Another Way Not to Sustain Ourselves

G. Rendell muses on what we'll call "crises-in-waiting"—worldwide environmental problems affecting everyone and almost inevitably coming, such as widespread problems with access to water. Once you start taking a close look at the sustainability of your campus, water clearly becomes a strategic priority:

So, a culture failing to sustain itself would hardly be a first. (And, if we survive this one, will probably happen again in future.) But every resource on which we depend — since none of them is, in truth, inexhaustible — constitutes another opportunity to fail. Climate is one of those resources. So is breathable air. So is topsoil (or other fertile medium for growing food). So is potable water.

And it’s the imminent water crisis which has my attention, at the moment. According to the World Health Organization, over a billion people don’t currently have access to clean water. The IPCC predicts that this shortage (which climate disruption will aggravate, but didn’t create) will affect twice as many people by 2050, and three times as many by 2080. If nations (and “illegal combatants") are willing to go to war to protect their access to oil, what will they do to protect their access to water? Doesn’t sound like a good time to me.

What There Is to Know; What we Know; and What 'They' Know About Higher Education

In "The Information Gap: Much Talk, Little Progress," Dennis P. Jones ends with a call to action: It's time to make the case for higher ed.

Despite all the hue and cry about student learning since 2000, we have actually taken a step backward in gathering comparable state-level data. Most of the movement in the last eight years has focused on individual campuses and systems, through efforts such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment and the Voluntary System of Accountability. Perhaps the biggest step backward has been in the measurement of adult skills. The number of states participating in the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) fell from 13 in 1992 to just six in 2003, and the 2003 data are still not available for all the participating states.

In just a few weeks, state legislatures will convene to face the biggest budget crisis in a generation. Unfortunately, they will have to make difficult decisions about priorities without the benefit of better information about the most urgent needs for getting more students to and through college at a price they can afford. This makes it more likely that we will see the usual responses — raising tuition, capping enrollment, cutting across-the-board — that will put states further behind in the race to grow a competitive work force.

We can fix this. It is time for every state — and the nation — to commit to getting the information needed to increase the size of our college-educated population, and to halt the worrisome slide of the United States relative to other advanced nations on higher education outcomes.

The Iron Triangle: College Presidents Talk about Costs, Access, and Quality

From the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education and Public Agenda, comes this late 2008 report. The structure of the introduction tells you something about the contents of the report: "Higher education in changing times"; "Are we headed for dialogue or for stalemate?"; 'A missing pre-condition for dialogue"; "An investment worth paying for"; "Are you listening to us?"; "A dangling conversation?"; "Expected and unexpected views."

Three key insights emerged from these conversations—one expected, the other two less so. The first is that, as one might have anticipated, our respondents were incredibly thoughtful, informed, and articulate; they drew from a wide range of experience from their own institutions, from other institutions where they had served, and from their participation in national and regional professional associations. The second factor, initially less anticipated, is that none of them was the least surprised by our questions. Indeed, we began each interview by asking the respondents to list his or her issues of greatest concern. For the most part, the presidents began by listing some version of our three main topics: college costs, access, and quality. In some cases, the presidents even conducted parts of the interview for us, following up their own statements by saying, “But you will probably ask me…” The third observation is that there was a great deal of commonality in the way the presidents perceived the issues. Just as it’s possible to put a number of photographs together to create a composite picture, the college presidents’ responses—taken together—can be summarized by a composite view. While few of the presidents would wholeheartedly agree with all of this composite (and some would endorse very little of it), most of the presidents we interviewed resonated with much of it.

Expansion, without the Red Tape

This University Business article by Erin Peterson is subtitled "City officials can help—or hinder—a campus expansion plan. Here’s how to make sure they’re on board with your proposal."

The advance notice is more than just a courtesy—it’s a vital part of the planning process. “We tell [city officials] about a year in advance that we’re thinking about an idea or project,” Bryant says. He says it gives them a chance to voice concerns or issues with the project, which can prevent headaches later on. “The further into design you are, the more [those unaddressed concerns] become disruptive. It’s best for everybody to have all their cards on the table early.”

Early meetings are less about persuading the city to see the institution’s point of view than about creating an open discussion, according to Nels Hall, principal at Yost Grube Hall Architecture, whose clients have included Portland Community College’s Cascade campus and Portland State University. Getting input from community groups, city planning groups, and other constituencies can help you create a plan that will sail through required reviews. “Things go wrong when there hasn’t been initial dialogue,” Hall says. “Your plan shouldn’t be a show-and-tell, where you’re just telling people what you want, because that puts [city officials] in a defensive position.” A college is more likely to build trust if its leaders are “in a dialogue mode, not a selling mode,” he adds.

Advance preparation can also help head off criticism before it starts. At Mount Holyoke, school officials developed a parking management plan for their athletics facilities to allay fears that neighbors had about the possibility of crowded streets on game days.

No Free Lunch: A Condensed Strategic Planning Process

These folks claim to have developed a strategic plan by spending only five hours with their stakeholders, who claim to have 'enjoyed' the process:

Mention “strategic planning” and watch people’s eyes glaze. Most picture endless meetings spent doing SWOT analyses, crafting vision and mission statements, and developing goals and action plans. Few look forward to the experience or reflect back on it with pleasure.

So, what’s the solution? Higher education IT organizations need strategic plans to function efficiently. Can the process be condensed into a few hours? Can that condensed process produce an effective, flexible document? Can the participants actually enjoy the process? Yes, yes, and yes!

At Penn State University–Berks during the spring 2008 semester we developed a new five-year Information Technology Services (ITS@Berks) strategic plan, and we did it in less than five hours of meetings with stakeholders. Participants even said they enjoyed the experience. Here’s what we did.

