Master Planning for Sustainability

Ben Eisen explores the relationship between sustainability initiatives and campus planning:

Call it a sign of the times. For decades, sustainability initiatives in higher education were conceived and executed through grassroots, bottom-up efforts, from sustainable investments to campus recycling programs. But as stakes and publicity rise, and sustainability initiatives like the American College and University President's Climate Commitment take center stage, higher education is witnessing the growth of a top-down institutionalized approach to sustainability.

One of the clearest signs of this paradigm shift is the prominence that sustainability initiatives are receiving in university-wide strategic master plans. Green initiatives are now taking their place alongside more established campus issues in the long-term vision process.

Why Aren't There More Poor Students at Rich Colleges?

US News & World Report has new data out on the numbers of poor students at rich colleges. The numbers are remarkably low. At least one analysis finds that well-qualified poor students have "sticker shock" and are unlikely to know how much financial aid they would qualify for at a rich school.

She found that low-income students who are qualified to attend selective schools
(based on their board scores and other measures) have a probability of applying
to such schools of just 8 percent. Once they apply, though, they’re likely to
get in and receive a generous financial aid package — and once they receive
their financial aid packages, they are very likely to enroll. But many such
students may be put off by sticker shock.
“A low-income student who applies
to Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton is not going to pay a dime,” she said,
“but it’s not clear whether that message gets out to them.”

At Carnegie Mellon U., a Gleaming Computer-Science Complex Worthy of M.C. Escher

A few years ago Carnegie Mellon University showed Mack Scogin a 75-foot-deep chasm cluttered with old buildings and parking lots and asked him to put a new computer-science complex there instead. The university wanted 310 offices (all with windows, please), plus classrooms, computer labs, formal and informal meeting space, lounges, a workshop for things like planetary rovers, and underground parking. Complete item from the Buildings & Grounds Blog, is here.

In Praise of 'Community' (The Television Show)

A report on the show from someone with boots on the ground: "I hosted a 'premiere party' for my colleagues at Prairie State College. . . . We identified with the cast of “Community.” We have all had students just like every character on the show. After all, we work at a community college, and community colleges are the most diverse colleges in America. We’re proud to say we work at one of the 'loser colleges, where we take students whom some would dub losers and make them into winners. . . . And we’re proud to acknowledge our lack of selectivity. In fact, we start out every academic year by telling our new students that they’ve come to a place where they can reinvent themselves."

H1N1 Ignore at Your Peril

Here's a look at what presidents are reading about H1N1 and risk management: "Generally, risks fall into five categories: operating risk, legal/regulatory risk, financial risk, political and reputational risk, and technological risk. Risk exposures vary by institution, but basic risk management involves identifying risk(s), finding feasible options to mitigate/avoid risk(s), implementing said options, and monitoring them over time."

Update: KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)

We've been following the planning and development of this unique institution. Here's an update: "KAUST has already launched joint research programmes with institutions ranging from the National University of Singapore to France's Institut Francais du Petrole to Britain's Cambridge and Stanford in the United States. . . . And it has created its own research operations spanning nanotechnology, applied mathematics, solar energy, membrane research and bioengineering . . . 'Two years ago it was nothing but sand and sea. Today there is one of the best infrastructures for research,' KAUST president Choon Fong Shih told AFP." The town and gown issues are pretty intense, with squads of hard-liner religious police fighting the spread of women's rights from campus to the surrounding area.

New Academic Complex at the Polytechnic Campus of Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ

This "desert tough" facility "provides 245,000 square feet (22,800 square meters) of space for science, agribusiness, education, and humanities programs, with functions ranging from a black box theater to a hazmat facility" at a LEED Gold level (pending). There was a 22-month design and construction schedule and a budget of $104 million to work with. This article in Architecture Week has some great images.

Sue This School? Should a College Pay When a Grad Can't Find a Job?

This author says, "Yes." We've all seen the headlines about the New York woman who is suing her alma mater for $70,000 because she could not find a job after graduating. Mark Gimein, writing in a Slate blog, examines the actual situation "on the ground: and suggests that . . . "the more you know about Thompson and the school she's suing, the more likely it is that you might start thinking that whatever her chances of winning in court, she's right. The story of Thompson's suit isn't a one-liner about a grad too naive to know that graduating from college doesn't guarantee a job. It's a story about what 'college' means and about marginal, for-profit "colleges" that squeeze four years of fees from their students and leave them with all the debt and little of the education or prospects that they counted on."

