Planning reflects the human appetite to improve our condition. In higher education, improving one's condition includes hiring better faculty, recruiting stronger students, upgrading facilities, strenthening academic programs and student services, and acquiring the resources needed to accomplish these things. The "strategic" part of strategic planning involves shaping the institution in ways that will ensure mission attainment by capturing and maintaining a market niche in the competition for resources, faculty, and students. This is the 123rd issue of the Jossey-Bass higher education report New Directions for Institutional Research.