Ask Good Questions by Starting with Key Decisions

The "blurb" on this article reads, "The most effective data-collection efforts build on a clear understanding of the decisions the data should inform." Sure. Deborah Keyek-Franssen and Charlotte Briggs write about this with regard to technology needs assessment, but their lessons learned are useful for all campus responsibilities:

Conducting a campus-wide needs assessment is a lot of work. Starting with clear goals and a good plan vastly increases the probability that the assessment will go smoothly and yield genuinely useful information. Although front-loading your team’s time and energy into the initial planning phase might feel overly bureaucratic or academic, it pays off later when you can return to your overarching decision question and tacit principles as touchstones in moments of disagreement or doubt. Every institution is different—there would be little impetus for needs assessments otherwise—so it’s important to align your plan with your institution’s mission and strategic plan. You also need to be realistic about how technology is viewed in relation to the institution’s identity and aspirations. Planning a needs assessment for an institution that can’t afford to innovate is very different from planning an assessment for an institution that showcases its technology as a prime indicator of its competitiveness.

Inevitable, so Let's Plan For it: The Semantic Web (Web 3.0) in Education

If you're like us, you may be getting tired of hearing the term "Web 2.0" every time you're in a technology related discussion. The article referenced here is not an easy read, but you should read it anyway. Wouldn't it be nice if planners start planning for Web 3.0, ahead of time?

The mantra of the information age has been “The more information the better!” But what happens when we search the web and get so much information that we can’t sort through it, let alone evaluate it? Enter the semantic web, or Web 3.0. Among other things, the semantic web makes information more meaningful to people by making it more understandable to machines. . . . Ultimately, the goal of Web 3.0 is, in a phrase, data integration. . . . The implications for education are profound. Let’s consider three areas of impact: knowledge construction, personal learning network maintenance, and personal educational administration. . . . The Semantic Web is historically unique in that for the first time society can see a foundational shift in technology well in advance of its arrival. For the past 25 years we have been in reactive mode, as one wave of technological revolution after another caught us unawares. With the Semantic Web being both inevitable and slow to develop, we can begin discussing possible learning scenarios that might emerge once it arrives. . . . In fact, the Semantic Web is far enough into the future that we can actually help shape it. Educators would do themselves, students, and the world a tremendous favor by jumping into the discussion now and helping Web 3.0 developers realize a vision that recognizes education and promotes the public good as top priorities. Bias is implicit in all technology—let’s choose our bias for the Semantic Web wisely.

NCEF's 'School Facilities Planning and Design Guidelines - State and Local'

The National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities publishes a wide-ranging series of annotated references and links to useful resources. The annotations are collected in dozens (or more) sets of topically linked domains. Although the NCEF has a mandate to cover K–12 facilities, it also has a number of sets of resources relating specifically to higher education. This partifular resource is for both, and quite useful: "NCEF's resource list of links, books, and journal articles with examples of guidelines and regulations published by states, counties, and municipalities regarding school facility planning, design, and maintenance."

Designing On the Triple Bottom Line in Sri Lanka

Sustainable design in connection with "workforce, economic, environmental, and catastrophic event management goals":

A public and private collaboration, the Embassy Medical Center’s (EMC) multipronged sustainability initiative includes using the presence of international firms as an educational and economic primer for local companies. With a projected completion date of January 2011, the project is being developed by Silvermere Hospitals, Ltd., and includes a 500,000-square-foot hospital and clinic, dormitory, parking structure, and two bio-anaerobic digesters.

Is a new healthcare facility really a different kind of animal in Sri Lanka?

In the United States, healthcare executives think of their facilities as a cost, as an expense. But here is a case where a facility will actually be an asset, a driver for economic development, a source of education and training, an incentive for companies to come, and attract international money through medical tourism. It’s more than just a liability and a piece of architecture. It has inherent creative potential.

US Colleges Regain Luster for Foreigners

Part-way into this article, there is a stand-alone sentence that reads: "Welcome to the era of globalized higher education." It begins: After being scared off in the post-9/11 years by tightened visa restrictions and America's soured image, foreign students are flocking back to the United States in record numbers. . . . At the same time, the number of American university students fitting in at least a semester abroad continues to climb: A still small but growing portion of the population sees overseas study more as a normal part of a college career than as an exotic exception." And here's something we did not know: "The State Department has opened 450 "Education USA" advising centers at consulates and libraries around the world, and a like-named website provides foreigners with information – and reassurances that the visa process is not the insurmountable hurdle they may have heard about."

ACRL/LAMA Guide For Planning Higher Education Library Spaces

This guide - Guide For Planning Higher Education Library Spaces - from the Association of College & Research Libraries and the Library Administration and Management Association compiles a number of "guidelines" and links to specific resources as well as to sets of related resources. It is a must-bookmark resource for architects and designers in higher education. "In response to frequent inquiries for information about planning academic library buildings, [we] provide a basic framework for architects, planners, and librarians embarking on planning and design of libraries for higher education."

Anthropologists Consider Notions of ‘Community’ in Education

From Elizabeth Redden: If there’s one thing that unites an education “community,” it just might be the use of the word “community” – and, not surprisingly, “the notion of community is drawn upon frequently in educational research,” said Doris S. Warriner, of Arizona State University. . . . “However,” Warriner continued, “the concept of community is often used to convey common experiences” — where significant diversity of experience in fact exists. . . . Among the guiding questions she offered up for consideration: “How useful is the notion of community for conceptualizing and investigating questions about participation, engagement, inclusion or marginalization?” . . . “In what ways do shared experiences, histories, practices, understandings or trajectories define a community?” And, “What alternatives are there for describing practices and processes that are shared but not unifying or community-building?”

Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society

In today’s knowledge-driven global economy, countries need to build on tertiary education to generate innovation, sustain competitiveness and boost economic growth. A new OECD report, Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society, offers policy recommendations to help meet these goals:

Among its recommendations:
Goals – Ensure that tertiary education contributes to economic and social objectives: foster links to employers, communities and labour markets; promote effective university-industry links for research and innovation.
Governance – Devise sound instruments to steer tertiary education: improve the capacity of ministries to develop policy and evaluate performance; establish and maintain a balance between institutional autonomy and public accountability.
Funding – Develop a funding strategy to optimise the contribution of tertiary education to society and the economy: cost-sharing between students and government; a comprehensive student support system; subsidies related to the benefits tertiary programmes bring to society.
Quality Assurance – Emphasise quality and relevance: improve quality assurance frameworks; develop a strong quality culture; focus more on student outcomes.
Equity – Give greater prominence to equity in national tertiary education policy: systematically monitor equity issues; devote significant resources to address inequities.
Internationalisation – Position national systems in the international arena: develop a strategy and framework for internationalisation; encourage institutions to be more proactive internationally.

