Running head: STRATEGIC PLANNING PROJECT 1

Jordan Glover

Hi Ed 810: Planning & Resource Management

Penn State World Campus

Lesson #8: Strategic Planning Project

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The data provided about the academic programs at Core College filled in many gaps in

understanding of the institution, and provided plenty of data to review. Overall, the programs

that Core College offers are doing fairly well. But, when digging into the numbers there are

programs that are falling behind in enrollment numbers, and also programs that are costing the

institution significant amounts of money. The initial report indicated that the school does see a

lot of student interest in the fields specifically related to careers.

There is a lot to consider in this report, but some of the most helpful information for

analysis with the average change over the years of data shown in the report. Obviously,

baccalaureate degrees are doing very well with the enrollment growing to almost five hundred

over the time span shown. On the other hand, associate degrees are falling on average with only

two programs having a positive change.

I assigned each academic program at Core College a level, either invest, maintain, or

disinvest. But, when considering programs to choose for each level, all the factors must be taken

into consideration such as enrollment growth or decline over the five years of data provided, and

also the cost. And, importantly, the lens of the report must be used too. The school obviously

attracts students that are focused on a career, so having a wide range of offering would be

important to serving their area.

One additional data point that would have been helpful would be to know how long the

program has been around, and, what the annual average enrollment has been. Since the data has

only shown the past five years, removing a program that has had a rough patch but is a signature

program with overall good enrollment, might be worse than choosing to invest in that program, if

it still makes sense for the institution.

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Beginning with associate degrees, I was shocked by how all, but two programs had

overall declining enrollment. The programs with the highest enrollment were Liberal Arts, and

Nursing. I was surprised by how many students where in Liberal Arts, but given that it was

consistently over one hundred, and the program was not the most expensive, I decided to

maintain this program. Nursing warranted an investment as their change was the most positive,

although the cost is high. Other programs I decided to maintain were Criminal Justice (not a

huge expense, and provides career prep), Family Studies (not a huge expense, and no program

similar to it at he baccalaureate level), Organizational Leadership (while a larger expense, one of

a kind program at Core College), and Railroad Technology (while this enrollment is small, and

the cost is large, I’m just assuming that a program like this is warranted in the local area). I only

decided to disinvest four programs at Core College. They are; both Engineering programs (the

students seem to have moved from enrolling in the associate degree to the baccalaureate degree,

and it is expensive), Business (down a fairly significant number of enrolled students), and

Science (while a positive change, the program is expensive, and they have always had less than

ten enrolled students). It’s important to note that the only program invested in for associate

degrees was Nursing, providing some room to invest in baccalaureate programs.

The four-year program with the highest change in student population is

Electromechanical Engineering, with a huge increase of 330 students. There was no other

program that matched this enrollment, and provided the interests of students (as career oriented)

clearly this is something that the local area is needing and utilizing. So, I decided to invest in this

program. The program with the highest overall enrollment is Business, at right around 430

students each year. I decided to maintain since it is clearly doing well with the current state of

affairs, but could be swayed to invest should it seem likely to attract more students. Other
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programs I decided to maintain were; Biology (no change over the five years in average

enrollment, and with removal of the associate degree this is a helpful alternative), Criminal

Justice B.S. (only the B.S. as their enrollment is far higher, cost is lower, and more students

could be utilizing the combined resources of one baccalaureate degree and the associate degree),

Communications (large enrollment, slightly positive change, seems to be working well by itself),

English (has slightly gone up, but doesn’t seem to fit with the ideal program at Core College, so

not necessarily worth an investment), El & Kindergarten Ed (seems like a good for the school

and has a high enrollment, even if it has been falling) Environmental Studies (for the same

reasons as Biology), Integrative Arts (while again the program doesn’t seem to fit the school,

they are doing well how they are running and enrollment has remained steady), Psychology (both

B.S. and B.A.), and Science (decided to keep all three as their enrollment has changed very

slightly). I did not review Political Science, Security & Risk Analysis or Visual Arts Studies as

those programs did not have the full data set. Although, based on their information, I would vote

to maintain both of these as well.

Additional programs worth of investment at Core College are; Nursing B.S. and Nursing

R.N. to B.S. These are obviously popular at the school and provide graduates career prep. While

this seems like a small number, I am proposing to combine Food Services and Hotel

Management into one more comprehensive program and to invest in that. Additionally, I

propose to combine Mathematics and Mathematics-Systems Analysis into one program and

invest in that as well.

Finally, programs I would recommend disinvesting in are the Criminal Justice B.A.

(significantly less enrollment than the B.S. which I decided to maintain), Liberal Arts

(enrollment has dropped, and this doesn’t seem to fit with the school).