Landscape Architects Create New Sustainability Resource Guides

Healthcare Design magazine reports that: The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has announced a new series of comprehensive online resource guides on sustainable design and planning. Created for national and local policymakers, government agencies, design professionals, planners, and students, the guides include hundreds of project case studies, research papers, organizations, and other government resources on sustainable design aggregated for the first time: Green Infrastructure: A Comprehensive Meta-Resource from ASLA.

A new, comprehensive ASLA resource has been launched, the Green Infrastructure Resource Guide, which links out to resources all over the Web and aims to be a one-stop professional resource for planners and designers. "Green infrastructure can be considered a conceptual framework for understanding the "valuable services nature provides the human environment." At the national or regional level, interconnected networks of park systems and wildlife corridors preserve ecological function and create a balance between built and natural environments. At the urban level, parks and urban forestry are central to reducing energy usage costs and creating clean, temperate air. Lastly, green roofs, walls, and other techniques within or on buildings bring a range of benefits, including reduced energy consumption and dramatically decreased stormwater runoff. At all scales, green infrastructure provides real ecological, economic, and social benefits."

Book: Opening Spaces. Design as Landscape Architecture

This is a 2003 book, but we have not previously reported on it. You can purchase it at Amazon here.

What resources are available for designing open spaces? How is it possible to exchange descriptions and concepts dealing with this? How can social and perceptual aspects be included and how can they be taken into account by the design process? What part is played by conditions deriving from nature? And what is more: how are locations and spaces created in the open air, how are paths routed and boundaries set, how are hard and soft materials used? This book identifies and analyses the elements that come together to create landscape architecture. The authors draw on their practical and theoretical experience to reveal the central components of design and the intellectual paths followed in the design process.

Free: The University of the People

Have you been hearing about a "free" university? Perhaps the reference is to Shai Reshef's University of the People. Here's a link to a brief Q&A with Reshef in Campus Technology magazine. Here's a link to the school's website. 

When a student signs up, he or she is grouped with 20 other individuals whom they interact with and learn from via homework assignments, discussion questions, and lectures. Students discuss the questions among themselves and participate in a peer-to-peer learning environment. If at any point a peer can't help--or if a student needs more elaboration on a particular topic--then they can visit the course forum. There they will find all university students who are taking the same course, along with volunteers, professors and graduate students who can help with those issues. At the end of each week, students take a quiz on the material they've learned, turn in their homework and receive a grade. The same system is used for all 40 courses that comprise the program.

Community College Innovation: Fall Festivals

It seems amazing that with budget cuts and enrollment growth happening simultaneously, that community college staff have any "extra" time for this new trend: 

Fall festivals are an opportunity for community colleges to generate much-needed funds for groups that could use the boost, especially in these difficult financial times and tight budgets. Many colleges sustain local artists, industries, and causes with the funds raised, enhancing the visibility of the college and the community. Others use the festivals to fund scholarships and other student programs.

STARS Has Been Launched

AASHE launched the STARS 1.0 Early Release on September 21, 2009. STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System) establishes a common standard of measurement for sustainability in higher education and creates incentives for continual improvement toward sustainability. SCUP has supported this campus-wide voluntary, self-reporting framework for gauging relative progress toward sustainability since it was merely a concept. As many of us often say, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. You should definitely take a look at the early release technical manual (PDF).

