Institutional Planning

Institutional planning combines with research to help American River College administrators, faculty, and classified staff formulate data-driven decisions. ARC strives to facilitate broad dialogue about the effectiveness of college processes, programs, and services by continually moving the institution forward towards achieving its mission. 

By supporting the decision-making processes of the college and its centers, institutional planning supports departments, academic disciplines, service areas, and work units as they develop and maintain high-quality programs and services to enhance student learning.

• An integrated planning cycle is synced to a seven-year accreditation cycle, allowing each major plan to be revisited prior to the institution’s next self‐evaluation.
• Program Review follows this cycle with each of the six cohorts participating once per cycle. This sets the objectives which drive the activities or action steps to which resources are allocated on an annual basis.
• Annual Unit Planning identifies the specific action steps the planning unit intends to take during the upcoming year and any resources needed for implementation so that institutional resources can be effectively allocated to the planned activities.

American River College developed this model based on a set of guiding principles reflecting an intent to create a supportive, streamlined process that is both meaningful and useful to the participants.