In early fall 2021, the Core Strategy Team (CST) was formed. This team, comprised of faculty, staff and administrators, led the strategic planning process from summer 2021 through fall 2022: analyzing data, gathering ideas and concerns from the College community, and assessing higher education trends. Additional details about the strategic planning process can be found in Appendix A of the downloadable strategic plan.

In support of the overall goal of improving retention,
student success and completion rates, the CST recommends the following strategic priorities:

• Improve Success and Retention Rates for First Semester Students
• Become More Agile in Response to the Changing Needs of Industry Partners, Students, and the Evolving Economic and Regional Workforce Landscape
• Commit to Inclusive Excellence and Closing Equity Gaps by Embedding the Equity and Inclusion Strategic Plan into College-Wide Practices
• Create a Thriving and Energizing Employee Environment

• Assess courses that students typically take in their first semester and support faculty, department, and division efforts to increase success rates in those courses.
• Create greater opportunities for early access to student areas of academic interest. Potential models include learning cohorts and contextualized AAA sections.
• Support academic readiness by piloting and expanding co-curricular offerings such as parachute courses, non-credit skill development programs, and bridge programs.
• Expand peer tutoring and peer mentoring programs.
• Build upon and continue to support community building programs in both academic and student support services.
• Employ strategic scheduling in order to foster cohort building, a sense of belonging, and to minimize scheduling challenges.
• Close the digital divide by implementing digital inclusion practices and digital literacy tools that increase access to internet-enabled devices.

For purposes of this plan, “first semester students” are defined as: New First Time Anywhere, Transfer, or Readmit students. This includes concurrent enrollment students who matriculate to degree seeking students (they are classified as “new” in the first term after they graduate high school).

• Continue to develop shorter, flexible options such as stackable credentials and short term or industry credentials.
• Offer a variety of course modalities and schedules.
• Increase Prior Learning Assessment opportunities, utilization and awareness.
• Increase non-credit learning opportunities.
• Following CCCS’s emphasis on increasing success rates for learners 25+, intentionally connect those learners to programs and resources.

The high-level priorities of the Equity & Inclusion (E&I) plan are included here to affirm the College’s continued commitment to that plan, as well as the alignment between the two strategic plans. More details can be found in the E&I plan.

• As the College works toward becoming an HSI, create the necessary infrastructure and resources to support success for Hispanic-identifying students.

Collaborate with Human Resources on Hiring and Retaining a More Diverse Pikes Peak Workforce:

• Align PPSC’s hiring practices with the College’s Affirmative Action Plan and Anti-Racism Framework.

• Identify and build upon the differentiators that attract and retain top talent. Build the Pikes Peak brand as an attractive employment destination.
• Recognizing that compensation and benefit packages are prescribed by CCCS and the state board, develop a compensation philosophy and schedule designed to attract and retain top talent at Pikes Peak. As a first step in this effort, Human Resource Services (HRS) will conduct a compensation study that will benchmark PPSC’s compensation against other CCCS colleges (scheduled for February 2023).
• Within salary bands, provide pay differentials for specialized skills, such as bilingual or multilingual language skills.
• Create professional development opportunities that allow employees to acquire skills, expertise in multiple areas, and explore career pathways. Develop entry-level generalist positions within departments/divisions that provide an opportunity to gain experience and provide pathways to advancement.
• Develop an application, hiring and onboarding process that is inclusive and provides a continuum of support to potential and new employees. This process should meaningfully connect potential and new employees to Human Resources, hiring managers, Departments/Programs, and the broader College.
• Create an educational assistance program that supports broader use of the tuition reimbursement program (per System Procedure-360a). Develop a plan for utilizing the State Tuition Reimbursement Program, which allows funds to be used for a wide range of courses including those beyond the two-year degree.

As with past PPSC strategic plans, the next step in implementing the plan is to establish focus goals. The President will convene a working group dedicated to determining the focus goals for each year. That working group will be charged with:

• Revising and refining the goals of the strategic plan, as necessary.
• Assessing changes in the regional and larger, higher education and economic landscape.
• Selecting the focus goals for each year. 
• Determining the key metrics of success for those focus goals.
• Creating and coordinating with small working groups designed to implement each year's focus goals.
• Reporting back to the Leadership Team and the broader Pikes Peak community on the success of the focus goals.