Florida State University Heritage Protocol

The Florida State University (FSU) Heritage Protocol was created to preserve the history of FSU through collections of various ephemeral items, including yearbooks, photographs, items of clothing, audio recordings, and films. The materials on the site are divided into six primary sections that include: "Virtual Museum", "Photo Galleries", "Mixed Media", and "Publications". In the "Virtual Museum", visitors can look at the mortar board of physical education professor, Katherine W. Montgomery, and the 1913 commencement announcement for the Florida State College for Women. Moving on, the "Photo Galleries" area includes a photo of the week feature, a collection of images from the Florida State College for Women and some unique photos of one Burt Reynolds, who went to Florida State University in the 1950s. The "Mixed Media" area is quite interesting, and visitors can view a FSU circus rehearsal film from the early 1950s and listen to an album of performances from FSU's School of Music. Finally, the "Publications" area includes primary documents like an article on the FSU Circus from the March 31, 1952 issue of Life magazine and a piece from 1955 on the FSU Marine Lab. [KMG] Copyright 2009 Internet Scout Project - http://scout.wisc.edu

Learning Spaces, An EDUCAUSE e-Book

Space, whether physical or virtual, can have a significant impact on learning. If you are interested in better understanding the relationship between space design and learning, Learning Spaces, an EDUCAUSE e-book, provides a great place to start. It focuses on how learner expectations influence the development and use of space, the principles and activities that facilitate learning, and the role of technology from the perspective of those who create learning environments: faculty, learning technologists, librarians, and administrators. It represents an ongoing exploration as we bring together space, technology, and pedagogy to ensure learner success.

Tech Tricks: Shorter URLs

We've all had this problem, you need to paste a URL into a document or a message and it's just too darned long. Maybe it won't fit, maybe it's so long that it will get cut off and not work. There are many solutions out there, some of which work very, very quickly. That's how we turned:

This: http://www.scup.org/blog/scuplinks/2009/09/history-of-accreditation-and-middle.html

Into this: http://tinyurl.com/nwcyzp - and they both work the same!

History of Accreditation and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education

This 20-page booklet (PDF) traces the origins and evolution of accreditation in the United States and provides highlights of the Commission's first 90 years.

Bad Meetings

Perhaps you have been in some of these?

The Guess-What-I'm-Thinking Meeting, and its cousin, The Validate the Preordained Conclusion Meeting

"Let's hear your ideas. Well, not that one. Or that one. Or that. Hey, I've got one!"

The Jockey for Position Meeting and its cousins, The Follow the Bouncing Blame Meeting and The Look At Me! Meeting

"And my incredibly wonderful project would have worked if Steve hadn't dropped the ball."

Recent Blog Posts on 'Buildsings and Grounds'

Some of the latest entries in The Chronicle of Higher Education's "Buildings & Grounds" Blog include: Flavors of California: New Buildings at Loyola Marymount U. and the U. of San Diego;
A Deadline Day in the Presidents' Climate Commitment; and Bold Plan for Emerson College's Hollywood Branch Draws Complaints.

Campus Sustainability Profiles

AASHE, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, has had an annual Campus Sustainability leadership Award program since 2006. This resource from AASHE provides you with the content of each year's applications from campuses, with the ones which won awards noted.

The Second Fiscal Crisis: Preparing for the Funding Cliff

This link goes to an executive summary. The longer article is available as a PDF, from a link on that page:

The current recession—the worst in 60 years—has blown open gaps in states’ budgets. States had to close a $102 billion budget shortfall in wrapping up their fiscal year 2009 balance sheets, which ended June 30 in all but four states. Cutting funding to higher education was a strategy used in 31 states to mend these shortfalls. Yet states face another $121 billion in deficits in fiscal year 2010, and already a few state budget directors have predicted $45 billion in awaiting deficits for the following year. Tax revenues from all sources—sales, personal and corporate income—are down, dramatically in many cases, in most states. So far in this recession, the number of jobs lost is more than twice that of the downturn in 1981 and 1982.

- Daniel J. Hurley, The Second Fiscal Crisis: Preparing for the Funding Cliff, Public Purpose, September/October 2009

Changing Jobs in Difficult Financial Times

This concise set of processes is written as though for a CIO, but you can replace "CIO" with your new title, and "IT" with whatever your work will be, and it still provides solid advice:

It may sound rudimentary, but scrutinize the budget. A new CIO role requires a thorough review of the technology department budget. Reviewing the last three years of budgets and "actuals" against budget may produce insights into budgeting and spending habits. For example, as a new CIO at one institution, I found $80,000 in a part-time temporary employment budget line which had not been spent in the previous three years. We were able to repurpose those funds and provide a real impact for the institution. The budget and "actual" information can also highlight items where unspecified "contingency funds" are stored. These funds may be an unofficial contingency fund or they may be funds that have been forgotten over time. Identifying these funds and putting them to good use would be a welcome move in tough economic times.

