Our Strategic Plan
The Purpose
Strategic Planning evolves from collaborative engagement with the campus, local, and regional communities to articulate a shared mission, vision, and set of values that drive all decision-making at Arizona Western College. The Strategic Plan that develops out of this process is dynamic and provides a flexible but focused framework for our future.
The History
In November 2016 AWC President Dr. Daniel Corr launched a 15-month Strategic Planning Initiative. He worked with the Classified Association, Faculty Senate, and the President's Cabinet to select Biridiana Martinez, Ellen Riek, and Lori Stofft as tri-chairs for this process. Dr. Corr gave only two directions for the tri-chairs: make the strategic planning process inclusive, and make it transparent. Research into successful strategic planning at other institutions and preliminary discussions with consultants revealed that we should develop a Task Force with balanced representation from our three employee groups, to collaborate with President's Council and AWC students to drive our Strategic Planning process.
Innovation Fund
In 2017 Dr. Corr and The District Governing Board launched the inaugural Innovation Fund to support the development of AWC initiatives aligned with Strategic Planning. This year, $80,000 in funds are available for one-time projects beginning in Spring 2022 that support Strategic Planning efforts, specifically projects that align with AWC’s Mission, Vision and Values. This limited time funding is designed to encourage innovative thinking outside the parameters of the annual fiscal year budget.
Learn MoreOctober 2021
Innovation Fund Update
September 2020
Arizona Western College hosted a press conference at the Parker Learning Center on Thursday, September 10, to share about expanding partnerships with regional law enforcement and funding from Arizona@Work to enroll cadets in the college’s Law Enforcement Training Academy (LETA).
June 2020
We hosted the 2nd in a series of college-wide convenings (AWC Teams Streamline: Stop to Reinvent) with Liz Murphy, from CampusWorks Inc, to talk about how our teams can learn from the COVID-19 Pandemic and streamline their work to better serve our students.
May 2020
Over 120 colleagues joined us to at the Stopping to contemplate the early lessons of this huge shift in the work we do.
March 2020
In March, days (minutes?) before the shut-down, about 40 colleagues gathered for an Implementation Council meeting, to talk about how to streamline and collapse the list of 19 objectives, and to engage in conversation about our Values. We discussed how to set our teams up for success and completion on the Objectives, the need to remove barriers, the desire to ap new talent to the Implementation teams.
October 9, 2019
AWC staff seek professional development on Strategic Planning work
July 25, 2019
2019 Strategic Planning Status Report
December 6, 2018
2019 Innovation Fund Awards Announced
November 13, 2018
Pathways Framework Adopted
May 03, 2018
Strategic Innovation Projects in the Works Across District
February 26, 2018
Arizona Western College Unveils Strategic Plan: Technology, Agility, and Baccalaureate Degrees at the top of the list
May 02, 2018
AWC Governing Board approves a preliminary budget
February 27, 2018
Student-Focused Innovation Projects Bring Great Ideas to Life Across District
| File Name | Downloads |
|---|---|
| 2024 Innovation Fund Strategic Plan Town Hall, Dec 2023 | Download |
| Strategic Plan Bootcamp for New Hires, Oct 2023 | Download |
| Strategic Plan Jeopardy, Oct 2023 | Website |
| Strategic Plan Postcard, Oct 2023 | Download |
| Strategic Plan Posters, Oct 2023 | Download |
| Strategic Plan Update & Innovation Town Hall - Dec 2022 | Download |
| Strategic Planning Remaining Work 2022 | Document Link (Internal Only) |
| Strategic Booklet - Status Report - Fall 2019 | Download |
| Strategic Plan 2025 Booklet | Download |
| Strategic Plan Presentation - Dec. 2018 | Download |
| Action Plans - Dec. 2018 | Download |
| Implementation Workshop - May 2019 | Download |
| Implementation Workshop Questions - May 2019 | Download |
| Implementation Workshop Feedback - May 2019 | Download |
| Strategic Planning Document/File Name | Downloads |
|---|---|
| Strategic Plan: Implementation Team Objective Leads | Download |
| Accessibility Document/File Name | Downloads |
|---|---|
| YCAT Email | Download |
| YCAT Data for AWC Ridership | Download |
| Summer Drop and Success Rate Data | Download |
| Student Survey - Fall 2018 - Spring 2019 | Download |
| Student Survey (Online) - Fall 2018 - Spring 2019 | Download |
