Episode 102: Catherine Wehlberg on Master Planning Your Academic Programs
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How can you create a long-term plan for your academic programs as you would your campus? How can you differentiate your programs and better communicate their value? How can you prioritize among them as you gather feedback and adapt? We dive into these questions with Catherine Wehlberg, President of Athens State University and author of the book Academic Master Planning: Guiding Strategic Innovation for Academic Leadership.
Higher education is often criticized for being slow to move, but the reality for many leaders is a constant barrage of "surprises"—a sudden request for a new faculty line, an aging lab that needed replacement years ago, or a program that is no longer relevant to the modern workforce. Most colleges operate on a "hope as a strategy" model: if we build it, they will come.
Catherine Wehlburg, President of Athens State University and author of Academic Master Planning, suggests a better way. By treating academic programming with the same intentionality as a physical campus master plan, institutions can move from reactive "swerving" to proactive, incremental progress.
The Problem with Traditional Strategic Planning
While strategic planning is common, it often lacks the granular, timeframe-focused approach needed for a curriculum. Catherine notes that facilities master plans are successful because they identify every prerequisite—buying land, raising funds, and demolition—before a single brick is laid. Academic programs deserve that same level of foresight. Without it, institutions end up "adding to adapt," growing staff and campus footprints far faster than student enrollment, leading to unsustainable overhead and a lack of focus.
Aligning Programs with Future Demand
An Academic Master Plan is a future-focused process. It requires departments to make difficult, strategic decisions about what they will—and will not—be. For example, a psychology department might decide to focus on clinical and social psychology while intentionally opting out of neuropsychology.
This distinctiveness is a superpower. By identifying what makes an institution "regionally specific" rather than "regionally comprehensive," colleges can better communicate their value to students and employers. When programs are aligned with industry needs—like the automotive and aerospace sectors surrounding Athens State—student success becomes a natural byproduct of the curriculum.
Navigating the Five Phases of Planning
Creating an Academic Master Plan typically takes one academic year and follows five distinct phases:
Defining the Scope: Understanding that this is a growth and alignment process, not a "program cut" hit list.
Mission and Vision: Ensuring every department member is talking about the same goals.
Core Principles: Identifying the "signature elements" of a program, such as mandatory internships or capstone research.
Specific Initiatives: Turning those principles into actionable steps.
Timeline and Resources: Mapping out when things will happen and what they will cost, allowing provosts to balance the "load" across the whole university.
Seeing Around Corners
The "secret sauce" of this approach isn't a magic wand for cutting programs; it’s the ability to make small adjustments early. Much like driving a car, if you see an obstacle a mile away, a slight turn of the wheel avoids the danger. If you wait until the last second, you’re forced into a dangerous swerve. By engaging in constant dialogue with industry advisory boards and community partners, academic leaders can "see around corners," adapting coding languages in computer science or adding nursing pathways before the need becomes a crisis.
Ultimately, an Academic Master Plan allows an institution to know its value. And once you know your value, you can truly deliver it to the students who need it most.
Episode 102 Transcript
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Catherine Wehlburg: If we're planning for something, we can start to identify resources and move them as you're going along. Rather than wait until you're in a hole and you have to make a big cut. And so it's like, when you're driving your car, it's much better to see something in the distance and know you're gonna have to avoid it and, start making the little incremental changes rather than wait until the last second and swerving, dramatically and dangerously sometimes so.
Elliot Felix: That was Catherine Wedberg, president of Athens State University, and author of the book, academic Master Planning, guiding Strategic Innovation for Academic Leadership. We had a wonderful conversation filled with fruitful analogies like the driving one you just heard. And Catherine's book is kind of like an analogy. It's all about planning for your academic programs as you would your campus. Rather than an, if you build it, they will come hope as a strategy kind of approach. You're creating the long-term vision, identifying their priorities, phasing things for incremental progress and adjusting along the way based on ongoing feedback from students and families, faculty and staff, industry and community. Let's dive in. Welcome to the Connected College Podcast. I'm your host, Elliot Felix. I've helped more than a hundred colleges and universities change what they offer, how they operate, and how they're organized to enable student success. And if you're a leader in higher ed, and you think that the silos and separations get in the way of student success, then this podcast and my book, The Connected College, are for you. We're here to learn and work together to bust silos, question tradition, and forge partnerships so that students feel connected to their college, their community. Their coursework and their careers. Welcome, Catherine. I'm so excited about our conversation on academic master planning.
Catherine Wehlburg: Well, thank you so much. I am, I'm excited to talk about it.
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Elliot Felix: How does that master plan tie into student success? How, how does having an academic master plan help students succeed?