Dashboards Deliver Data Visually at ASU

Arizona State University is now also a leader in dashboard use. This is a nice article from Campus Technology magazine by Linda L. Briggs:

ASU currently has some 30 dashboards across 25 subject areas, drawing on thousands of key data items. The popularity of various dashboards is cyclical, Rome said, but currently, a dashboard that summarizes CRM help desk support ranks high in use, as does a high-level financial report dashboard, along with dashboards summarizing HR reports and one on research grants and awards.

An enrollment management dashboard allows the user to drill down on courses and information on prospective students, then, with the right permission, to link to the Oracle PeopleSoft program to update student data. Another dashboard offers a visual monitor of class enrollment, so that when a class reaches a certain size, a red dot indicates that the class is near capacity. A quick visual scan can indicate the red dots that suggest where to consider adding supplementary classes.

Of special interest is the use of students in developing dashboards.

Bold Strokes Bring Budget Relief

This excellent article is from Business Officer and was authored by Keith Houck and Joyce C. Romano: "To deal with diminishing state funding, Valencia Community College resisted a broad-brush approach. Instead, the college implemented 10 business imperatives that pinpoint the best areas for curbing costs and boosting efficiencies." The article describes each of the 10 business imperatives and summarizes what Valencia has been able to accomplish within them.

A Tale of Enrollment Planning Strategies in Two University Systems

A brief, but useful compare and contrast interview, which provides some related environmental scanning insights:

Enrollment management strategies at the University System of New Hampshire and the California State University System reflect starkly different geographic realities. While USNH projects a dwindling market, CSU is struggling to serve a growing population. Despite the contrasts, each can learn from the other.

APPA’s Effective & Innovative Practices Award

APPA’s Effective & Innovative Practices Award (PDF) continues to highlight an ever-growing list of creative and practical programs and processes that enhance and transform service delivery, lower costs, increase productivity, improve customer service, generate revenue, or otherwise benefit an educational institution. The five 2009 award-winning entries focus on small renovation projects; employee recognition; utilities distribution systems; safety training; and capital asset documentation.

Smart Building Ideas: A Call for Stories

For a round-up feature in the November/December, Melissa Ezarik of University Business magazine is seeking examples of “Smart Building Ideas.” Complete this form to share your story. Respond by September 30, please.

Similar in format to previous end-of-year roundups - http://tinyurl.com/c8ynsm and http://tinyurl.com/57bel5 - this feature will include examples of how colleges and universities have been able to continue with building plans despite the economy. She plans to cover several creative financing and fundraising strategies (e.g. fundraising messaging specifically devised to convince donors of the importance of donating despite the economic situation), as well as ideas such as altering project timelines or building in phases rather than all at once.

Please share your stories via this easy-to-use form, and they will be available for Ezarik and also to SCUP. She will not be doing additional reporting, so please include in your short write-up all of the details she might need, including project dates and costs. (See the examples of previous work at the links above.)

Thanks! Complete this form to share your story.

Questions: mezarik@universitybusiness.com or terry.calhoun@scup.org.

P.S. While you are anticipating this feature article in UB, SCUP has three great related webcasts coming up in October and November

9/30 - The Future of Campus Planning and Design: Trend Spotting with 2009 Design Award Submissions
http://www.scup.org/page/profdev/notravel/2009/awards

10/21 - Campus Sustainability Day 7, Sustainability: Strategies for Vibrant Campus Communities
http://www.scup.org/page/profdev/notravel/2009/csd/7

11/19 - Carbon Neutral Campus Architecture: Climate Specific Design and Innovation
http://www.scup.org/page/profdev/notravel/2009/carbonneutral

Complete this form to share your story. Respond by September 30, please.

Futurity: News From Leading Research Universities

This new information source publishes what is essentially an online magazine featuring research news from a long list of major North American research institutions. It sorts into four categories: Earth & Environment; Health & Medicine; Science & Design; and Society & Culture. Readers can comment on articles. RSS feed and a daily email newsletter are available. Well worth a look. It says this about itself:

Futurity began in March 2009 as the answer to a challenging question: How will the public learn about important breakthroughs at leading research universities as traditional news outlets continue to shrink?

