IV. PLANNING CONTEXT
A. External Factors
Supporting a process of review, analysis, strategic plan revisions, and budgeting requires that the college community be kept informed of major initiatives and external factors. WCC must be responsive to the workforce and social needs of its constituency as the College is required to interface with businesses, community organizations, legislative bodies, executive agencies, workforce and apprenticeship councils, lower education partners, and the university system leadership.
New demands based upon shifting employment patterns, new technologies, and policy changes need to be recognized and articulated in the evaluative process as major drivers. Liberal Arts is tasked to keep their curriculum vibrant and integrated with the University of Hawaii System through program articulation. Their service mission to support holistic learning requires an understanding of the demands of the external community.
Every dynamic institution must be responsible to major community needs and initiatives. Programs may have to respond to those societal factors. Major program changes may be originated through external economic change and educational articulation by groups directly to the Chancellor and the ETC. It is the responsibility of the Chancellor and the Director of Vocational and Career Education to work with all groups to develop the capacity to implement major state initiatives through appropriate consultation, budgeting, and implementation.
B. Internal Factors
Additional facilities’ maintenance personnel, faculty, and instructional support staff are sorely needed. With the science, humanities, and student services buildings completed, and a new library/media/learning center complex being constructed, there is a definite need to expand the facilities and instructional support staff of the College. Also, with the development of credit and non-credit programs i.e., Plant Biotechnology and Bio-Resources Development and Management; the Ocean Recreation Program; the Hawai‘i Music Institute; and the Atelier program, additional faculty and staff positions are needed to ensure successful implementation and maintenance.
C. Infrastructure Influences
The State and the University plan to continue developing telecommunications systems and providing alternative methods of instructional delivery. Distance-delivered courses are expected to increase as instruction is delivered directly to the home and workplace.
Funding will continue to be a challenge, increasing our reliance on tuition revenues, special program revenues, gifts and grants.
D. Planning Assumptions
The following planning assumptions were used in the compilation of this Strategic Plan:
External
• The State's economic picture is expected to slowly recover over the upcoming seven-year period.
• There will be an increase in the number of students enrolling at WCC, who otherwise would have enrolled at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa due to the publicity of the college’s offerings and quality educational experience, smaller class sizes, convenient location, reasonable tuition, free parking, and UH Manoa’s expressed concentration on upper division and graduate education.
• New students will be attracted to the College due to our improved facilities, such as the science building, the humanities complex, the Imaginarium, and the Student Campus Center.
Internal
• The student population will likely remain predominantly liberal arts majors.
• System-wide efforts to make the University of Hawai‘i a truly seamless system will help the Community Colleges to provide their area residents with the basic educational requirements for any of the System’s degree and certificate programs. To this end, WCC hopes to offer the residents of the Windward Side of O‘ahu the core courses required for programs offered at any of the UH campuses.
• The needs of employers and special-needs students and the vocational interests of area residents can be served through the Employment Training Center/Office of Continuing Education and Training.
• WCC will remain an open-admission College.
• The need to assist underprepared and underserved area students will continue and will be served through joint efforts of the Windward Community College credit and non-credit programs and the State Department of Education.
• Campus technology will continue to be important to academic support and to the enhancement of successful teaching.
• WCC will be a leader in Hawaiian Studies, the fine and performing arts and the sciences.
We also expect enrollment to increase gradually over the next seven years due to the following factors:
• Increase in the working adult student population; i.e., more evening, off-campus, and distance delivered offerings.
• New programs or modifications to existing programs.
• New instructional delivery systems via cable television and the internet.
• The Community Colleges’ relatively low tuition rates.
• UH Manoa’s concentration on upper division and graduate education.
• Implementation of enrollment enhancing outreach programs such as the Running Start program and other DOE and grant-funded programs.
• Improved and enhanced marketing of the College.
Comments So Far
Comment 1. Are the Planning Assumptions accurate?
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