusion of the entire college community, the survey served to appeal to a broad audience.  The content of the survey was intended to reaffirm our mission, expand on our strengths and challenges, and begin identifying strategic priorities for our future. 

The survey was administered via the web or through the mail and ran from January 11-19, 2007.  Students, community members including area businesses and manufactures, high school contacts, board members, full and part time faculty members, staff and administrators were invited to participate. 

 Participation:
The survey yielded an overwhelming response from 231 constituents including 128 students.  Although pleasantly surprised at the number of people responding, the number could have been even greater had we had more time to leave the survey open.  It is likely that some groups would have had a much greater response rate had the survey been opened longer and a stronger marketing attempt been implemented.

 Results: 

Cursory observations reveal a positive response in most areas.  Below is a quick summary of the respective areas:  

Section I:  Constituency Information
As stated in the previous section, the results were surprisingly good considering this was one of the first attempts to implement such an instrument.  The student response was the most favorable and this is likely the result of several faculty and staff ambassadors championing the cause.  It is worth reiterating that the limited time the survey was available could be the culprit for some of the groups seeming a little underrepresented.  Because this survey is an initial step with other participation venues forthcoming, inclusion of diverse groups will remain a priority and will be accomplished.  

Section II:  Process/Mission
Regarding interest in participating in the strategic planning process, 66% of the respondents would like to be informed with opportunities to contribute.  Obviously, this level of interest will necessitate a true commitment to continue including as many people as possible as we progress. 

Eighty seven percent of the respondents felt that Southern State is living the mission as outlined.  Of the 13% that were either disagreed or were uncertain, they provided write-in responses to explain their belief.  Initial review of the write-in responses indicates concern regarding our limited service area and quality issues. 

Section III:  Strengths and Challenges
This portion of the survey was a catalyst to pick up on previous conversations that were conducted in fall of 2005 relating to strategic planning.  Reflecting on the actual survey instrument, a comprehensive overview of previously stated strengths and challenges was provided and concluding this section was an opportunity for respondents to add additional strengths and challenges that may not have been addressed.

Section IV:  Strategic Priorities
To assist the SSCC leadership in identifying the key strategic priorities, respondents were asked to indicate four to six priorities that they thought were important for SSCC in the next three years.  The top five issues that were identified were as follows:

1. Improve student success
2. Maximize learning opportunities
3. Teaching and learning excellence
4. Facilities improvement and planning
5. Assessment of student learning and institutional effectiveness

The identification of these top priorities can easily serve as a foundation for the further development of our institutions strategic priorities.  In some cases, these priorities can be combined to allow for other important priorities such as accessibility and workforce development which are likely to be priorities of all Ohio institutions.

Implications and Next Steps
As stated, this survey analysis was done under an extremely tight deadline and further review is certainly warranted.  However, the overall results seem positive and can be used by the Strategic Planning Council and SSCC leadership in moving forward with planning efforts. 

During the weeks of January 22 and 29, 2007, campus based meetings will be conducted to review the results of this survey, solicit additional feedback, and begin identifying specific goals for our strategic priorities.  This effort coupled with further meetings of the council and continued correspondence to our campus community should yield a strategic plan in which everyone had an opportunity to contribute and can fully appreciate and implement.