Climate Change: Stronger, Faster, Sooner

From Architecture Week, a discussion of impacts on health, food, ecosystems, water, and more:

Recent scientific research — published since the deadline for the latest assessment report from the IPCC — reveals that global warming is accelerating far beyond the 2007 IPCC forecasts. This brief collects some of the key findings, including particular impacts of climate change in Europe. . . . Indeed important aspects of climate change seem to have been underestimated and the impacts are being felt sooner. For example, early signs of change suggest that the less than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming that the world has experienced to date may have already triggered the first tipping point of the Earth's climate system — the disappearance of summer Arctic sea ice. This process could open the gates to rapid and abrupt climate change, rather than the gradual changes that have been forecast so far.

Painting the Clouds: Outsourcing Ourselves!

The writer is writing of information technology administrators, but . . . can you see parallels in other parts of the institution?

One of the great ironies for those of us in higher education information technology is that, in the coming years, doing the best-possible job for our institutions will mean finding the optimal ways to replace our functions with outside services. In other words, a critical part of our job will be to outsource ourselves as effectively as possible.

The reasons behind this new job responsibility are several developments that people may already be weary (and perhaps wary) of reading about: cloud computing, outsourcing, software as a service (with the cute acronym SaaS, which sounds oddly Swedish to me). Sometimes writers will give that usual list and finish it off with “and other things,” without venturing a guess as to what the other things might be. In any case, what this comes down to is that much of what the current IT organization does for its institution will be performed by external entities in the future.

Restoring Ohio’s Heritage in Higher Education

The Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents reports on Ohio's effort to turn around a decline in its higher education system, including a link to a "comprehensive 10-year plan designed to achieve the governor's stated goal of 230,000 more college students a year."

The erosion was so gradual that many of us failed to notice until great damage had already been done.

Ohio, with two of the first colleges west of the Alleghenies established within six years of its birth in 1803, has long valued higher education, providing direct support to its public universities for more than 130 years and welcoming dozens of private institutions with a rich variety of religious and secular missions. At the dawn of the last century, Ohio was the era’s Silicon Valley, home to men like Wilbur and Orville Wright, automotive inventors Charles F. Kettering and John H. Patterson, and innovative public works engineer Arthur Morgan, visionaries whose genius led to the modern industries that fueled America’s—and most particularly Ohio’s—prosperity.

So what happened?

Both Sides of Retirement and Higher Education Institutions

Carol Patten has written a two-part report on higher education and retirement. Part one is titled "Prepping Employees for their Golden Years"; part two is titled "Retirement's Other Side: Addressing the Emotional Consequences." It's of interest to many SCUPers both in terms of their planning roles and their own (largely Boomer) retirement intentions:

Misconceptions about retirement are fairly common. In July, the MetLife Mature Market Institute (MMI) surveyed more than 1,200 working people between the ages of 55 and 65 about retirement income issues. Almost seven in 10 (69 percent) overestimated how much they could withdraw from their savings each month. Forty-three percent believed they could withdraw 10 percent or more each year while still preserving their principal, even though most retirement experts suggest no more than 4 percent annually. . . . More than half (60 percent) underestimated life expectancy, while 49 percent underestimated the amount of pre-retirement income they’ll need during retirement. Worse yet, 45 percent live paycheck to paycheck, 26 percent sometimes struggle to pay bills, 69 percent don’t feel they’re in control of their finances, and 51 percent don’t know how many years of retirement they have planned for, according to survey results.

Cornell Takes Visual Approach to Data Analysis

After a false start or two, business officers and others at Cornell are pretty satisfied with some of their current financial reporting:

More and more, Sedlacek said, top business officers from the 11 colleges--who function as CEOs of each college, essentially--were asking for better access to critical data they needed to make decisions. "They wanted metrics at their fingertips," Sedlacek said, such as faculty and student retention numbers, enrollment rates, and expenditures. "A lot of this is very hard information to get. It takes a lot of time." Often, by the time the data can be collected and verified, she said, the numbers are out of date.

In the spring of 2007, the KPI committee decided to address the need by purchasing an enterprise BI tool. But after spending eight months implementing the software, training the KPI technical team, and holding various meetings, "we didn't have much to show," Sedlacek said.

December 1 Deadline: Facilities Performance Indicators Survey

There are 5 modules to the PFI survey, but if you complete just 1, 2, and 4, APPA will provide you all sorts of data access and discounts to survey data and reporting. But the deadline this year will not be extended. The current issue of APPA's Facilities Manager has a nice article (PDF) about how the FPI reports and results are being used at the University of North Carolina:

In the highly competitive world of education, capital assets are but one challenge. Decision makers are faced with a myriad of challenges amongst them being shrinking state support, greater student demands, greater competition for quality faculty, greater competition for a diminishing pool of contract and grants, and sky-rocketing utility costs. Can you really blame a campus that decides to realign a portion of its CRDM (capital renewal and deferred maintenance) money to address another emergency requirement? It is our responsibility to inform them of the cost of making such a decision.

When Counterparts See Eye to Eye: Business Officers and Student Affairs Directors

In Business Officer, Marta Perez Drake interviews Steve Relyea, vice chancellor of business and external affairs, and Penny Rue, vice-chancellor of student affairs, both at the University of California, San Diego.

When uncontained wildfires whipped across Southern California in October 2007, administrators at the University of California–San Diego (UC San Diego) had no choice. They shut down the campus. Amidst the ensuing chaos, two leaders—Steve Relyea, vice chancellor of business and external affairs, and Penny Rue, vice chancellor of student affairs—coordinated efforts to ensure the safety of students and faculty. Both agree that the partnership they had already established helped alleviate the unavoidable tensions that could have arisen during the emergency.

As campus safety and security continue to make headlines, the connection between the chief business officer and the chief student affairs officer becomes readily apparent: The collaboration between the two professionals can be crucial to calmly restoring order during an unexpected crisis. In addition, everyday cooperation can expedite capital projects, increase student satisfaction, and improve town-gown relations.