The answer is simple.

Learn about them directly through an online news magazine that reports on discoveries in science, health, technology, business, society, and the arts. Expand the Web site’s reach through social media sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

Futurity features the latest and most important discoveries from North America’s leading research universities—discoveries that will change the way we live, the way we work, the way we think.

Today's Campus (used to be The Greentree Gazette)

You may or may not know that what was The Greentree Gazette is now Today's Campus. We like the new look and feel, and navigation of the website is much easier. A sampling of current items there includes: "Management Roundup": AGB risk management program, Professors push back, CDC guidelines for swine flu, Surprising gains in enrollments, Talent development; "

The Right Recruits from the Wrong Side of the Tracks"; "Student Services Roundup: Credit card debt, Student discounts, Engagement and retention, Swine flu, Campus violence, Brandon Lee discusses improvements to the study abroad office with Jeff Wendt; "Luxury student housing and amenities in the Era of New Frugality"; and the chair of the Luxury Marketing Council asks, "Are consumer trends emerging that will affect how Americans buy college for the next two years?  Or perhaps for the rest of our lives?"

The Chronicle of Higher Education's 'Buildings & Grounds Blog' Update for 9/11/09

Here's what's relatively new at the Buildings & Grounds Blog: 

• Ohio State U.'s Library Renovation Is 'Stupendous,' Says a Leading Consultant
  
• Yeshiva U. Opens First New Building in 20 Years (a 500-seat, two-level study hall)
  
• 1881 Observatory at U. of Wisconsin at Madison Gets Makeover
  
• Jay Pearlman: The Humble Utility Log Can Help Promote Sustainability
  
• Director Returns to Mount Wilson Observatory as Fire Danger Diminishes
  

Is Job Training Zero Sum Game?

There's tension between traditional trades and community colleges about the way many institutions are shifting their emphasis to green workforce training:

"There are some training opportunities that, because of labor markets, should be less emphasized," Oates said. "Still, it would be wrong not to look at other areas where training may have gone by the wayside. We always need to be diligent to 'green' up traditional trades . . . We have to be mindful that while funding streams dictate, 'let’s go after high growth, high wage jobs,' people want to get any job, even if it doesn't give them a terrific wage right now. They want a job that'll help lead to something."

Multicampus Planning: Behind the Scenes

One of SCUP's favorite higher education writers, Melissa Ezarik, examines a wide range of issues faced by member campuses of the National Association of Branch Campus Administrators (NABCA):

When a branch campus doesn’t have a full range of facilities, it can seem an undesirable location. “There’s always the issue of keeping people tied back to the main campus,” says [former SCUP president] Daniel Paulien, president of Paulien & Associates in Denver, which works with colleges and universities on facilities planning, including the use of space. Yet sometimes faculty and staff reluctant to be based on the other campus admit later to liking where they’re at."

Budget Planning Breakdown

Subtitled, "Ensuring a link between financial aid and enrollment projections," Kathy Kurz, Jim Scannell, and Mary Piccioli examine the formula and methods used to project future enrollments in various categories of students, and conclude that:

The process is about more than just data analysis and projections of new and returning students. It is about getting the right people in the room to ensure there is an understanding of how the numbers were derived, how realistic they are, and where the problem areas might be. Institutions just can’t afford to get this wrong!

Is Greater Financial Independence Ahead for Universities?

"Unpredented pressure" on current financial models for public institutions is expected by Moody's Investors Services: 

The financial effects of recessions are typically not felt immediately by leading global public universities because tough fiscal policy decisions often must funnel through a lengthy government budget process before impacting university funding. The government budgeting process, therefore, often renders university financial performance a lagging indicator of economic activity. This delayed impact is even more pronounced in the current recession due to the prevalence of short-term government stimulus spending, which often may postpone or soften funding reductions for universities. However, when stimulus spending expires and governments seek to achieve better budget balance, many universities are likely to experience substantial funding reductions or, at best, an extended period of limited funding growth. At the same time, universities face demand to enroll additional students as alternatives to education (i.e., employment) are weakened by economic contraction, forcing many people to seek opportunities in higher education to enhance skills and credentials. With policies of limiting enrollment places and tuition fees, market pressure to add capacity, and government funding unlikely to increase, Moody’s expects unprecedented pressure on the current financial model of public universities.

