Formal and sustained strategic planning at Villanova can be traced to the mid-1980s Program Evaluation Committee (PEC). A second phase of planning commenced in 1989 under the aegis of the President’s Planning Committee; this team consolidated the PEC findings in preparation for the 1990 Middle States Self-Study. During the 1990-1991 academic year, the University Senate and the Board of Trustees reviewed strategic planning documents and indicative of the critical role of planning, the Board established an ad hoc planning committee which developed A Future of Promise: The Villanova Strategic Plan. The plan was formally approved by the Board of Trustees in December 1991.

          This plan crystallized the vision and Mission of the University as it articulated fourteen strategic goals and seven strategic objectives. The plan also included twenty-one performance indicators which would subsequently be monitored, especially through quantitative comparison with selected “overlap admission” institutions which the plan defined as institutions to which our prospective students most frequently apply and are admitted...colleges and universities to which students and their parents compare Villanova. Simultaneously, the Trustees instructed the University Budget Office to construct and regularly update a ten-year financial model, reflecting the strategic plan’s priorities. This was rapidly accomplished and has proved to be an invaluable tool for financial planning.

          A Future of Promise contained a rather unobtrusive but extremely influential sentence which would extend the planning process to all levels of the University:

           Members of individual academic departments and administrative units will be asked to respond to the objectives that are most appropriate to their unit and to develop specific program plans.

            In rapid response to this guideline, in 1992, each of the Colleges began developing detailed plans in concert with the overarching A Future of Promise. In 1993, facilitated by a Guide for Developing Academic and Administrative Plans, which was authored by the newly established (December 1992) Office of Planning, Training and Institutional Research, planning expanded to administrative units. In all, thirty-seven plans were composed, each using a standardized format and template which included quantifiable goals, timetables, priorities and budgets.

             In 1995, the University completed A Future of Promise, A Future of Excellence which integrated goals and plans from each of the College and administrative units’ thirty-seven plans and set forth specific strategic directions for the University. These plans were widely promulgated. Copies of both A Future of Promise and A Future of Promise, A Future of Excellence were distributed to all members of the Villanova community. Additionally, the college and administrative plans were made available to all members of the community in several campus locations. It is striking and commendable that, in the 1999 special Middle States Self-Study surveys, not a single senior leader and only 9.3% of the faculty disagreed with this statement: I am familiar with Villanova’s strategic plan, A Future of Promise. The survey of staff also revealed extensive familiarity with A Future of Promise; four in ten staff members (38.2%) indicated that they had read this plan within the past year.

             In 1997 and again in 1999, individual strategic plans were revisited and revised by College and administrative units. The academic portion of the latest revision has been steered by yet another central planning document, An Education of Excellence: The Academic Strategic Plan. Completed in 1998, this plan was developed by the Vice-President for Academic Affairs after numerous rounds of critique and comment by faculty members.

              Information Technology (IT) merits special mention in the planning process. Since 1993, Villanova has methodically constructed a solid IT infrastructure. In Spring 1997, it became apparent that a single IT Committee could no longer address the far-reaching needs of numerous internal constituencies. A new structure was created whereby a University IT Council (UCIT) plans strategic directions and makes decisions regarding major IT policies and projects. Three subcommittees function under the IT Council in the areas denoted by their titles:

The Academic IT Committee
The Administrative IT Committee
The Infrastructure IT Committee

             Using Colleges and administrative strategic plans, all three committees developed their respective IT plans and review them annually. These three plans are the foundation for the consolidated, single University IT plan which is prepared by the Executive Director of UNIT and presented to UCIT for approval.

One way to depict the milestones of the planning process is to chronologically log when major planning products were developed and disseminated; this time frame is displayed in the following table.

               Timeline for Issuing Major Planning Documents

 1991   A Future of Promise: The Villanova Strategic Plan
 1991   Ten Year Financial Model (Annually Revised)
 1993   Academic and Administrative Strategic Plans
 1995   A Future of Promise, A Future of Excellence
 1996   Middle States Periodic Review Report
 1997   Information Technology Strategic Plan (annually revised)
 1997   Revision: Academic and Administrative Strategic Plans
 1998   An Education of Excellence: The Academic Strategic Plan
 1999   Revision: Academic and Administrative Strategic Plans
 2001   Trustees Update and Endorse Twelve Strategic Goals
 2001   Middle States Self-Study Report: Transforming Minds and Hearts
 2002   Administrative Planning and Budget Committee (APBC)
           Goal Attainment Team Report Generated for Trustees
 2002      Middle States Self-Study Implementation Team
           Process and Responsibilities Handbook Prepared
 2002   Academic Strategic Plan 2003-2010 Draft Prepare

Documenting the procession of planning documents is helpful in understanding the evolution of strategic planning at Villanova; however, the planning process itself is certainly of paramount import. Without doubt, the original drivers were the Board of Trustees and the President.