Spaces for Science: The PKAL Facilities Resource

It's often hard to say where you should start in using the resources of Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), but we know that lots of SCUPers have contributed to the contents of this one:

For Project Kaleidoscope, the process of planning- be it for spaces or broader institutional efforts- begins with asking the right questions and with having the right people at the table in a timely manner as such 'right' questions are addressed. This is one of the key PKAL lessons learned that can inform the work of institutional planning teams- be they focusing on planning spaces or programs, budgets or faculty development efforts. The process of questioning also highlights two other over-arching key lessons learned that are relevant for teams charged with planning new spaces for science. The first is that building community should be seen as a goal both for the process of planning and the product of planning; the second is that there is a broader community of peers whose experience and expertise can inform and advance the work of local teams.

Web-Based Institutional Research (IR) Resources

It's been a while since we pointed readers to this great resource from the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) and you may be amazed to learn that it now has more than 2,200 links to Web-based resources!

The World Architecture Community - new website

From one of our favorite Internet newsletters, "The Scout Report":

The World Architecture Community website is the genuine article, and even a cursory look reveals that people are posting items to this site from Bangalore to Buffalo. New users can go to the left-hand side of the site to register, and then they can look through the various architectural directories, which include architects, buildings, critics, and theorists. In the buildings area, the buildings available for consideration are divided into more detailed thematic categories, including "Work Places", "Public Buildings", and "Public Infrastructure". Moving on, the site also includes an excellent section dedicated to "Theory and Issues". Here visitors can read about sustainable development, semiotics, design, and urban issues. All told, this site is a tremendous resource for architects, urban planners, and students of cities in general. [KMG] Copyright 2008 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu

The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

A quick read of this article will inform you that it is not just in assessment and learning outcomes that the world is turning to data and more data; although you will learn in SCUP's new book, A Guide to Planning for Change, about the immense importance of information analytics. From this article:

At the petabyte scale, information is not a matter of simple three- and four-dimensional taxonomy and order but of dimensionally agnostic statistics. It calls for an entirely different approach, one that requires us to lose the tether of data as something that can be visualized in its totality. It forces us to view data mathematically first and establish a context for it later. . . . This is a world where massive amounts of data and applied mathematics replace every other tool that might be brought to bear. Out with every theory of human behavior, from linguistics to sociology. Forget taxonomy, ontology, and psychology. Who knows why people do what they do? The point is they do it, and we can track and measure it with unprecedented fidelity. With enough data, the numbers speak for themselves.

eBook: Letters to the Next President

Earlier this year, Joel Trachtenberg and Gerald B. Kauvar collected a number of letters to the next president. The first print run has been sold out, more are being printed, but even better—the entire volume is available as an ebook here. From the Introduction: "This volume of no-nonsense essays by strong and significant leaders—who collectively represent a great deal but not all of the diversity of American higher education—is published in the hope that America's next president and next generation of policy makers will pay attention and make the fundamental decisions required for our nation to retain its place of envy in the higher education pantheon. . . . What unifies these essays is the passion and clarity of vision and presentation. As a nation, we are fortunate these women and men have devoted their lives to our mutual enterprise."

Lester Brown: Mobilizing for a Clean-Energy Civilization

Lester Brown was the opening keynote speaker for AASHE 2008:

Today's environmentalism has been called a 'Third Wave.' Unlike the conservation ethic of the early 1900s, or the calls for anti-pollution regulation and the mass nostalgia for a more agrarian past in the 1970s, we are now looking at a fully globalized world, in which the decline of one nation would send shockwaves through the rest of the world, due to our linked economies, limited natural resources and shared climate.

Therefore, says Lester Brown, author of Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, "Sustainable development is not a sexy term, but a sound concept. You hear a lot about a 'more sustainable this,' or a 'less sustainable that.' But the reality is, we're sustainable or we're not. The only way to avoid decline and collapse is a sustainable economy--a sustainable civilization."

The idea was met with cheers from the audience, a group 1,700 strong from universities and colleges all over the country, most of whom have spent years if not decades trying to make their colleges greener, and their students prepared for a world of rapidly shifting priorities and problems.

Extending the University's Sustainability Influence Beyond the Campus Edge

From Xarissa Holdaway at the Campus Ecology Blog:

Sustainability is rarely defined as a single-entity problem, especially when considering recent economic and political traumas. Gordon Rands of Western Illinois University and Mark Starik of George Washington University argued in one of this morning's sessions that a university's plan for sustainability should be taken far beyond the campus border.

Rands says, "An entity can become sustainable on its own, but it can’t remain that way." He went on to stress that without a larger context and a fully sustainable climate (environmental or cultural), even the most exciting higher education projects will be unsuccessful.

For example, a green business is unlikely to survive without competitors' willingness to make similar efforts, as their lower costs will cause the eco-minded company to fail. A college, even one running on renewable energy and stable supply systems, could find itself an island without the involvement of the surrounding town. Unless the local channels for food, telecommunications, energy, transportation, medical care, housing, and other provisions are as able to weather a crisis as the university itself, a few wind turbines and even carbon-neutrality will be ultimately meaningless.

Campus-Sustainability Conference Is the Biggest Ever

From Scott Carlson at The Chronicle of Higher Education's "Buildings & Grounds" blog, comes this post: (He could also have mentioned that in late November of 2006, only three years ago, AASHE did not exist; and we will mention that SCUP has meaningfully supported the AASHE startup and growth from its inception.)

Among higher-education conferences, the one that got underway here Sunday is unusual. In the exhibit hall, vendors show off $15,000 composters as if they were sports cars. The registration clerk asks you if you require a vegan meal plan. People calculate the environmental impact of taking the stairs versus the escalators to conference sessions.

It’s the national conference of the Association for the Advancement for Sustainability in Higher Education, and thanks to the popularity of sustainability these days, the conference is bigger than ever. This year’s event drew about 1,750 attendees from more than 400 institutions. Compare that to the association’s conference two years ago at Arizona State University, which drew about 600 people.

