Background and Processes
Beginning in the spring of 2011, the NIC Board of Trustees directed the college to establish a Long-Range Visioning and Planning Committee to review the mission, vision and values for the college and to create a new strategic plan.
In July 2011, a Long-Range Visioning and Planning (LRVP) Committee convened to redefine NIC’s mission, vision and values. The LRVP Committee was made up of 17 community members and 10 members from the college.
In February 2012, the NIC Board of Trustees approved the mission, vision and values statements that were developed by the LRVP.
Following the LRVP process, and under the direction of the board, a Strategic Planning Steering Committee convened to develop a new strategic plan framework document for use on campus and for submissions to the state.
The Strategic Plan and the Accreditation Core Themes at NIC are intentionally integrated. In the fall of 2013, NIC reevaluated the original Accreditation core themes – Student Success, Educational Excellence, and Community Engagement – and subsequently adopted the five Strategic Plan values as its core themes: Student Success, Educational Excellence, Community Engagement, Stewardship and Diversity.
In the fall of 2016, a diverse group of leaders were assembled to establish a process for integrated planning at NIC. This group was tasked with building a foundation for planning and executing several initiatives to prepare the institution for an update to the strategic plan. The initial campus input and direction determination was branded “Cultivate NIC.” The Cultivate Planning Team remains on-call in an advisory capacity.
In the meantime, campus leaders created master plans for key areas of the institution, resulting in the Academic Master Plan, Strategic Enrollment Management Plan, Information Technology Master Plan and Facilities Master Plan.
In the summer of 2018, a subcommittee of the Cultivate Planning Team reviewed the SWOT – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – analysis and Environmental Scan to inform the creation of a framework for an Integrated Strategic Plan. This framework connects to the college’s Core Themes, provides for alignment among and with the various master plans and allows for direction when determining new action items within the categories. Implementation teams are charged with identifying and assessing potential action items within the framework. The NIC Board of Trustees voted to endorse changes to the Integrated Strategic Plan on Jan. 15, 2020.
Improving Institutional Effectiveness
NIC’s accrediting body, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), revised accreditation processes, Standards and Eligibility Requirements, effective Jan. 1, 2020.
One major change with the 2020 Standards was the option for member institutions to report measures for improving institutional effectiveness instead of using Core Themes, Objectives and Indicators to gauge mission fulfillment. In Spring 2020, the Executive Accreditation and Planning Committee (EAPC) implemented this change and transitioned from the Core Theme Report to a set of measures focusing on improving institutional effectiveness aligned with the performance of the college’s current strategic plan.
North Idaho College monitors 24 measures of institutional effectiveness located on the Mission Fulfillment Dashboard.
North Idaho College Integrated Planning
North Idaho College Master Plans
- Academic Master Plan
- Information Technology Master Plan
- Strategic Enrollment Management Plan
- North Idaho College Facilities Master Plan
Idaho State Board of Education Strategic Plan
This submission is required by the Idaho State Board of Education and aligns with the State Board’s Strategic objectives.