Catherine Wehlburg: I think what it does. Helps to provide academic programs that meet what students will need in the future because it's a very future focused planning process. My background psychology, so in a psychology department. There are many different branches and you've got social psychology, you've got educational psychology, you've got counseling psychology, you've got neuropsychology, and they're, they're all related, but still different enough that that distinction is really important. And many small colleges. Don't have the staffing or the facilities or the, or the student interest in all of the areas. And so institutions and programs need to start making some decisions. Okay? This is where we're gonna focus. We're gonna focus on, on, counseling and clinical and social psychology. But we're not gonna go into neuropsychology. And that's a very strategic decision to make. And so if you're gonna. Do that. You are making decisions about who you're gonna hire, what lab stuff you need, what your curriculum is gonna look like and your the student population that you're going to be going after. And, and so you have to have that, that sense of mission and, and vision in your program to help with those priorities. Every academic program is like that. You can do anything, but you can't do everything. And that is something that is really important for programs to, to think about. So helping faculty have the conversations that they need to be having. About their priorities and their vision is, is what will help them have the stronger tracks in the programs that will help students and that will be able to give them the, the focus on student success. It can also help, with the overall budgeting process, because you're looking at multiple year budgets and and then it helps with if you're gonna go out and get, donor support for some of these things or scholarships for some of these areas, it gives time to build the curriculum and, and make sure that it's in place. But it also gives faculty and alumni and current students the ability to, and the time to kind of look at what do we have and what is really important to us, what makes us distinctive? Why should a student come to this institution in this particular program when there's 4,000 other programs out there? What makes us distinctive? And then how do we really focus in on that, that distinctiveness to make sure that we are truly meeting what what the student needs now and what they are going to be needing in the future as, as they're going out.
Elliot Felix: That just makes so much sense that you're aligning programs where there's demand as the, as a kind of a bottom line. And you're doing it in a way that provides distinction and differentiation. So Catherine, we've been talking about this, this sort of analogy of an academic master plan it's helping you look out into the future and being intentional and understanding the prerequisites, the steps, the phasing, the priorities. How do people create one?
Catherine Wehlburg: Well, sure. When I kind of put this together, I wanted it to be able to be done in an academic year. And so there are basically five phases to walk through with academic master planning. And the first phase just being understanding what it is and what it's not. that it's not an attempt to cut programs. It's not the same thing as the program review that, that we do. It is really. A, a planning process to engage other people with. Then the second phase focuses on identifying, creating and, and getting everybody kind of on board with the mission and the vision of the department or the program. So that everyone's talking about the same kind of thing. The third phase gets into developing core principles which. Of course build on the mission and the vision but, but what are the signature elements of a, of a department program? What is it that is absolutely fundamental to what that does to what that program does and what makes it different. From those core principles, they can move into the fourth phase, which is creating very specific initiatives for each of the core principles. So for example, if one of the the signature elements of a department is active internships that, really get the student en engaged in something or a capstone course where they're doing substantive research or whatever it is. So then how do we make sure that we have this. So it might be. Internships is the core principle. The specific initiative might be identifying current and future internship placements and that kind thing. And then once you have those specific initiatives, that fifth phase is identifying timeline and resources. So, that timeline and resources list can then be taken by the dean or the provost where you can look across programs to make sure that you don't have too many things happening in that, that same year and align all of that so that we can do this. One of the things that higher education has done very badly, at least at, at many smaller institutions, is we come up with a great idea. We don't fund it sufficiently and we don't fund it sufficiently, not as successful. So this is a a with this, putting those resources in. If we're gonna do this, we are going to need this. And until we get that, we can't move forward.
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Elliot Felix: What's changing about how people create these academic master plans? Help us, help us see around corners a little bit as they're trying to understand what, students, employers, society need and how that matches up with curriculum and courses. And, and more.
Catherine Wehlburg: Well, one of the things that it has allowed us to do is identify where we have barriers in the system. Higher ed has a lot of barriers and some of them are very necessary and meaningful, and some of them are not. And, and so one of the things that we have looked at iswhat is the timeframe to get a new course through the curriculum committee. And when we are making substantive changes to a program, what is that? What is that timeframe and where are those, where are those barriers? And how can we remove some of those? So we've implemented a new software that we're using to manage curriculum so that our our academic catalog is updated relatively automatically which takes it out of the old fashioned way of saving all the changes and then going in and editing a document to make sure , nothing gets missed and something always would get missed. So, we have updated the curriculum. Approval process. Using, technology to help support that, which takes some of the time that was necessary before on faculty who were on the curriculum committee and that kind of thing. And certainly makes the life of our, our registrar a little bit more. Smooth in that particular, way. So, so that has been I think one of the things that this, this process has done is, given us a chance to see where those barriers are and, and really, really talk about them. why is that, why is that so important? I was kind of hoping that when we go into this, that we'd be able to say we can get a new program approved , within a. A, a year. It's a great idea. Let's just do it. We got the courses, we got the faculty done. Well, there's all kinds of other elements. Making sure that advisors were prepared for that. And, how do we let our state coordinating board know? And so clarifying what those look like has been something that's been helpful with this.