How to Shop for Carbon Offsets (+ Update on STARS)

From Elizabeth Redden at Inside Higher Ed: At the AASHE conference, representatives from the American College and University Presidents Climae Commitment released guidelines to assist colleges and universities in their purchase of carbon offsets and AASHE representatives discussed progress with the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS):

Under the Presidents Climate Commitment, colleges set their own time frames for reaching a climate-neutral state. In the short term, given current constraints like fossil fuel-based electricity grids and inefficient older buildings, a college looking to quite quickly cut net emissions to zero would probably have to rely in part on the controversial and confusing process of purchasing carbon offsets, according to new, 73-page guidelines released by the Presidents Climate Commitment at the conference Monday.

The authors of the guidelines are sensitive to the criticism that offsets allow wealthy institutions to “buy their way out” of their sins by purchasing credits for emissions reduced elsewhere but not through their own activities. The guidelines emphasize that colleges should focus on reductions within their own organizations first, while “investments in offsets can be made as soon as these activities are initiated” (in other words, the two steps can happen simultaneously, so long as internal reductions are first pursued and prioritized).

***

In addition to conducting inventories of their greenhouse gas emissions, many colleges have been conducting more general sustainability audits, a process described in depth at a session on “Assessing Sustainability” Monday afternoon. Several speakers described using the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, a common self-reporting framework being piloted by about 90 institutions that offers the promise of comparisons across institutions over time.

Others described institution-specific efforts. Beau Mitchell, sustainability coordinator for the College of the Menominee Nation, in Wisconsin, described combing through other colleges’ sustainability audits to identify 108 indicators applicable to tribal colleges. Given the high value many Native American tribes place on the land, he described incorporating cultural indicators, quantifying how many students speak a native language or attend ceremonies, for instance, and gaining qualitative data through interviews. “What did your elders tell you about the woods; what did your elders tell you about the water?”

Sustainable Curriculums

Elizabeth Redden reports on some of the AASHE conference for Inside Higher Ed:

Here at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education conference, which concluded Tuesday, plenty of sessions focused on the operations side of things — energy savings, transportation demand management, and commercial composting. But also in town to give talks were a significant number of faculty members, from a wide range of disciplines, interested in leading from the classroom lectern.

“When you go back to your colleges and the math faculty say ‘I can’t do sustainability in the classroom,’ you can say, ‘No, no, I know someone who does it,’ ” said Thomas Pfaff, of Ithaca College.

Pfaff does it. As outlined on his Web site, his classes use real-world data, such as data on world grain production or atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, as a starting point for standard calculus problems. “None of this in my mind requires changing the calculus content,” said Pfaff, who said that in solving the problems students find opportunities for reflection.

“They’re not simply being told there is a problem, and I’m not telling them there is a problem…. I just give them the data and you tell me what’s going on,” said Pfaff.

From Van Jones to Peter Senge - On Sustainability

Can you sustain 14-hour days at a sustainability conference? "G. Rendell" provides an initial overview of the AASHE conference by connecting the opening plenary by Van Jones with thelater plenary by Peter Senge:

Both Jones and Senge depicted the current sustainability crisis as having origins dating back to the 19th century, and both indicated that the solution lies in a return to the basic human values which all religions teach, but which modern social paradigms have perverted. In Senge’s terminology, there is a disconnect between who we really are and how we’re currently living; we need to remember how we want to live, and ask ourselves how we should educate our children in order to live that way. Both speakers were clear that the real problem we face is based in the fact that we haven’t been living, or educating, that way.

Between the opening and pre-prandial plenaries, however, the message got less philosophical and more directly encouraging. Reports from the front — from colleges and universities which have found ways to encourage faculty members to incorporate sustainability principles and examples into their curricula, from schools who have taken significant strides towards decreasing transportation demand, and from universities which have had remarkable success in facilitating and supporting active student leadership towards various forms of sustainability.

Food and Sustainability: From the Macro View to the Micro View

The morning plenary session on Tuesday at AASHE was about food. In addition to this blog post, you can listen to a podcast interview with Shiva here and read Scott Carlson's take on the same session here.

In the space of an hour, Vandana Shiva, physicist and agricultural activist, managed to connect the oil and human labor inputs required by modern agriculture, the nutritional deficit of monocrops, the dangers of species loss, the moisture depletion of agro-chemically treated fields, the imbalance of grain that goes to factory farms rather than human mouths, obesity and diabetes, US grain subsidies, biofuels, the 160,000 annual suicides of Indian farmers who are finding the monocrop seeds they purchased won't grow, and the mass exodus of families from heritage land. The coherent case that emerged at the end was simple: "We must get people back on the land."

One of several sustainable food experts that have earned attention in recent years, Shiva is in good company. Michael Pollan, Frances Moore Lappe, and even Jane Goodall have spent years studying the American industrial food systems and come to similar conclusions. . . .

She went on to say that universities and colleges, who made major strides in the research that based our current agricultural system on fossil-fuel based fertilizers, have a large share of the responsibility for finding a solution."Campuses have a lot of eaters, and a lot of influence in their community. Wouldn't it be exciting if biology classes planted their own biodiversity plots? Why shouldn't edible schoolyards be on every campus?"

Shifting from RECs* to Offfsets (*Renewable Energy Credits)

On the Campus Ecology blog, Xarissa Holdway writes about one AASHE session which matched offsets against renewable energy credits:

To the surprise of the presenter, Dave Newport of CU-Boulder, this afternoon’s discussion of GHG offsets and Renewable Energy Credits didn’t degenerate into fisticuffs or even a red-faced screaming match. In fact, the discussion was downright welcoming, which is what I’ve come to expect of the attendees of this conference. . . . While Newport feels that RECs have had their victories, among them increased market demand for renewable energy and the dismantling of some of the geographical barriers to sustainability, the disadvantages of RECs outweigh the benefits. He lists the public perception of REC’s as a ‘sin tax’, the lack of transparency, a poor sense of closure for buyers, and the lack of added value to the initial investment as cons.

Can Colleges and Local Governments Work Together on the Sustainability Agenda?

