Strategic Planning and Retention within the Community College Setting.

Challenging economic conditions, changing student demographics, and heightened levels of accountability require community colleges to address student retention strategically. A historical summary of the community college serves as the platform for the argument for the use of strategic planning as a tool to address both internal and external challenges. The article highlights components of an effective strategic planning process, in addition to providing a framework from which institutions can develop a process to retain students. Community colleges are not immune to the numerous external forces demanding accountability as with other American human services enterprises such as four-year colleges, health care systems, and other social services. These forces include reduced funding and increased public, legislative, and accrediting scrutiny, in addition to shifts in the social, political, and market landscape of higher education (Woodard & von Destinon, 2000). Bryson (1995) stated that the environments of public and non-profit organizations have become not only increasingly uncertain in recent years but also more tightly interconnected; thus, a change anywhere in the system reverberates unpredictably. This increased uncertainty and interconnectedness according to Bryson, requires a threefold response; first, organizations must think strategically as never before; second, organizations must translate their insights into effective strategies to cope with changing circumstances; and third, organizations must develop rationales to lay the groundwork for adopting and implementing strategies. The increasing impact of such forces now drives institutions to engage in a more proactive, self-reflective, and visioning process to determine the most appropriate direction to take relative to these challenges and their desired future. According to McConkey (1987), effective strategies to deal with such situations require that managers and leaders engage in planning for uncertainty and not for certainty, as it is becoming more difficult to predict the future with any degree of accuracy. This article presents an overview of the literature that argues for the need and the suitability of embarking upon a comprehensive process of institutional change to address the problem of student retention within the community college setting. This is a process that requires a clear understanding of the existing challenges, firm leadership, and a thorough strategic planning process that engages key stakeholders in rethinking the existing roles, culture, responsibilities, and architectural structures of the institution. Problem As community colleges cope with the external forces while at the same time attempting to meet their mission of open access, their work becomes increasingly complex. This difficult task is exacerbated by increasing student enrollments, problems of access and success over the past decade (Pierce, 1996; Seidman, 1995), and shifts in federal and state funding as a result of challenging economic conditions (Guskin, 1994; Leslie, 1995). Enrollment growth in particular has been accompanied by a major shift in the demographic profile of post-secondary students enrolling in community colleges as increasing numbers of students of color and economically disadvantaged students are expected to enroll in these institutions (Chenoweth, 1998; Nora & Rendon, 1990). Retention of such students at the community college level has become increasingly challenging. This is reflected politically within the existing organizational structure and culture, both organizationally in terms of the institution's capacity to reframe how it conducts business while addressing internal and external pressures. How much should be invested in remediation? To what extent does retention play a major role in the strategic decisions of the college? To what extent should institutions commit constrained resources to support services? …