Elliot Felix: And so the technology has helped you. Keep pace and kind of automate some of the approvals and alignments. And what are the drivers for change that you need to align to, right? As you look down the road, right? To use your analogy. are the adjustments that , you're seeing or other folks might be seeing, that they can make now to avoid swerving later? I just, I just love that analogy, so I'm gonna keep using it.
Catherine Wehlburg: Well, I'm, I'm glad. Please do. So. So let me take a step back and, and so Athens State University is over 200 years old. We were actually founded in 1822, and the, the institution started as a woman's college and has morphed into several things over the last. 200 plus years. And where we are now is we are actually an upper division institution. So we bring in transfer students. So we do not enroll first time, full-time freshmen. We enroll transfer students and adult learners. And so having a focus on. Kind of career connected education is something that's really important to us. Each college has an advisory board, and some of our programs have programmatic advisory boards. And what that does is give feedback from community. Industry leaders about what is needed. We also have started about three years ago a a learning partnership program. And with our learning partnership program, we actually make connection to a company and industry and we offer them a tuition discount for their employees and the employees families. And we also. Have access then to their expertise. Sometimes that turns into a new person to come be on one of our advisory boards. Sometimes that is internship connections. And we are also then able to go in regularly and have conversations with that particular industry about what do you need what educationally. Can we help provide for you? So, so with those learning partnerships we are creating new pathways for information to come to us about what our industry needs. And we're also able to talk to industry about what we are offering , and what we might be able to offer to help them be successful and, and support what they're doing.
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Elliot Felix: Right. You just have to know how you fit in. And then you have to recognize there's all these functions, enabling functions around manufacturing or, or whatever it might be, that actually make things work, and are in demand.
Catherine Wehlburg: Right.
Elliot Felix: So it's, it's talking to employers, it's visiting them, it's meeting with them on advisory boards. I think these are all great strategies. So. Catherine, earlier you said you, you can do anything, but you can't do everything. And to me, that speaks to this whole point of distinction and differentiation. And if you read the headlines, it's as if every university is, is doing the same thing. in fact there's a lot of. Diversity. And I, I would love to hear your take on how folks can find their differentiation, how they can understand what makes them distinctive, and how they can f fit in as opposed to trying to be everything to everyone.
Catherine Wehlburg: And I think that is such a, that is such a key perspective. I heard somebody say last week that, that higher ed in, in this. Country is being viewed through the lens of about 10 institutions and that we are, we are not all the same. And we do different things. And, and that's great. I mean, I think that's our, that's our superpower is that not every institution is like every other institution. And, and I think that part of what we have to do as an institution is figure out we don't have to be like the institution, Two towns down the road. As a matter of fact, we shouldn't be because then why do we have two institutions that close to each other? How do we find our special sauce? what, what is it that makes us important and viable in all honesty? And, and I think that that is something that's really important. the big state flagships are, gonna be strong. They're gonna, they're gonna do great things. I'm a product of one of them. I think that's, that's wonderful. I think are Ivy League institutions are gonna continue and that is great. I've worked at some of them and, and it's, it's fabulous and wonderful, but there's also a really, really important piece that, those types of institutions are not necessarily hitting. And a lot of that gives us the flexibility to be nimble. To be able to say, okay, yes, we're gonna, we're gonna do this because there's a need for this right now. And there may not be the need, down the road, but there's a need right now. And so I think that, that as we look at the, what higher education is doing and how higher education is changing, and in some ways how higher education is under attack in, in many different ways by people who don't fully understand the value. All of that says to me that we have done a terrible job of explaining the value of higher education, and we can't explain it very well if we don't know what our own value is as an institution. And so the whole idea of master planning is in being able to say. This is what Athens State is. This is what we do. This is why this is so very important and crucial to our community. However we define our, our community, we've got to be able to figure out why are we important? Because if we can't say that how can, how can people know?
Elliot Felix: Right. You gotta know your value to communicate your, your value and then to be able to be valuable. I think just makes so much sense and I've been my shorthand for this. I feel like, we've, for so long we've been stuck on this idea of regional comprehensives. And I actually, I think we need regional specifics. I think we... where, where, to your point, there's this need right now and how do we work together to meet it? And here in Minnesota more broadly, a month or so ago, there was in the same day in the Star Tribune one State College was really facing some steep budget issues and. Looking at things like rid of tenure and some drastic measures. And then university of Minnesota, Rochester enrollment was up 80% and one was trying to. Be all things to all people. And the other was like, we're in Rochester, Minnesota, we're, we eat, drink, and sleep, healthcare. on that. And that's where there's, to your point, like there's a need right now. So I, yeah, I think figuring out, your value, your distinction, and then communicating it and then delivering on it is so terrific. And I've, I really appreciate your and I hope folks check out your book on academic master planning from Springer. It's a great resource and I've really enjoyed today's conversation.