This closing plenary panel was moderated by Jim Elder of the Campaign for Environmental Literacy and includes Harvey Rubin, the clerk of the courts from Miami-Date County, FL, Kevin Foy, mayor of Chapel Hill, NC, and Debra Rowe, a professor at Oakland Community College and president of the US Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainability:

Debra Rowe, a professor at Oakland Community College who is famously involved in countless sustainability organizations and efforts, said that many campus career offices don’t tell students about the sustainability jobs that city governments will need to fill in the future. Sustainability advocates, she said, should use that potential demand to push sustainability education on campus.

She also said that students should be engaged in projects and learning opportunities in local communities to improve their education. That kind of hands-on learning would not only help the local community but also provide more vital lessons for students.

“Cities can get students out of these dumb assignments where we have students jump through hoops,” she said.

Rowe has, with assistance from SCUP in its inception, creating a "Match.com" to match students seeking real-world challenges for credit with professors, and professors who want to offer such credit with cities and communities at playagreaterpart.org.

Guest Blogger: Are American Colleges Living Labs for Renewable-Energy Use?

This first item was not a session at the AASHE conference, but is a guest blog post from AASHE staffer Niles Barnes on the "Buildings & Grounds" blog at the Chronicle:

What worries me is that I don’t see much happening with renewable-energy sources such as ocean thermal, ocean current, or tidal power. Is it cost that is holding back development of these and other potential resources?

I’m interested in hearing from others who may be involved in or know of other innovative and creative renewable-energy projects on campuses. What else is being studied, installed, or perhaps flying under the radar? Will the United States, through the leadership of colleges and universities, reach the goal of achieving all renewable electricity production by 2018, as Al Gore has advocated? Is there specific legislation that the next administration will need to support to encourage the development of the necessary infrastructure?

Book Review: A Guide to Planning for Change

Here is an advance release of a book review scheduled for the January-February-Marh 2009 issue of Planning for Higher Education. Enjoy!

A Guide to Planning for Change - more official info about the book here
by Donald M. Norris and Nick L. Poulton
Society for College and University Planning 2008
140 pages
ISBN: 0-9820229-0-5

Reviewed by Sandra L. Kortesoja

Once again, Donald M. Norris and Nick L. Poulton have created a compact and timely guide that brings together a comprehensive array of 21st century planning resources, including—but not limited to—the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) portfolio of resources on integrated planning in higher education. Underwritten by five product providers (Microsoft, Inc., The Sextant Group, Nuventive, Inc., iStrategy, and eThority), A Guide to Planning for Change adroitly incorporates sections on powerful new techniques and tools without losing sight of fundamental concepts for planning, executing strategy, and developing organizational capacity. The Guide’s format and style represent the best of both the business world and the academic style: its clear, concise, easy-to-read text presentation makes liberal use of subheadings and spacing, is punctuated with diagrams and tables, and also references an extensive body of literature on planning. Norris and Poulton address new and emerging challenges from a balanced and practical perspective that reflects the lessons of history as well as the latest thinking. I’m not sure what I was expecting of such a slender volume on such a complex topic, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, in ten short chapters, the authors could cover so much so effectively.

Importance of Institutional Context and External Challenges

In A Guide to Planning for Change, Norris and Poulton emphasize the importance of institutional context—and organizational support—in shaping any planning effort. Colleges and universities are complex organizations. No single planning style or approach can suit every situation. Organizations vary widely with respect to the nature and complexity of their institutional missions, and with respect to their size, control or governance, and the presence or absence of collective bargaining agreements. Planners and strategists must first understand these and other contextual factors in order to develop an appropriate approach to planning and executing strategy. In another time-honored work, Bolman and Deal (2003, 3rd edition) discuss “reframing” organizational change in terms of four interpretations or “frames” of organizational processes: Structural, Human Resource, Political, and Symbolic; in the introduction of their new guide to planning, Norris and Poulton describe the importance of not only institutional context but also whole organization involvement:

Planning is a core competency of successful organizations, leaders, and managers. It pervades all organizational units and processes. Higher education planning in all its forms engages a broad cross section of administrative leaders, staff, faculty, students, alumni, and other stakeholders. Planning is ongoing, on different time frames and schedules (Norris and Poulton, p. 1).

The planning effort at a community college, for example, will differ from that undertaken at a research university, yet planners in both institutional contexts must also consider the external environment. In this extension of their earlier work, A Guide for New Planners, Norris and Poulton recognize and respond to new challenges in the external environment by including resources to help planners and strategists navigate changing conditions. For example, new patterns of multiculturalism and diversity, advances in information technology, new definitions of academic quality with a focus on student learning and program effectiveness, new emphasis on the contribution of higher education to economic productivity, and the globalization of scholarship (Peterson, Dill, and Mets, eds., 1997) are all forces in the external environment driving institutional change. A Guide to Planning for Change “is about making sense of changing conditions and achieving strategic intent in the face of competition, uncertainty, and politics” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 1).

Nature of Planning Today

Like their popular earlier guide, A Guide to Planning for Change will be a valuable resource for experienced planners and strategists as well as for those new to planning. In introducing the concepts of planning, strategy execution, and change, Chapter 1 also provides “snapshots” or scenarios that illustrate how today’s planners and strategists may have many different titles in their institutions, often fulfilling the role of planner through a special assignment that augments the other responsibilities of their position. Chapter 2 discusses characteristics of successful planning in terms employed by the materials and professionals of the SCUP Planning Institutes as a community of practice. The chapter’s descriptions of ongoing planning processes and support structures that are integrated, strategic, and aligned include diagrams that help explain planning activities with enough organizational detail to provide a starting point for new planners or a quick reference for experienced ones. Increasingly, as planning processes become strategic (i.e., external, enterprise-wide orientation) as well organizational (i.e., internal, focused), planning requires analytic support at all organizational levels. Such analytics consist of both qualitative and quantitative components, including new performance metrics. Chapter 3 presents “A Model for Strategic Planning and Executing Strategy” (chapter title).

