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Key to the planning effort in Process were the commitment to provide transparency throughout the process, to cast a wide net in order to achieve a truly comprehensive Plan, and to involve as many people as possible who might be impacted by the Plan.

This was a big deal, and a courageous commitment for University leaders. They really wanted to hear from everybody. It became a chance to educate people about facilities and space utilization and to get their buy-in, but it was risky too. People feel strongly about 鈥榯heir鈥� space.

鈥淭he idea of being truly comprehensive is something most people overlook,鈥� said Phil Moessner, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management at SCSU. 鈥淎 lot of campuses will sit down to write a CFP and only think about the academic and administrative support buildings. But a campus is bigger than that. You鈥檝e got residence life and all the facilities that support student life and development. You鈥檝e got athletic facilities that are key to how students engage and connect with the university.

The plan ought to be comprehensive enough to address all those functions 鈥� to take into account the whole campus, not just microcosms. If you look at all the areas collectively rather than as silos, it鈥檚 really helpful. I think our CFP did that really well.鈥�

鈥淲e knew because of our enrollment situation that there was no way to do what everyone wanted to have done,鈥� said Tammy McGee, then-Vice President of Finance at SCSU and the primary driver of the CFP update. 鈥淭he two biggest currencies on a college campus are money (how much is in your budget, how much you are paid, etc.) and physical space. We knew going into this project that we would be working with people in an arena that would hit them right at their core, one way or another. How do we construct a process that both educates people, brings them along, and holds them accountable for whatever decisions get made? In order to do that and live it, we had to be as transparent as we could be.鈥�

McGee said, 鈥淲hen we set up our teams we had representatives from all of our unions, from every major functional area on campus, from senior leadership to clerical functions, student leaders, deans from different academic areas/colleges, and more. It wasn鈥檛 always easy to get people on board, but it helped that the President was fully behind this. There were a couple of functional areas that had been slow to get him their strategic plans, but they got on board when the President reminded them that he couldn鈥檛 promise their priorities would be reflected in the CFP if they weren鈥檛 at the table with their own goals articulated.鈥�

鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to be transparent, you need to be thorough,鈥� said McGee. 鈥淧eople need to understand what the consequences might be for the decisions that are made, and they need to see their place in the larger conversation. The transparency gave us an opportunity to educate people, and not just come out with an edict.鈥�

The University established a SharePoint site on the university website early on to give access to meeting notes, presentations and drafts of the plan to faculty, staff and students. There were multiple on-campus workshops, and each concluded with a campus-wide presentation, providing updates on the status of the work and opportunities to provide feedback and field questions about the plan. There were 200-plus meetings over the course of the process.

鈥淎ll the effort for transparency and collaboration that went into the development phase gives the CFP a lot of credibility,鈥� said Moessner. 鈥淭here is buy-in across campus for this plan. If I tell people we鈥檙e doing something because it鈥檚 in the CFP, they get it. There are always a few who don鈥檛 like aspects of it, but they鈥檙e few and far between. I would tell anybody that the time you take up front to make sure that all constituents/stakeholders are really engaged and understand what you鈥檙e trying to achieve will pay dividends in the end 鈥� not just in the product but in how the product gets used.鈥