Catherine Wehlburg: Well, thank you so very much. I have, I have as well. I appreciate the, the time.
Elliot Felix: Thanks for listening to the connected college podcast. Subscribe to my Connected College Newsletter at ElliotFelix.com for insights and excerpts from my book, tools you can download, and special offers. You can also find more information about talks I've given, articles I've written, and upcoming events there, and please support the podcast by rating and reviewing it wherever you're listening. Let's create connected colleges where students will succeed.
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Elliot Felix: And I wonder, like, like higher ed is so good at adding, Like there's a new need. We, we add stuff. As a result, I think campuses have grown at twice the pace of enrollment in the last 20 years. I think staffing has grown at about six times the enrollment over the last 40 years. So we have this wonderful tradition of adding to adapt like what's, but it sounds like as part of academic master planning, you really need to do is take a hard look. In order to align the programs with the demand and do the academic program reviews and do the sun setting, like what's your secret sauce for subtraction? And getting, getting folks to stop doing things, not just keep starting them.
Catherine Wehlburg: Well, and I don't, I don't know that there is any secret sauce to, to that. I don't believe there is a magic wand, but there is the idea of doing things, taking smaller steps to get there, rather than waiting until you have to take huge steps to get there. So if, if we're planning for something, we can start to identify resources and move them as you're going along. Rather than wait until you're in a hole and you have to make a big cut. And so it's like, when you're driving your car, it's much better to see something in the distance and know you're gonna have to avoid it and, start making the little incremental changes rather than wait until the last second and swerving, dramatically and dangerously sometimes so. So part of this idea and this plan is that if it's done right, if it's done smoothly there aren't going to be any major cuts. There will be tweaks along the way that will, will identify how that program needs to grow or change or adapt to what's happening. So, computer science is a great example. If we were still teaching computer science the way we were teaching it 20 years ago. No one would come because computer science has changed as a field drastically. But knowing, okay, this is changing, okay, this language, this coding language is gone. Nobody uses that anymore. So let's not teach it. Let's teach this new one, or, let's, let's now use, use this new way of, of doing things. And so if we can do it as we're, as we're moving along, rather than waiting until it's a crisis. We're gonna be a much smoother and healthier institution.
Elliot Felix: Yeah, the driving analogy is, is a great one. if it's in the distance, you can just make a slight adjustment to change lanes instead of instead of swerving. And I like small changes instead of big cuts are dramatic and difficult.
Catherine Wehlburg: similar to deferred maintenance, if, if you wait until deferred maintenance is a real problem and the roof is falling down, falling off whereas you could have made smaller, less expensive timely. Fixes so that you don't get into that situation where, where you have a real problem on your hands. What are some of your success stories? Putting academic master planning into place at Athens State. So one of the things that has been, I think, most helpful about that process is in engaging with faculty about. The value of their program. Because faculty in general value their discipline in their program. And that's why, that's why they went into it. And, and they believe, and I think this is a good thing, that their program is truly the most important program that we offer at our university. And that's, and that is, that is great. But it also has helped some of them really have the conversations about why is my program so, so good, so important. Something that is really, truly worth investing in. , because we're not just teaching courses in a vacuum, every academic program is truly a program of study. When we stop looking at, this is my class and I'm gonna teach my class the way I've always taught my class, and no one else can teach my class. We instead talk about the program, the curriculum that students will be going through. Now we can, we can really look across. All of these things, and that will impact how we assess our programs which will help support the accreditation process in many ways. And we can do it in a way that those conversations happen and then that helps the dean understand , the differences among. Among all of their academic programs so that they can also start advocating for those programs. Those conversations have been some of the most crucial ones that we have been having, to give you a, a specific example. And, and this is, this is the result of several things, not just academic master planning, but, but looking at industry needs, community needs growth in areas. At Athens State University, we have a, an RN to BSN program and our RN to BSN program is is very successful. It's also a very new program for us. But it has grown exponentially over, over the last few years. And we are now looking at adding an MSN program on top of that. So how we plan that out and, how that is going to work from a, from a hiring and a staffing position to a. We've got specialized accreditation and we've got substantive change with our institutional accreditation. All of those things need to happen. We've gotta start talking about that now so that we're all involved and engaged in, that process. So that, there are fewer surprises about that.