This week we looked at the strategic planning aspect of higher education, including taking a look at Baruch’s own plan for comparison. Strategic planning is a very important aspect to higher education that began to gain importance in the 1940s after World War II. Since then strategic planning has become standard for higher education overall. Strategic planning is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, establish agreement around intended outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the organization’s direction in response to a changing environment, as defined by the Balanced Scorecard Institute. Strategic planning is an intricate part of higher education at home, so it’s only right, it would be an intricate part of internationalization, if not more so.

A Strategic plan is needed to lay a path of goals and accomplishments, after some time this plan is then used to assess how well (or not) an organization has progressed. The AIEA article outlines what Strategic planning is and also outlines their 12 principles of successful strategic planning. Baruch College’s Global Strategic Plan 2014-2019 talks about Baruch’s plan and how they include internationalization (Baruch’s plans seem to be compromised of many of the principles). It is not known by students that an institution’s strategic plan is public information. Working in or being involved with higher education/student affairs, I have now looked at Baruch’s and SUNY Old Westbury (my alma mater). It is interesting to look at these plans from both sides, as a student and as a professional. (Many institutions include students in their planning process) Looking at the plan as I student, I was able to identify changes that occurred in certain fields, working within higher ed/student affairs, I was able to assess the changes and better understand why they did or didn’t work. It’s refreshing to see that Baruch is aligned with the AIEA’s principles and to see how the school plans on advancing itself. With the looming budget crisis we are facing it’s sad that a lot of these plans are getting put on the back burner until the budget gets sorted out. A large part of strategic planning is figuring out the budget and where the funds will be coming from.

New York has been called the capital of the nation before. It’s not surprising that a school like Baruch has such a good plan that could/should influence other institutions around. A little more recognition not only for Baruch but for CUNY itself for being what I would like to a gem, so many treasures, that many people (mainly students) don’t realize without a little extra research.