Unit Planning

Guidance

To provide ample time for drafting and development, units will be asked to complete their plans between July 1, 2025, and December 15, 2025. Implementation will begin on January 1, 2026.

The Office of the Vice President for the Commonwealth Campuses will guide the strategic planning process for the Commonwealth Campuses.

Units should consider the following high-level guidance to develop their plans:

• These plans should lay out a forward-looking vision and goals for the next five years. Please be both aspirational and achievable.
• Each unit’s plan should focus on the clear ways you will take to achieve your vision and how to reach your aspirations.
• With the institutional plan as a backdrop, identify goals, objectives, strategies, and measures for your unit plan.
• Unit plans should be linked to the institutional plan goals, objectives, and measures meaningfully.
• Each unit will be given unit breakouts for the final institutional strategic plan measures as they are available.
• Units have the option of adding additional measures not in the University plan if meaningful to achieving the vision of their unit plan.
• Unit plan measures can be qualitative or quantitative, must be accurate and verifiable, and should inform understanding and progress toward your unit plan.
• Consider local, national, and global trends that could affect your unit during this period as you develop your plan components.
• Identify and highlight what sets your unit apart from similar units at other universities and how you will enhance and sustain this distinctiveness and/or excellence.

Throughout this planning process, the Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research (OPAIR) will continue to collaborate with individual units to provide guidance and consultative support. In addition, each unit will receive relevant data, as well as broader feedback applicable to units across the University, garnered during the recent institutional plan feedback process.

Resources

To assist in the planning process, there are several resources which units may draw upon.

• REACH for Greater, a brief outline of an approach a unit might take to design its planning process
• A resource to assist with an environmental scan to help inform your plan
• A Planning Handbook which includes resources and helpful tips for designing a unit strategic plan, including resources meant to support the guidance above
• Access to unit-specific data linked to the institutional strategic plan measures will be shared as it becomes available
• An optional unit plan template that you can use to help structure your plan

Measurement and Progress Reporting

Looking forward, once both the institutional and unit plans are in place, data related to the measures of the institutional plan will be released twice a year (October 15 and March 15), with breakouts at the University and unit levels for these measures. Units will have the opportunity to give context to the University plan measure breakouts.

Learn More

For assistance with or questions about your unit plan updates and development, the team can be reached at strategicplan@psu.edu.