| Standard Time Model Feedback and Notes | Download |
| Proposed Transfer & Career Pathways Framework | Download |
| Agility Document/File Name | Downloads |
|---|---|
| Agility Processes, Procedures, and Policies | Download |
| Agility Self-Assessment - Shared Governance | Download |
| Deal Makers & Breakers Workshop Presentation | Download |
| Deal Makers & Breakers Workshop Questions | Download |
| Deal Makers & Breakers Workshop Responses | Download |
| Notes from Focus Group on Section 8 | Download |
| Combined Minutes - 03/28/18 - 09/03/19 | Download |
In June of 2019, members of the AWC Pathways committee, now the Pathways Charter Team, attended the inaugural Arizona Center for Student Success convening in Tempe. Representatives from all 10 Arizona community colleges gathered to discuss successful Guided Pathways models at colleges outside of Arizona, collaborate on best practices, and share next steps for statewide Pathways initiatives moving forward. The plenary speaker was Kay McClenney, Senior Advisor to the president of the American Association of Community Colleges. McClenney congratulated participants on their willingness to do the deep work of building Guided Pathways at our home institutions, recognizing that the historically piecemeal approach to providing support for student retention and completion has yielded less than impressive results. Rather, she suggested, we need to adopt a holistic approach that shifts us away from asking if students are ready for college and toward creating colleges that are ready for students.
Certainly any approach we adopt should be data-driven, and she challenged each of us to ask questions of our institutional data that perhaps we had not asked before. These questions begin to address some of the systemic issues our students experience that hinder their ability to easily navigate an academic path. When our Charter Team returned to AWC and met to debrief the convening, these questions continued to resonate with us. Thus the Disaggregated Data Party was formed! We sent our IERB office a data request focused on the questions McClenney asked, and planned a Friday morning in late September when faculty and staff serving on a variety of Strategic Planning committees could come together to review and analyze the data, and set some goals based on what we found.
Over 50 faculty and staff participated in this Data Party on Friday, September 27, 2019, 9am-noon, and took a deep dive into the data. In many cases what we learned was that we need more data! In other cases, we took issue with how a question was framed—what it implied or didn’t that skewed the results. Sometimes we were just generally surprised at what we found. In all cases, as our post-Data Party survey responses indicate, we agreed that working together—across departments, programs, and employee groups—should be at least an annual exercise.
If you have any questions as you peruse the slides that helped drive our process, the raw data, or the results, please contact Strategic.Planning@azwestern.edu
| File Name | Downloads |
|---|---|
| Observations and Discussion | Download |
| Disaggregated Data Party Presentation | Download |
| Q1 Student Application Demographics | Download |
| Q2 FTSE Numbers vs Course Completion | Download |
| Q3 1st Semester Gateway Course (ENG & MAT) | Download |
| Q5 30 Credits 1st Semester | Download |
| Q6 1st YR Degree Related Courses | Download |
| Q7 Degree Completers - Total Credits Completed | Download |
| Q8 FTSE Developmental (ENG & MAT) Students & SSC | Download |
Strategic Direction
AGILITY
TECHNOLOGY
ACCESSIBILITY
PROSPERITY
Values
AGILITY – We welcome change, anticipate stakeholder needs, identify flexible, innovative solutions, adapt to meet constituent needs, and are process focused.
PASSION – We dream big, propose creative solutions, exceed expectations, and foster an engaging and supportive environment.
TRANSPARENCY – We build trust through honesty and openness, include stakeholders in decision-making, and communicate thoughtfully and clearly.
UNITY – We collaborate to develop and achieve goals, find opportunities to create synergy and empowerment, and work holistically toward student success.
EMPOWERMENT – We are inspired to do our best work when governance and responsibility are shared equitably, individuals are encouraged to express diverse and innovative perspectives, and courage is esteemed over comfort.
RESPECT – We express the highest levels of professionalism and kindness, seek common ground with openness & inclusivity, challenge ideas with an empathetic mindset, and listen to and acknowledge others’ ideas with civility and courtesy.
Framework
