DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 305 121 JC 890 153
AUTHOR Morrison, James L.; Held, William G.
TITLE Developing Environmental Scanning/Forecasting Systems
To Augment Community College Planning.
PUB DATE 18 Nov 88
NOTE 15p.; Paper summarizing a session conducted at the
Annual Meeting of the Virginia Community Colleges
Association (Williamsburg, VA, November 18, 1988).
PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141) -- Speeches/Conference
Papers (150)
EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS College Administration; *College Environment;
*College Planning; Community Colleges; *Futures (of
Society); *Long Range Planning; Policy Formation;
*Prediction; *Trend Analysis; Two Year Colleges;
Workshops
IDENTIFIERS *Environmental Scanning
ABSTRACT
A description is provided of a conference session
that was conducted to explore the structure and function of an
environmental scanning/forecasting system that could be used in a
community college to fa-:ilitate planning. Introductory comments argue
that a college that establishes an environmental scanning and
forecasting system is able to identify trends and events that, when
forecasted, present both threats and opportunities to the college.
Basic concepts and terms are defined next, including "environmental
scanning," "trend," "event," and "emerging issues." Next, results are
provided from the portion of the session in which participants acted
as a planning team conducting an external analysis of Virginia
community colleges. These results include lists of the social,
technological, economic, and political trends that define the context
in which the colleges will function in the coming decade, and lists
of particular events, which if they occurred, would affect these
trends or the colleges directly. The remainder of the paper provides
a brf discussion of the establishment of an environmental
scanning/forecasting system at a community college, focusing on the
collection and dissemination of environmental information, the
determination of key administrators' perceptions of important trends
and events, the development of alternative scenarios of possible
futures, the analysis of policies, and the development of action
plans. Concluding comments emphasize the purpose of environmental
scanning. (AJL)
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