Equity-Centered Strategic Plan

Strategic Plan Cover 2024

In the winter of 2023 Shoreline Community College (SCC) began the visioning and planning process of preparing a 5-year Equity-Centered Strategic Plan. The intention of a Strategic Plan is to define and layout the vision, mission, and values that will guide the College for the years to come.

Shoreline Community College's Equity-Centered Strategic Plan

This Strategic Plan specifically deals with challenges experienced by the College over the past few years. It highlights the opportunities and elevates the strengths of the College to ensure it remains an example of academic excellence while proactively addressing the many inequities in higher education for historically underrepresented communities and those who have communicative, cognitive, and accessibility needs who have been underserved. Its goal is to close the achievement gap and see students succeed whether they are continuing school, returning, or looking for a career change.

The Strategic Plan was developed over the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic school years and involved a robust community engagement process, soliciting feedback from students, employees, community members, partners, and stakeholders. Out of these engagement efforts and the larger strategic planning process, a clear vision, mission, and set of values has been developed to anchor and propel the College through the next five years and beyond.

Strategic Planning Process:

The Shoreline Community College Equity-Centered Strategic Planning process was designed to be inclusive of all voices that contribute to the College’s success and future. Throughout the process, a variety of activities have been conducted to ensure that all student, staff, and community voices are heard. The planning process included interviews with faculty, staff, and students, college and community focus groups, and a college-wide survey that elicited feedback from College students, faculty, classified, and administrative staff. Central to the process was an Equity Visioning and Strategic Planning Charrette, an intensive half day workshop, to further discuss and develop the Strategic Plan Framework. Finally, to ensure transparency and provide additional opportunities to comment on the draft Strategic Plan, a College-wide survey was distributed during January of 2024.

The entire process was guided by a Strategic Plan Task Force with representation from faculty, classified and administrative staff, and students.

The planning process consisted of three phases:

PHASE 1: UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT (4 MONTHS)

Phase 1 involved an analysis of current trends, future opportunities, existing and past barriers to educational success, and community partnerships. This was completed through a quantitative analysis of demographics, enrollment trends, success outcomes, and other relevant information.

PHASE 2: SHAPING THE VISION FOR THE FUTURE (4 MONTHS)

During Phase 2 all the information collected from Phase 1 was compiled into an Environmental Scan report. This report provided input to the College-wide Equity Visioning and Strategic Planning Charrette, resulting in a set of provisional goals and objectives. Following further analysis and discussion of results from the Charrette, the Strategic Plan Task Force was organized into a set of working groups to further develop the goals and objectives that would become the body of the Strategic Plan.

PHASE 3: DEVELOPING THE STRATEGIC PLAN (4 MONTHS)

The Strategic Plan Task Force and Working Groups continued to refine the goals and objectives that emerged from Phase 2. In addition, one of the working groups and the executive team developed the equity, mission, and vision statements, and a set of value statements to form the overarching structure of the Strategic Plan.

The draft Strategic Plan was then presented to the Board of Trustees for their initial comments and feedback. After further revisions to the draft Plan by the Task Force, a College-wide survey requesting feedback on the draft Strategic Plan was launched. Based on feedback from the survey, another round of changes and refinements were made to the draft Plan, which was then sent to the Board of Trustees for final review and adoption at their meeting in February 2024.