  For most of the 1990s, the Trustees, particularly through their Strategic Planning Subcommittee, were the central planning impetus. The Board’s Strategic Planning Committee drew heavily upon the Budget Office and OPTIR for supporting data. The Trustees systematically monitored planning progress, in particular by means of three to four annual meetings of the Committee wherein goal attainment and budgets were scrutinized and administrators presented reports on various academic and co-curricular programs and initiatives. In 1993, Villanova was accepted into the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS), a group of over 100 private College and universities which submit IPEDS, AAUP and other data forms to HEDS staff who, in turn, rapidly processes and reports comparison analyses back to all participating institutions. Every three years or so, OPTIR prepares a report which includes over 60 performance indicators (e.g., student demographics, average class size, faculty and staff salaries).

             These indicators, which are closely examined by the Board’s Strategic Planning Committee, provide multi-year trend data for Villanova and selected overlap admission institutions.

              Through 1996, the budgeting (annual budget development, multi-year modeling and monitoring) was accomplished through the Budget Office of the Financial Affairs Department. An Administrative Budget Committee, consisting largely of Financial Affairs staff and several Vice-Presidents, oversaw the budget process with the Board approving annual budgets and special allocations. Budgeting and planning were second cousins at best. In January

              1997, the Administrative Budget Committee gave way to a new body, the University Planning and Budget Committee (UPBC). The title is not semantic; one of the UPBC’s major goals is to link strategic planning and budgeting.

               The Senior Vice-President for Administration chairs the UPBC whose membership includes all vice presidents, all College deans (except Law School), the Athletics Director, the Executive Director of Budget and Auxiliary Services, and the Executive Director of OPTIR. The UPBC meets twice per month. During Spring 1999, an external consulting group evaluated the UPBC and made a number of recommendations including selectively establishing subcommittees, which could include non-UPBC colleagues, in order to better address significant projects and simultaneously maximize meeting time. Since the beginning of Academic Year 1999-2000, the UPBC has established two permanent subcommittees: Budget Committee and Human Resources Committee. It has also established the following subcommittees which are “issue focused” and will disband after their assignments have been met: Entrepreneurial Project Committee, Internal Charge Back Committee, Grants Task Force and Supplement/Replacement (Endowment) Task Force.

              The UPBC has accomplished much in a short time, especially since the beginning of Academic Year 1999-2000. Since September 1999, it has reviewed and recast the original fourteen overarching goals of A Future of Promise into twelve University goals. The UPBC had earlier articulated six strategic themes which are receiving special emphasis: (1) Augustinian and Catholic Heritage, (2) A Living/Learning Community, (3) Graduate Education, (4) An International/Multicultural Community, (5) Information Technology, (6) The Assessment of Outcomes. The UPBC has also sparked the latest revision of academic and administrative goals. These 247 Colleges and administrative level goals have been rated and prioritized by the UPBC. High ranking goals have been ascribed costs and are currently being utilized in the planning period of a new capital campaign. These goals are also being reviewed to determine if selected ones should be funded from current operating and/or special funds.

               Perhaps most importantly, the UPBC has unequivocally affirmed its commitment to planning driving budgeting, not vice versa, and has concretized this commitment by setting aside $500,000 from the 2000-2001 operating budget to fund initiatives directly related to the six strategic themes. This sum has grown to $700,000 in the 2001-2002 budget year, and it is anticipated that this planning allocation will continue to increase. Finally, the UPBC has recognized its responsibility to keep the Villanova community informed of its strategic action and since Spring 2000, the faculty/staff newspaper, Blueprints, has typically featured the activities of the UPBC.

  The vigorous role that the UPBC has played in strategic planning is supported by the Trustees who, in January 2000, formally recognized the UPBC as the phalanx planning group. Concomitantly, the Strategic Planning Committee of the Board will continue its functions of policy setting as well as monitoring goal attainment and fiscal allocations.