Purposes
NC State University implemented compact planning in 1999 as a means to establish priorities for action by academic and administrative units and by the university as a whole. This cyclical process provides a mechanism for identifying and resolving critical issues affecting quality and effectiveness. The process is designed to align unit and university goals and strategies, and, through the use of specific performance and outcomes measures, provide accountability and the ability to demonstrate publicly the quality and impact of our programs and services.

Compact plans are used to shape various other planning and decision-making processes, including the following.

The Compact Plan
The compact planning process is an annual, iterative conversation across administrative borders. It is a bilateral, written agreement negotiated by an academic or administrative unit and the administrator to which that unit reports. It results from a series of meetings in which the unit leadership presents priorities and issues and develops feasible strategies and targets in negotiation with the administrator to whom it reports. A compact plan is jointly written and delineates specific actions, outcomes, performance expectations, respective responsibilities, and funding sources in the context of unit and university long-range goals and performance expectations. It represents a pledge by both parties to pursue and support the initiatives described in the compact document.

Compact plans relate the unit's long-term goals and aspirations to a specific action agenda of initiatives to be pursued. Initiatives are selected and prioritized upon review of the unit's strategic plans, its recent history on key performance measures, and the results of recent reviews and program evaluations (see Guidelines).

For each initiative, the compact describes objectives and strategies, assigns responsibilities, commits to an implementation schedule, and suggests specific measures appropriate for monitoring progress toward identified outcomes and results. It also describes resources necessary to achieve those outcomes and proposes workable sources for those resources, including internal reallocation, grants and contracts, fund-raising, and new appropriations. If necessary, it describes alternative paths to completing an initiative dependent on future decisions about funding or policy decisions. As such, compact planning anchors the university's budgets and resource allocations by creating a set of investment opportunities, priorities, and preliminary budget requirements.

There are five types of initiatives, as follows:

When two or more units collaborate on a single initiative, a codicil is written and signed by each partner. These codicils follow the same format as other initiatives and appear in the compact plans of each partner.

Compact plans include two kinds of performance measures. The first refers to the outcomes associated with a single initiative and identifies the evidence that will be used to determine whether the desired impact of that initiative has been achieved. The second kind is unit-wide and is used to monitor the unit's ongoing performance, to identify successes, and to flag areas needing attention. Performance on these "dashboard indicators" is reviewed in the introductory section of each unit's compact and, if appropriate, initiatives are introduced to address any areas of concern.

The Compact Process
Writing and negotiating a compact plan is an iterative process. It begins when a unit head leads a discussion among faculty and/or staff in the unit to draft a compact that identifies key issues and outlines high priority initiatives to address them. The unit head then negotiates this compact with the administrator responsible for the unit on the next level. Through a series of two or three compact meetings, the proposed compact is refined until it has reached a mutually agreed-upon form.

Four levels of the university are involved, beginning with the academic departments or administrative units and working toward aggregation at the university level. (See Schedule and List of Participating Units.)

As the process proceeds from level to level, there is opportunity for iteration as tentative agreements negotiated at one level are reviewed and understood by those at the preceding level.

This second cycle of compact planning, which will be completed by the end of the 2002-03 year, focuses on initiatives to be pursued between 2003-04 and 2005-06.

Every spring following the completion of a compact planning cycle (2004, 2005, etc.), Levels 2, 3 and 4 administrators review compact plans and budgets with Levels 1, 2 and 3 administrators, respectively. These reviews provides an opportunity to monitor progress made on compact initiatives, to amend compact plans as needed, to assess the year's performance, and to discuss resource needs in advance of allocations made during the following summer.

Preparing the Compact
The Guidelines for Preparing a Compact provide a standard format to use in drafting a compact plan. Deans and vice chancellors may choose to add college or division-specific goals and priorities to the university goals, in order to guide their units in developing compact plans. However, they should refrain from changing the overall compact format.

Executive summaries of final compacts are published on the web in order to keep faculty and staff well informed and to promote public accountability. However, preliminary drafts and documents leading up to the final compact - including academic department and administrative unit compacts - are considered working documents within the proposing unit and are not published.

University Planning and Analysis (UPA) is responsible for coordinating compact planning and for clarifying ambiguities that arise during its implementation. UPA staff members are available to assist in the preparation of compacts, to supply university data, and to help to identify performance measures, both unit-wide and initiative-specific. Contact Karen Helm at karen_helm@ncsu.edu or 515-6648.