Helpful though a model can be, as experienced planners themselves, the authors also recognize historical pitfalls and potential limitations to planning success. In this regard, Chapters 4 and 5, titled respectively “Assessing Planning Opportunities” and “The Politics of Planning for Change,” may be the Guide’s most useful chapters. In Chapter 4 the authors suggest beginning the planning process with a review of the “charge or mandate” in order to develop a “strategy for planning” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 41). Anticipating resistance to planning and change, Norris and Poulton outline steps toward understanding the history of decision making, planning, and governance; and include consideration of external forces:
The planner must also understand the nature of the challenges facing the organization, whether addressing any or all of them can be legitimately included in the charge, and how to confront those challenges through planning (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 42).

Another planning and strategy setting axiom presented is “less is more.” By focusing on a few key issues or themes, planners are advised to avoid plans that are too complicated or overreaching in favor of more clearly articulated strategies and plans with fewer elements.
Based upon a thorough sampling of classic works from the higher education literature, Chapter 5 addresses planning for change in light of the influence of “politics, power, and leadership” on decision making. [Planners] “must always be prepared to deploy the particular combinations of processes and practices that best fit their planning and decision-making environments” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 51). As part of a “handy toolkit” to help planners tailor approaches appropriate for specific settings, Phyllis Grummon and Bruce Flye of the SCUP Planning Institutes summarize planning for change in three categories:

* Planning Down: The Art of Anticipating and Leading Change
* Planning Sideways: The Art of Supporting and Creating Change
* Planning Up: The Art of Understanding and Navigating Change
(Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 51)

Figure 5.1 summarizes the toolkit in table form with additional descriptions, by category, of the related Who? What? When? Why? Where?, and conceptual framework in the literature. Planners who understand Bolman and Deal’s (2003) four organizational “frames” (mentioned above and in Figure 5.6 as: People/Human Resources, Structural, Political, and Symbolic), by better anticipating the respective “Products of Change” and “Responses to Change,” can design an effort to lead, support, and navigate change that addresses all four dimensions of the organization.

Past and Future Perspectives

Understanding the history of planning and decision making in general can also assist institutional planners and strategists to plan for the future. Chapter 6, “Changing Perspectives and Tools in Planning,” describes decade-long “eras” in planning and decision making since the 1950s. (The Guide characterizes the current 21st century decade as The Age of Globalization, Sustainability, and Performance Improvement). Chapter 6 ends with a summary of “The World View and Toolkit of Today’s Planners and Strategists” and a table (Figure 6.3) outlining the progression of academic, physical, resources, technology, and “other’ institutional planning activities since the 1950s. Chapter 7 provides sketches of twenty planning topics that make up the 2008-2009 edition of New Directions in Planning Topics. Edited by the authors of A Guide to Planning for Change, topics in New Directions are addressed by expert practitioners in the respective area. Each sketch in the Guide includes author name and affiliation together with a brief summary of the topic. Norris and Poulton also note that SCUP has created a regularly updated online repository of new planning topics.

For some planners and strategists, the extensive array of other resources referenced may be the most useful aspect of A Guide to Planning for Change. Especially in today’s Age of Globalization, planners in higher education can benefit from perspectives on planning from other fields of study. In Chapter 8, Norris and Poulton highlight the influence of other fields on higher education planning with summaries of resources from twelve other specialized planning-related fields including, for example, “Business and Corporate Planning,” “Organizational Behavior,” “Technology Planning,” and “Decision Making in a Profoundly Networked, Globalized World.” In the second part of Chapter 8, the authors provide “A Critical Reading List for Planning in Higher Education” which includes annotated references for more than 60 print resources. Chapter 9 provides short biographical sketches of the career paths of several practicing planners who have been active in the Society for College and University Planning. Finally, Chapter 10, supplements the annotated list of resources provided in Chapter 8 with additional references mentioned in the text but not included as “Critical Readings,” and websites providing links to organizations and additional resources on topics such as environmental scanning methodologies.

Conclusion

In summary, A Guide to Planning for Change brings higher education planning into the 21st century. For planners and strategists at all types of institutions, the guide organizes tools and planning concepts—including planning activity detail and practical pitfalls—into one concise volume. For such a comprehensive work, it is difficult to find fault with the guide’s content and general design. If any improvements to the Guide could be suggested, such discussion might include how best to organize the wide range of additional resources presented. Readings identified in the Figure 8.1 “Critical Readings” table, for example, are provided with author name listed first but entries do not appear in alphabetical order. Explanation of the sequence for Figure 8.1 is eventually given at the top of page 96 before the annotated listing; however, as a reference, the annotated list might be more helpful to readers if arranged in overall alphabetical order by author, or in topical sections with topic headings, rather than arranged to reflect a chronology of planning history. With the exception of outside resources, the Guide appears well-organized to provide 21st century planners quick access to “the greater ecology of planning and strategy” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 3).
Certainly, the world has changed since the 1950s era of planning: “The very face of higher education is being transformed by new challenges and opportunities (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 3). The authors cite Friedman’s (2006) The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century to highlight “digitization, globalization, and democratization of the learning and knowledge industry” as forces that influence “every institution, enterprise, and individual in the global economy” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 2). They also wisely note that “successful planning is both art and science” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 3). Describing globalization’s tendency toward worldwide “cultural homogenization” in The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Friedman (2000) also wrote about the tensions between today’s globalizing forces and longstanding, often diverse, cultural traditions rooted in local regions and/or nation-states.
In higher education, planners must be aware of similar tensions inherent in organizations: “Colleges and universities have traditionally worked to expand the boundaries of knowledge and discover new ways of ‘knowing.’ Concurrently, they have served a critical role in conserving traditional values and proven practices” (Norris and Poulton, 2008, p. 2). Successful planning requires recognizing both organizational roles. By addressing politics and resistance to change as well as presenting new analytics and planning tools, A Guide to Planning for Change helps put successful planning within reach for all who find themselves charged with planning and strategizing for their institution.

References

Bolman, L. G., and T. E. Deal. (2003). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Friedman. Thomas L. (2006). The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Updated and Expanded edition. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Originally published in 2005 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Friedman. Thomas L. (2000). The Lexus and the Olive Tree. [Newly Updated and Expanded edition]. New York: Anchor Books. Originally published in 1999 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Peterson, M. W., D. D. Dill, and L. A. Mets, eds. (1997). Planning and Management for a Changing Environment: A Handbook on Redesigning Postsecondary Institutions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sandra L. Kortesoja has studied institutional planning and the execution of strategic plans, within the broader context of organizational behavior and management, both in higher education and in the business world. She has an MBA and completed her doctoral degree in higher education administration, with a special interest in how today’s global scholarly communities influence policy and planning. Her dissertation study, summarized in a journal article now in review at the Review of Higher Education, is an innovative statistical analysis of the postsecondary choices (credential program, non-credit courses, or no postsecondary enrollment) made by a national sample of career-oriented young adults. This is her third appearance in the book review section of Planning for Higher Education.

A Guide to Planning for Change - more official info about the book here

Barack Obama's Higher Education Platform

Here is a collection from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities of statements from, the voting record of, and pre-election media reports about President-Elect Barack Obama's positions on higher education-related issues.

The President and the Planet, On a Budget

From Andrew C. Revkin of The New York Times (who recently moderated the discussion on SCUP's Campus Sustainability Day 6 webcast, October 22):

President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20 will become the most important leader of a species that has exploded in just six generations from a total population of 1 billion (around 1830) to a point today when teenagers alone number 1 billion, a species that is on a path toward more or less 9 billion people by mid-century. In numbers, think roughly of adding two Chinas on top of the one that exists today. Expectations that he will exert planet-scale leadership are high, as indicated in this letter from Nelson Mandela to the next president.

The Election and Higher Education: Some Early Reactions

Note: All of the current SCUP Links which pertain to election news, and which appear in the November 6 issue of "SCUP Email News," are in this single blog post.

Here is an early collection of several news sources with perspectives on what the recent federal (and state and local) elections might mean for higher education:

America Gets a Professor in Chief (The Chronicle of Higher Education): "The 2008 presidential election has broken so many political barriers that historians may overlook one unusual fact: When Barack Obama takes the oath of office next January alongside his running mate, Joe Biden, it will be the first time in history that the president, vice president, and both of their spouses have worked in higher education."

Obama Win Could Hit Recruitment of Foreign Students (The Guardian): "The US will look a lot more attractive, especially in the face of tighter UK visa rules."

Obama on Higher Ed (Inside Higher Ed): "President-elect has called for reform of loan programs, a tuition tax credit in exchange for service, new investments in research, and a broader concept of affirmative action."

Good Showing for Higher Ed Ballot Measures (Inside Higher Ed): "Despite recent downturn in U.S. economy, voters show some support for higher ed, approving key bond measures for community colleges — and reject a Massachusetts tax plan that would have devastated public colleges."

Turning a Page (Inside Higher Ed): "What should the president-elect study between now and the inauguration? Scott McLemee presents a reading list."

Application, U.S. Secretary of Education (Inside Higher Ed): "Wick Sloane offers the presidential candidates his one-year plan for a federal role in education when most attention will be elsewhere."

As Democrats Strengthen Grip on Congress, Key GOP Lawmaker Ousted (Inside Higher Ed): Rep. Ric Keller of Florida, senior Republican on the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness, and an avid supporter of Pell Grants, defeated.

Obama, Helped by Youth Vote, Wins Presidency and Makes History (The Chronicle of Higher Education): Includes a section on policy priorities and higher education challenges.

Democrats Win Big in Congressional Races but Face Spending Constraints (The Chronicle of Higher Education): "Practically speaking, that means 'things that cost money are going to take longer to accomplish,' said Becky Timmons, assistant vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education."

Obama's Possible Candidates for Education Secretary (The Chronicle of Higher Education): "Even if higher education is not Mr. Obama's top priority when choosing an education secretary, he still might want someone with a higher-education background, said Shirley M. Hufstedler, chosen by President Jimmy Carter as the nation's first education secretary."

Ban on Preferences Succeeds in Nebraska; Colorado Measure Remains Undecided (The Chronicle of Higher Education): "Those measures were among 19 referenda related to higher education that voters in 15 states were deciding on Tuesday. The ballot questions included proposals to create state lotteries to finance scholarships and questions about whether to issue bonds to pay for campus construction."

Results of State Referenda Related to Higher Education (The Chronicle of Higher Education): Access to this resource is protected for Chronicle subscribers.

State-Level Races Shape Education Landscape (Education Week): "In an election year dominated by a historic race for president, state-level candidates and issues struggled to compete for attention. But the stakes were high. The gloomy economic climate will pose big challenges for governors and legislatures in crafting state spending, about half of which typically goes to K-12 and higher education. " Access to more than the introduction to this resource is protected for Education Week subscribers.

Obama Elected 44th President (Education Week): "The Democrat’s agenda includes expanding preschool, recruiting teachers, increasing funding for charter schools, and amending the No Child Left Behind Act." Access to more than the introduction to this resource is protected for Education Week subscribers.

WEDNESDAY BUZZ: Obama Elected President, Higher Education Pledges Support in Addressing the Country's Challenges (ACE): From American Council on Education President Molly Corbett Broad:

"The American Council on Education congratulates President-elect Barack Obama on his historic election as the 44th president of the United States. I know that I speak for college and university presidents across the country in wishing him well as he starts his new administration in January.

Our nation faces a clear set of national and international challenges. That daunting list includes preserving peace and security in an increasingly interdependent world, revitalizing and sustaining a strong economy, and expanding educational opportunity in order to maintain America’s research and innovation edge. I can assure President-elect Obama that more than 3,000 American colleges and universities stand ready to assist his administration in addressing our society’s most pressing needs. We in higher education look forward to working together to meet the challenges of the next decade."

Wobbly Time for College Tuition

"For this academic year, the average sticker price of four-year colleges was up less than 1 percent over inflation, and financial aid was up about 5.5 percent over inflation in 2007-08." So, these two new reports from the College Board are good news! But according to this article there could also be some pretty bad news, too, possibly resulting in a reversal of those trends:

Based on what's happened in past recessions, tough budget periods are now anticipated at both public and private colleges. On the public side, at least 17 states have already handed down budget cuts to their higher-education systems, which "will likely mean tuition increases," says Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, a research and advocacy group in Washington. "Even the places where the governor is trying to protect higher education, they're still going to take a big haircut," she says.