Services / Institutional planning
Institutional planning for colleges and universities
Strategic plans, educational master/vision plans, and technology and facilities plans that build real consensus and survive the leadership transition that follows them.
What the work is
Most institutional plans fail the same way. They are written by a small group, ratified without argument, and then quietly ignored because nobody outside the room ever agreed to the trade-offs inside it. A plan that no one contested is a plan no one owns.
We facilitate the hard version instead. Our consultants have sat in the chancellor, provost, and CFO/CBO seats, which means they know which conversations get avoided and how to keep a campus in the room when the conversation gets uncomfortable. The output is a document your successor can still use, with priorities ranked, resources attached, and measures already agreed.
Engagements scale from a single-college strategic plan to integrated planning across a multi-college district, and connect cleanly to accreditation cycles, program review, and Guided Pathways work already underway.
- Strategic plans, 3-5 year
- Comprehensive educational master/vision plans
- Technology and facilities planning
- Mission and vision refresh
- Implementation roadmaps with owners
- KPI frameworks and dashboards
- Environmental scans and enrollment context
- Accreditation-aligned planning documentation
How a planning engagement runs
Four phases, sequenced so the decisions get made before the document gets written.
Listen
Cabinet interviews, faculty and staff forums, student input, and board conversations. We learn what the institution already believes about itself.
Frame
Enrollment, financial, and labor market data set the boundaries. We name the trade-offs explicitly rather than smoothing them over.
Decide
Facilitated sessions where priorities get ranked and things get cut. The plan is decided here, not drafted here.
Land
Implementation roadmap, owners, timelines, and measures. Board presentation and a first-year check-in structure.
Who leads this work
Planning engagements are led by consultants who have been accountable for the results of their own plans.
Selected planning engagements
Four comparable engagements. Each institution has published the resulting plan.
San Joaquin Delta College
Stockton, CA · 2024 Educational Plan: Update and Transition Plan, 2024-2027An educational planning engagement at a Hispanic-Serving Institution with a locally elected board, conducted during four simultaneous transitions: a new president, a new vice president of instruction, shifting regional demographics, and preparation for a $598 million facilities bond that passed in November 2024. The incoming cabinet had spent two years rebuilding trust through transparency and stakeholder engagement in governance, and that principle guided the plan.
Plan adopted; facilities bond passed November 2024.
Foothill College
Los Altos Hills, CA · 2025 Blueprint for Success 2030A five-year strategic plan emphasizing innovation, data-informed decision-making, and equity-minded practice, built with broad participation from faculty, staff, students, and leadership inside a strong shared governance culture and an elected district board. CBT convened visioning sessions with all seven of the college’s Career and Academic Pathways to develop the plan’s goals.
Adopted as the college’s strategic plan through 2030.
Read Blueprint for Success 2030 →Rancho Santiago Community College District
Santa Ana, CA · 2023-2024 Four integrated plans on an eight-year cycleAn integrated eight-year planning cycle for a multi-college, Hispanic-Serving district governed by a locally elected board. The engagement produced four plans: a District Comprehensive Plan, Comprehensive Educational Plans for both colleges, and a District Services and Operations Plan. Structured discovery and intensive listening sessions engaged nearly 700 internal and external stakeholders.
All four plans adopted by the Board of Trustees by spring 2024.
See the district plans →North Idaho College
Coeur d’Alene, ID · 2023-2024 NIC Strategic Plan 2025-2030A college in transition after the pandemic, placed on probation by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities in 2023 over board policy governance and institutional integrity, with its accreditation in jeopardy. Working alongside the Association of Community College Trustees, CBT partnered with the president, executive cabinet, accreditation liaison, and a 24-member representative steering committee on board development, consensus among board, leadership, and governance groups, and a comprehensive five-year plan.
The resulting plan was a critical component of NIC receiving NWCCU reaffirmation of accreditation in February 2026.
Read the NIC Strategic Plan →How long does a strategic plan or educational master/vision plan take?
Six to nine months for most institutions. A comprehensive educational master/vision plan or a multi-college district plan usually runs closer to twelve. We can compress the timeline when an accreditation deadline requires it, but consensus is the constraint, not the writing.
What is the difference between a strategic plan and an educational master/vision plan?
A strategic plan sets institution-wide direction and priorities across all functions. An educational master/vision plan focuses specifically on instructional programs, student services, and the enrollment and facilities implications that follow. Many institutions need both, and they should be built to reference each other.
Do you write the plan or facilitate it?
Both, and the balance is your call. Some clients want us to run the process and hand back a finished document. Others want facilitation only, with their own team drafting. We recommend the middle: we draft, your people own the language.
Can you work with a plan we have already started?
Yes. A common engagement is picking up a stalled process, diagnosing why it stalled, and getting it to a board-ready document. That is usually a shorter engagement than starting over.
Tell us what you’re facing.
Most engagements start with a thirty-minute call and no deck.
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