The paper provides a framework for identifying trends in planning in Latin American universities for the last 20 years. Identification of the planning trends is based on two main dimensions: the purpose of the relationship between universities and the external environment (organization-centered versus society-centered), and the degree by which the external environment imposes its will on the university (deterministic versus voluntaristic). Possible interactions between the two dimensions result in four main types under which university planning can be classified: deterministic society-centered; voluntaristic society-centers; deterministic organization-centered; and voluntaristic organization-centered. Based on this framework, the publications resulting from three conferences on university planning conducted by the Union of Latin American Universities were analyzed. One of the most predominant ideas about university planning was found to be the "social actor" or voluntaristic society-centered perspective. It is concluded that some new aspects in Latin American higher education could eventually force the predominant planning discourse into a more organization-centered one. Includes 21 references. (JDD)