Department Operational Planning

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UPDATED March 27, 2024

Operational Planning Overview for Fiscal Year 2024-2025

In recent years, the department and budget planning process occurred together. This year, it was decided that departments should enter their budget justifications directly into the department’s budget spreadsheet rather than complete a department and budget planning template. Given this, the process for department planning has also changed for this year.

It is important to set your department goals and reflect on the prior year’s goals. Please discuss with your departments and when ready, follow the prompts and directions in this Department Planning Form.

Here is a blank template to use for planning: FY24-25_MCC-Department-Planning-Goals_Template.pdf

Please submit one completed plan per department by May 10, 2024. Once submitted, you will be able to download a copy of your plan. Please share a copy with your department supervisor.

In prior years, MCC participated in the Four Disciplines of Execution (4DX) as a way to operationalize MCC’s strategic planning goals. While the 4DX methodology and concepts are valuable, MCC has decided to reassess the deployment of 4DX. However, please continue to align your department goals with college goals and identify key metrics to monitor success. For more information, see the intranet post on 4DX Transition. We will continue to work to develop a process to document the department’s goals and progress.

SMART Goals

Goals should be SMART:

Specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound. Please see the example SMART goals below.

Example Goals:

  • By 2025, increase the department’s course success rate of Hispanic students from 65% to 70%.
  • By 2025, increase the number of department employees who attend DEI-related professional development from 30% to 50%.
  • By 2026, decrease the average wait time for a student to start a chat from 10 minutes to 3 minutes.
  • By 2027, increase [key metric] from [number/percentage] to [higher number/percentage].

Planning Alignment to College and District Goals

Operational plans, goals, and new initiative proposals should align with MCC’s strategic directions and goals from our current strategic plan: Thunderbirds THRIVE 2020-2025.

The college has three strategic directions for 2020-2025:

  1. MCC Strategic Direction 1: MCC is an Agent for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
  2. MCC Strategic Direction 2: MCC improves student outcomes and experiences through Guided Pathways.
  3. MCC Strategic Direction 3: MCC is a great place to work.

MCC's Wildly Important Goal (WIG) focused on student success is: By 2025, MCC will attain equitable 2-year outcomes for new-to-college students by increasing the two-year success rate for all racial groups to 16%.

These sub-goals support the WIG:

  • Close Opportunity Gaps in Course Success - By Fall 2023, close opportunity gaps in course success across all racial groups while increasing MCC’s overall course success rate from 74% to 80% per semester.
  • Increase first-year college-level English and math completion - By the end of 2023, with equity across racial groups, increase the percentage of new-to-college students who complete college-level English and math in their first year from 27% to 33%.
  • Increase first-year student credit momentum - By the end of 2023, with equity across racial groups, increase the percentage of full-time, new-to-college students who earn 30+ credits in their first year from 12% to 18% and increase the percentage of part-time, new-to-college students who earn 15+ credits in their first year from 18% to 24%.
  • Improve the student experience - By 2025, increase the percentage of students who report that their college experience was better than expected from 54% to 66%.
  • Recruit and Retain a Diverse Workforce - By 2025, increase the diversity of our workforce by 5%.

MCC's WIG and sub-goals support the Maricopa District WIG: Increase equitable two-year completion/transfer rate for students of color from 9.8% to 15% by fall 2023.

Need Help?

For questions related to planning or goal setting contact Tricia White in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness