OSU's Main Library Re-Opens After Three Years and $109M

This nice article includes a photo tour/slide show. Ohio State University's main library has undergone more nips, tucks and enhancements than an aging beauty queen trying to hang on to her youth.

But as sometimes happens, some work done in the past to serve a growing student body compromised the magnificence of the original building. . . . 'People will actually see and feel the building, and the furnishings get more contemporary as they walk west,' said Wesley L. Boomgaarden, preservation officer of Ohio State University Libraries. 

See more here:

http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/08/03/OSU_library.ART_ART_08-03-09_A1_5NEL3IU.html

New Book, "Collegetown. The Place We Live and Work."

What used to be Greentree Gazette is now "Today's Campus" and we think you'll enjoy this brief review of the book, The American College Town, by Blake Gumprecht, which is available on Today's Campus' website (you can purchase the book here):

For example, Harvard and Oxford both situated themselves far from city dwellers, all the better for faculty and students to concentrate on their academic pursuits. Of course, enterprising businessmen then set up taverns nearby to distract them from those pursuits.

Many colleges are located where they are because they were paid to do so. Perhaps it was a land grant, or a straightforward cash payment, but the city fathers wanted a college in their town, filling their shops and restaurants with a dependable stream of customers.

According to Dr. Gumprecht, college towns are quite stable economically. They have relatively lower unemployment and higher prices than other town of comparable size. Though higher prices might not sound attractive, they might now be a factor keeping local businesses afloat. By phone Dr. Gumprecht told me, “Most people living in college towns know what they’re in for.”

Campus By Frank Lloyd Wright - But It Needs New Dorms?

Florida Southern University faced this dilemma and is quite proud of its recent campus additions. This news article includes some good images, external and internal:

"An architect is only as good as his clients," said Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture. "Frank Lloyd Wright had some terrific clients, and Florida Southern College was one of those clients, for him and for me. ... I hope I've done right by Mr. Wright."

Nicholas Hall, a four-story, Y-shaped building perched above Lake Hollingsworth, is a companion to Wesley Hall, which opened last fall. The twin dormitories, separated by a wide lawn, comprise the Barnett Residential Life Center, named for Barney and Carol Barnett, Florida Southern graduates and ardent supporters.

Faculty Mentoring in a Community College: An Evaluation

Is it worth a community college's time to invest in a faculty mentoring program? This report describes the implementation of one and follows up with an evaluation of it, with lessons learned:

The positive impact of a mentoring program is directly related to the investment in the front-end work: literature review, needs assessment, design, and development. Scheduling ample time for these phases will help ensure that (a) the correct faculty performance issues are identified and analyzed; (b) the core components needed for a successful mentoring program are identified and accounted for in the program design; and (c) the most appropriate activities are developed for inclusion in the mentoring program. While information on program evaluation is currently limited, a plethora of resources are available to guide you through the process of program development. We found Murray (2001) especially helpful. Also, standardized tools are available that measure the psychosocial effects, such as increased personal and job satisfaction, on participants. See Stromei (2001) for a description of the tool she developed.

Are the Brains of Reckless Teens More Mature Than Those of Their Prudent Peers?

A new study suggests that teens who are the heaviest risk takers may actually have brains that appear to be more adult, in development, than those of their peers:

If valid, the study has important implications for interpreting risk-taking in teens. It suggests that the brains of many teens who behave dangerously are maturing early: Reckless behavior might in fact be a sign of adultness. Some adults do risky things (speeding, drinking, having unprotected sex) quite commonly without causing great alarm. Automatically considering such behaviors to be more objectionable just because someone is young runs into what the researchers call in their paper "a conundrum of defining risk (or dangerousness) based not on the objective attributes of the activity but on the person engaging in them."

Why Students Are Leaving Your College or University?

It might seem intuitive that most students leave a college or a university (without graduating) due to financial stress. But this company's research fiinds that nearly 3/4 of non-graduating students who leave, leave for "customer service-related reasons (includes pie charts). "We would have expected that financially motivated dropping would have risen significantly. That was not what we found. Though it could be argued that the major shift in “not worth it” is in part a financial decision. However the larger parts of the category do appear to be a combination of 'poor service and treatment' and 'college does not care.' These are combined with a sense of 'I am wasting my time and money.'"

What Is a 'Learning Space'

This brief essay on the changes in how we view the definition of "learning space" is worth a quick read:

There are signs of an educational evolution as some institutions have embraced the concept of learning spaces to accommodate the strategic planning and technological innovation that empower people to communicate and collaborate more easily, more often, and more effectively. This widening of scope took place in at least two dimensions. The first dimension is spatial: the redesigning and weaving together of classrooms, libraries, labs, informal spaces, and virtual/mobile spaces to form a coordinated, institutional learning web that offers students and faculty new opportunities before, during, and after class. The second dimension is organizational: the call for campus stakeholders to unite in designing, developing, and sustaining these disparate yet cross-functional spaces and places. Institutions that have created learning spaces, that have adapted internal structures to meet the needs of the digital learner, are now poised to navigate a rapidly changing matrix of factors where people, content, tools, and infrastructure find new combinations and sometimes surprising synergies to foster deep and enduring learning.

The Return of the Opportunity Manager

Richard Katz muses about the possible opportunities that we may be overlooking as we slash budgets: "Amid the gloom, I wonder if this might not be the ideal time for the IT community to assert its role as an opportunity developer. Rather than — or perhaps alongside — cutting the IT budget, shouldn't we be asking how information technology, along with process reengineering, can fundamentally change the way we do things? Can we not only reduce the IT consumption of campus power but also implement environmental systems to monitor and control building temperatures and other sources of energy consumption? Can we continue to create the incentives and the infrastructure to promote the effective consolidation of servers, storage, and other campus IT services? Can we deploy the analytical engines and develop the predictive models that will allow our colleagues to optimize classroom (and other resource) utilization and to engage in "what if" scenarios that help us understand the economics of hybridizing courses or other e-learning strategies? Can we organize and harvest information from our student and learning management systems to identify at-risk students and harness this information to improve retention rates? How might the exploitation of these and other IT-enabled opportunities change the financial complexion of our institutions? . . . Didn't someone say something about not wasting a crisis?"

Saluting a New Cadre of Students

We've been following the development of the new GI Bill for some time now. This article from Business Officer magazine reports on a summit held by the American Council on Education (ACE) for senior campus officials coping with making the most of this funding for our veterans: 

Summit participants presented innovative programs, promising practices, and creative solutions to educational roadblocks for veterans. And while the specifics of their activities varied, at a minimum, higher education institutions that succeed in attracting and retaining veterans provide greater access to accurate and timely information, a streamlined process for accessing education benefits, academic credit for military training and experience, and veteran-specific transitional support programs on campus. In essence, they have changed their culture to accommodate a new phenomenon.

From statewide systems to a small community college, from an institution with a long association with the military to one with a famous history of war protests, here are some examples of creative ideas for transitioning veteran students.

What's the POV of This Year's Freshmen?

An annual pleasure . . . and eye opener: (POV=point of view)

If the entering college class of 2013 had been more alert back in 1991 when most of them were born, they would now be experiencing a severe case of déjà vu. The headlines that year railed about government interventions, bailouts, bad loans, unemployment and greater regulation of the finance industry. The Tonight Show changed hosts for the first time in decades, and the nation asked “was Iraq worth a war?” 

This is the 12th year that Beloit College has assembled these observations that help to identify the experiences that have shaped the lives—and formed the mindset—of students starting their post-secondary education this fall.

The Mindset List is not a chronological listing of things that happened in 1991, the year they were born. It is instead an effort to identify the worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2009. Of course, our students come from many backgrounds and different traditions and these generalizations may not apply to all. The list identifies the experiences and event horizons of students and is not meant to reflect on their preparatory education.

It is also not deliberately designed to make readers feel really old!

EDUCAUSE Top Ten IT Issues, 2009

What a surprise, "Funding IT" is the top issue in campus technology in 2009: 

These are very trying economic times for higher education institutions. Diving endowments, hiring freezes, and budget cuts are the main topics of executive focus and discussion. Not surprisingly, the economic downturn overshadowed many of this year's top-ten issues, with the current focus on fiscal conservatism reflected in this year's #1 issue for IT leaders: Funding IT.

Funding IT will be a challenge for most higher education IT organizations as they grapple with fiercely competing budget priorities in the process of overall institutional budgets being reduced. But during these difficult economic times, IT will have the opportunity to show its worth to the institution by being able to create and/or enhance organizational effectiveness and efficiencies while realizing cost savings. These cost savings may be accomplished through a variety of methods and in a variety of areas.

Looking at IT Through a New Lens: Achieving Cost Savings in a Fiscally Challenging Time

Writing in EDUCAUSE Review, George F. Claffey, Jr. shares some concepts useful to all departments in these difficult times: 

While fiscally challenging times often prompt a retreat into “core strategic services,” we should view this crisis as an opportunity to reevaluate the position, strategies, and politics in play on our campuses. Often we find that we’re doing something merely because that’s how it’s always been done. This challenging economic situation gives us an opportunity to reevaluate what we are doing and how we are doing it, seeking greater efficiency and effectiveness in new solutions.

As we stare across the multiple tabs and hundreds of rows that make up the IT budget serving our students, faculty, and staff, we must realize that the answer cannot be found with basic cuts. We must look at how technology is used — or not used — on campus. To promote greater cost savings, we need to look through a new “lens.” Four broad categories can be evaluated to determine if IT resource alignment is appropriate and if savings can be achieved through change:

• Services and infrastructure: retirement and consolidation
• Personnel: capital, training, research and development
• Evaluation of alternate technologies
• Economies of scale

Seven Things You Should Know About Cloud Computing

EDUCAUSE has published another in its "Seven Things" series of explicatory briefs, Seven Things You Should Know About Cloud Computing. Each has been a valuable resource and an excellent way to quickly get up to speed on something you might need to know about. Cloud computing has an impact on IT planning, academic planning, and resource and budget planning: 

Cloud computing is the delivery of scalable IT resources over the Internet, as opposed to hosting and operating those resources locally, such as on a college or university network. Those resources can include applications and services, as well as the infrastructure on which they operate. By deploying IT infrastructure and services over the network, an organization can purchase these resources on an as-needed basis and avoid the capital costs of software and hardware. With cloud computing, IT capacity can be adjusted quickly and easily to accommodate changes in demand. Cloud computing also allows IT providers to make IT costs transparent and thus match consumption of IT services to those who pay for such services. Operating in a cloud environment requires IT leaders and staff to develop different skills, such as managing contracts, overseeing integration between in-house and outsourced services, and mastering a different model of IT budgets.

Healthcare Design Strategies

This resource shares some results from the 2009 Survey of Design Research in Healthcare Settings: The Use and Impact of Evidence-Based Design. It begins by defining "evidence-based design": 

There is often discussion about using the term “evidence-based design”-the availability and credibility of evidence, the use of the term as marketing jargon, and misperceptions about aesthetics versus tangible outcomes. The concerns about EBD are often a result of the term not being well defined, even within healthcare. The Center for Health Design defines EBD as the process of “basing decisions about the built environment on credible research to achieve the best possible outcomes” (The Center for Health Design 2008). As there can sometimes be a casual use of the term, the survey posed a question about the best definition of EBD. While the results indicate a familiarity with the formal definition, many also feel that EBD uses a combination of sources and information that may expand the “evidence” base beyond the rigor of what may be deemed credible research.

The Design Build Network

From The Scout Report, copyright 2009 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu: 

When architects, designers, and construction engineers want to get the latest scoop on what's going on in their profession, one of the places they go is the Design Build Network website. The site contains a great deal of information for people working in these industries, including reports on innovative construction projects, list of product providers, and information on suppliers. Along with this more focused information, the "Features" area contains thoughtful essays on New York's High Line, reviews of architectural exhibits, and interviews with people like French designer Andree Putnam. After looking over some of these pieces, visitors can sign up to receive their newsletter, and look at their publication, The LEAF Review. Finally, the site also has a search engine, a job board, and other career-related resources. [KMG]

New Book: Fertilizers, Pills & Magnetic Strips, The Fate of Public Education in Americ

 Purchase this book here: Fertilizers, Pills, And Magnetic Strips: The Fate Of Public Education In America (PB)

In Fertilizers, Pills, and Magnetic Strips, Gene V Glass analyzes how a few key technological inventions changed culture in America and how public education has changed as a result. Driving these changes are material self-interest and the desire for comfort and security, both of which have transformed American culture into a hyper-consuming, xenophobic society that is systematically degrading public education.

Glass shows how the central education policy debates at the start of the 21st century (vouchers, charter schools, tax credits, high-stakes testing, bilingual education) are actually about two underlying issues: how can the costs of public education be cut, and how can the education of the White middle-class be "quasi-privatized" at public expense? Working from the demographic realities of the past thirty years, he projects a challenging and disturbing future for public education in America.

What to Do When Your Gigantic Neighbor Leaves Town

Two years ago, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer decided to close its major research facility, which bordered the University of Michigan's North Campus in Ann Arbor. The university purchased the 30 buildings, with nearly 2M square feet of space on 174 acres for $109M and has renamed the property the North Campus Research Complex. Glimpses into the planning process for what to do with the property can be found on this special planning page. 

Forbes: America's Best Colleges

In case you missed it, Forbes magazine came in early August with its list of "America's Best Colleges" "from the students' point of view." In addition to the listings, there are brief essays and opinion pieces, like Hana R. Alberts's "How West Point Beat the Ivy League"; Louis Menard's "The Marketplace of Ideas," and Jill Biden's "Consider Community College." You should probably take a quick look.

How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education

Anya Kamenetz, writing in Fast Company magazine, examines the confluence of Web 2.0 and the Open Education movement in light of some entrepreneurs who think they can transform the business of higher education: 

Is a college education really like a string quartet? Back in 1966, that was the assertion of economists William Bowen, later president of Princeton, and William Baumol. In a seminal study, Bowen and Baumol used the analogy to show why universities can't easily improve efficiency. 

If you want to perform a proper string quartet, they noted, you can't cut out the cellist nor can you squeeze in more performances by playing the music faster. But that was then -- before MP3s and iPods proved just how freely music could flow. Before Google scanned and digitized 7 million books and Wikipedia users created the world's largest encyclopedia. Before YouTube Edu and iTunes U made video and audio lectures by the best professors in the country available for free, and before college students built Facebook into the world's largest social network, changing the way we all share information. Suddenly, it is possible to imagine a new model of education using online resources to serve more students, more cheaply than ever before.

Most Graduates’ Debt Load Is Manageable

According to a new College Board policy brief,  “People think students are drowning in debt, and there is a small proportion of students that borrow an exorbitant amount, but most students graduate with a manageable debt load,' . . . bachelor’s degree recipients who did borrow, the median loan debt was $19,999, up 5 percent from $18,973 four years earlier."As was the case four years ago, about one-third of all graudating seniors have accumulated no debt at all. This link to a New York Times article; this one to the policy brief itself.

Strategies for Managing Security Issues at Two-Year Institutions

Writing in University Business with the title "Securing the Community College," Ann McClure examines some of the unique variables of campus security that must be addressed by community college leaders: "Just as the fluid student population makes it difficult to understand outside forces influencing their behavior, the larger percentage of adjunct and part-time faculty employed at community colleges can make it harder to become familiar with everyone working on campus. Add that concern to the likelihood a community college will have satellite campuses and outreach programs that bring local citizens onto campus—making for a much larger population to watch."

AGB's Trusteeship Magazine: Several Articles

Nonmembers of AGB can no longer access the entire contents of this great magazine. Here is the current Table of Contents, though. (PDF) The lead article in the current, July/August 2009 issue is titled "The Gremlins of Governance: by Richard Chait, and its description reads: "Many college boards wrestle with 'three gremlins of governance.' None haunts every campus to the same degree, and yet all are familiar and problematic." Other articles of interest in this issue include: "Your Institution in a Global Economy" by William Freund; "Getting By Isn't Good Enough for Higher Education" by Geanie Morrison and Denise Merrill; and "Presidential Transition Teams: Fostering a Collaborative Process," by Rochard B. Artman and Mark Franz.

The Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities (AGB) has recently published a new report titled, "The AGB Survey of Higher Education Governance." Its executive summary and introduction is available at no cost here. (PDF) Description: "A wide-ranging study of best practices and policies for higher education governance reveals that while many important policies and practices are in place to guide the work of college and university governing boards, there is also room for improvement. Covering issues such as assessment of individual trustees to presidential compensation, the report, based on a survey of 700 respondents, is the first comprehensive and focused look at higher education governance: how well boards are meeting their responsibilities, what issues are at the top of their agendas, and which policies and good practices guide their work." The full report can be purchased here.

When Times Are Tough

Just how bad can it get at small, private colleges? La Grange is the oldest private college in Georgia. Subtitled, "Georgia's LaGrange College faces financial challenges as parents and students struggle to afford the cost of a private college, this article in National Crosstalk by Don Campbell takes us deep into that school's budget crisis and planning: "Rated highly for its affordability as a four-year private college, LaGrange has survived the toughest economic year in memory with a balanced budget, according to outgoing President Stuart Gulley, but not without some tough decisions that will be felt even more in the coming year."

The United Arab Emirates and the Branch Campus Gold Rush

By Kevin Schoepp in International Higher Education. Abstract: "The fairly new higher education system in the United Arab Emirates is experiencing accelerated growth. The country opened its first university in 1976, established its Ministry of Higher Education in 1992, and began full time licensing and accrediting of higher education in 2000. Many foreign institutions have opened branch campuses. This expansion’s frenetic pace has presented both opportunity and peril for the nation and its students." Money quote: "Failures cause reverberations throughout the region. Skeptics revel, students suffer, and the United Arab Emirates is worse off than when it opened its doors."

Serving Displaced Workers: Lessons Learned and Recommendations to Other Colleges

Now it's five years after Pillotex Corporation closed down in North Carolina and displaced nearly 5,000 workers. This resource describes how Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and the North CArolina Community College system planned an intervention for jobs recovery and retraining, the impact on the people and community, and a list of overall lessons learned. Our favorite: "Job-seekers often need more than skills and education."

Ten Things I No Longer Believe About Transforming Teaching and Learning with Technology

For more than this decade, the TLT Group has been at the forefront in experimenting with and learning from technology tools to transform teaching and learning. Steve Erhmann recently began a series of essays soliciting responses to which he will reply, about the ten things that - after so many years of paying attention - he no longer believes about teaching and learning with technology. "The first five weeks deal with five specific rewards for investing in technology (visibility and the resources it can attract, better learning, larger enrollment, cost savings, and time savings). Let's start with what I once believed about buying hot new technology in order to attract resources by making your program more visible."

Arts Programs in Academia Are Forced to Nip Here, Adjust There

Writing in The New York Times, Patricia Cohen shares a wide-ranging report on some of the academic programming cuts happening on campuses, much of which seems to focus on the arts. 

The arts are of course not the only victims of the recent economic meltdown. Large reductions in budgets have stung pretty much every corner of academia, from philosophy to Chinese, from gymnastics to geology. . . . Several other college arts administrators around the country also said programs that serve the surrounding community as well as the students — like museums and performing arts centers — are especially vulnerable. . . . Figuring out what or who faces the budgetary guillotine has been a harrowing process no matter how it was done. Few go quietly. 

Embracing the Unknown

These are brief, mini-essays from a number of distinguished higher education leaders, published in Business Officer. They make quick reads between phone calls: "Acknowledging the critical need to examine the multifaceted nature of the global economic crisis and its effect on our world from myriad angles—and explore below the tip of the iceberg—NACUBO has invited leaders in higher education and finance to write about these turbulent, changing times. The following essays present a range of perspectives—historical, endowment-focused, community college, student, and more—on the issues higher education is currently contending with, including some solutions for these and future challenges."

From Campus Tug-of-War to Pulling Together: Using the Lean Approach

"Applying the 'lean approach' can yield surprising benefits to facilities professionals dealing with accomplishing more with fewer resources, while managing stakeholders with competing interests": That's how Facilities Manager describes this new article. (PDF) This is a thought-provoking article in a number of ways, one of which is that one could argue that the "Lean" approach to planning could be seen as "sustainability" but with a different phraseology; and it certainly is a form of integrated planning.

Your Future in 5 Easy Steps: Wired Guide to Personal Scenario Planning

This is fun, and in the midst of all of our budget crises and divisive political news we deserve some fun. Especially when it's also potentially useful both as a learning experience and as a personal planning tool: "We live in uncertain times. . . . Heaven forbid you should have to make a big decision amid such turbulence. Thinking about a career change? Moving to a new city? Paying for a child's education? Having a hard time deciding what to do? . . . Thought so. That's why we asked Peter Schwartz, cofounder of the Global Business Network, to lead us through a tutorial on scenario planning. Schwartz typically does this for major corporations, but the technique works just as well for individuals. To be clear: Scenario planning is not prediction. The goal is to envision possible futures, which will serve as guideposts to the path forward. The payoff is a clearer view of what the future may hold and of the most advantageous route through it." More.

Is It Time to Rethink Physical Space?

In University Business, this article by Marisa Manley is titled "Building the Long-Term Value of Assets" and subtitled "Why it’s an opportune time for colleges and universities to rethink physical space." 

Capturing value during an economic downturn requires institutional leaders to think strategically about needs, goals, and physical space. When devising a strategic plan:

• View facilities as part of an overall business plan. Universities do well when their leaders consider property and space as part of the institution’s investment choices, considering all options as opposed to conducting a desperate search for space when needs are already pressing.

Will Higher Education Ever Change as It Should?

Writing in the Chronicle, Robert Zemsky muses about the potential for radical transformation of American higher education. Could any group of appropriate actors ever get together and work out something, systemwide, that would effective change everything? He posits three potential "dislodging events" which might be the kind of things that would motivate enough stakeholders. One possibility: "A simple rule could differentiate the strictly commercial from the educational: All dividends, interest, rents, and realized capital gains would be taxed at current rates, but the money owed the IRS would be reduced by the amount of cash an institution withdrew from its endowment to support educational and research programs. In years when the money spent exceeded the growth in the value of the endowment, a credit would be awarded to offset future taxes."

Are Campus Emergency Plans Inadequate?

Doug Lederman writes about a recent study of 28 campus emergency plans: 

While colleges can do little if anything to stop emergencies like these from unfolding, emergency preparedness experts and federal agencies generally agree on a set of steps that postsecondary and other institutions should take to be ready to respond to crises. A study published in the latest issue of Radiologic Technology suggests, though, that the emergency preparedness plans at a significant proportion of colleges and universities lack some of the key elements seen as necessary to prepare, prevent, respond and recover from "mass casualty events.'"

The full study is available here. Below is its brief synopsis in the publication, Radiologic Technology:

Background: Tragic university shootings have prompted administrators of higher education institutions to re-evaluate their emergency preparedness plans and take appropriate measures for preventing and responding to emergencies.

Objective: To review the literature and identify key components needed to prevent shootings at higher education institutions in the United States, and in particular, institutions housing radiologic science programs.

Methods: Twenty-eight emergency preparedness plans were retrieved electronically and reviewed from a convenience sample of accredited radiologic science programs provided by the Joint Review Committeeon Education in Radiologic Technology Web site.

Results" The review of the 28 emergency preparedness plans confirmed that most colleges are prepared for basic emergencies, but lack the key components needed to successfully address mass-casualty events. Only 5 (18%) of the 28 institutions addressed policies concerning school shootings.

The Next Big Thing: Crisis and Transformation in American Higher Education

On Inside Higher Ed's "Blog U," the latest post is titled The Next Big Thing: Crisis and Transformation in American Higher Education, which concludes: "It is good to attend crisis conferences, seminars, and meetings on the next big thing. We all need to worry about the global transformation of higher education, but it is even more important for each institution to stay closely focused on the performance that produces high quality and high productivity measured against a clear and precise understanding of the marketplace for its mission. . . . When the moment passes, the publicity dies down, and the pundits turn to other crises, the college and university winners will be those who paid attention to the fundamentals all along." We might add that the winners will be the institutions which have used integrated, comprehensive planning to align the campus with its mission and vision.

What then is the optimal behavior of institutions suffering through the peaks and valleys of these serial crises? Some common sense guidelines may be helpful. The primary imperative surprises none of us: Pay attention to the fundamentals, all of which speak to the competitive performance of institutions within their sector and subsector of the higher education industry.

a. Enroll students.

b. Graduate students.

c. Focus on revenue.

d. Track expenses precisely.

e. Measure faculty, staff, and student performance.

f. Understand the difference between core activity and enhancements.

g. Do the core activities first and do them well.

A Tight Space for New Rutgers Medical Buildings

This New York Times article by Amy Rowland comes (on line, at least) without illustration, but is still good. Here is a Rutgers news item with images of the nursing building. 

It is challenging enough to build two state-of-the-art medical education buildings, but the challenge is even more formidable when the project site is clipped by elevated railroad tracks. This is the problem Rutgers University had to overcome to build its new College of Nursing and Institute for Health buildings here.

The two gray-and-red structures are on a rectangular 0.95-acre parcel of land, its northwest corner cut off by an Amtrak and New Jersey Transit elevated rail line. The buildings, at 110 Paterson Street, face each other in a north-south orientation with a shared courtyard.

“The site’s geography made it very difficult,” said the project’s architect, Larry Wente of Gertler & Wente, referring to the fact that the narrow side of the rectangular site fronts the street. “Because of the shape of the site, the frontage of the main entry is very narrow, so to have the buildings have street presence was very challenging. And it’s really exacerbated by the Amtrak line.”

Cool Campus! A How-to Guide for College and University Climate Action Planning

Walter Simpson is a major force in campus sustainability. Working from content on a Wiki set up via the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), he has produced a how to planning manual in book format, Cool Campus! A How-to Guide for College and University Climate Action Planning. It's free, a downloadable PDF of about 120 pages in length: "But who will lead the CAP effort? The leader or chair could be your sustainability director or energy officer, if he or she has enough experience and the right credentials, or a prestigious faculty member who is given release time to take on this project, It could be a special assistant to your school's president. . . . An undertaking this large could have co-chairs. Whoever is selected to lead should be enthusiastically committed to climate action, have strong technical background in relevant areas, be engaging, fair, well-liked, and be able to motivate others and build a strong team."

Another Religious Institution Going For-Profit

Elizabeth Redden has written a very nice summary of the current changes at Crichton College, as well as the further-down-the-road experiences of Grand Canyon Education, Inc. What happens when a faith-based institution decides to seek financial salvation by going commercial?

“They don’t want to go out of business, they want to find a way to be able to continue consistent with their mission…. I’m working with a number of institutions, some of which have a religious affiliation, some of which have a strong religious affiliation, some have none at all, but they all have missions. And a piece of the issue is how do they preserve them."

Read more here:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/03/christian