Academic Freedom at the Crossroads in the United States

Writing in International Higher Education, Louis M. Benedict's is one of three related articles in the Fall 2009 issue:

Despite the fact that the First Amendment applies only to public institutions, academic freedom has been widely espoused as a highly protected value of academia in almost all universities in the United States. In private universities, academic freedom protection is usually stated in a faculty contract or in university policy . . . In recent years a deterioration of academic freedom has occurred in higher education institutions in the United States. Exacerbating this trend is that US courts, longstanding protectors of the value of free speech, have whittled away some of the traditional academic freedom protection afforded to faculty at public colleges and universities. Several factors have contributed to a general decline in protection of academic freedom. These factors threaten the future viability of academic freedom and the advantages to higher education and society.

New Challenges to Academic Freedom in the United States

Writing in International Higher Education, Robert M. O'Neil's is one of three related articles in the Fall 2009 issue: "Academic freedom in American higher education evolves in curious and often unpredictable ways. For those who teach at public or state-supported institutions, the courts play a major role in defining the scope of such freedom. For faculty at independent or private colleges and universities, whose policies are seldom subject to court review, standards are provided by organizations such as the American Association of University Professors. Some faculties at institutions of both types may also be protected by collective bargaining agreements. After a decade or so with relatively few critical tests of the rights and liberties of US scholars, the past year or two has brought academic freedom to the fore in dramatic fashion. Three current tests merit special attention." They are the cases of John Yoo, William Robinson, and Ward Churchill.

Academic Freedom: A Realistic Appraisal

Writing in International Higher Education, Philip G. Altbach's is one of three related articles in the Fall 2009 issue:

Academic freedom does not essentially concern how universities are managed, whether they are adequately funded or even how the faculty is compensated. This privilege does not ensure that professors have a role in governance but should guarantee that they can speak out on internal management issues without fear of sanction. Academic freedom does not relate to accountability. Universities may legitimately demand appropriate productivity from faculty members. Professors’ work may be evaluated, and inadequate performance may lead to sanctions or even, in extreme cases, firing, but only after careful procedures that do not violate academic freedom. Academic freedom protects professorial freedom of teaching, research, and expression—and nothing else.

Return of the Trays at Yale

Symbolic of resistance to change for sustainability, going trayless in the dining hall at Yale met with semi-organized student resistance, apparently strongest among athletes, so the trays are back:

The football team has been particularly vocal about the need for trays, Commons General Manager Thomas Peterlik said. Some members of the team did not clear their plates after one meal this week, Peterlik said, instead leaving them in a towering stack at the end of a table in protest. Two members of the team denied knowledge of the incident.

Doing the Twist at Penn

Nice pics in this article, too: 

The University of Pennsylvania has landed a piece of trophy architecture with a definite twist: the new Weave Bridge . . . Now open to the public, the bridge will become part of a second phase of design work this fall with its integration into the surrounding campus masterplan, itself a hefty undertaking to remake the Philadelphia campus.

The unusually ambitious design was commissioned by the university in 2007, in reaction to a city announcement that it would temporarily close an essential campus connection: the century-old South Street Bridge, which had long served as the sole passage over an Amtrak line that runs between Penn’s athletic fields and its Hollenback building, home to athletic and ROTC facilities.

Positioning Faculty Support as a Strategy in Assuring Quality Online Education

We think that Innovate: Journal of Online Education is quite innovative, in both its Web publishing and the interaction that you can have during live sessions with authors. In the current issue, the article most pertinent for SCUPers is probably the one titled Positining Faculty Support as a Strategy in Assuring Quality Online Education. 

With the rapid growth of online programs and courses at Fort Hays State University (FHSU), the university has faced the challenge of supporting faculty members as they transition to online teaching. Hong Wang, Lawrence V. Gould, and Dennis King share the comprehensive approach the university has developed, an approach that depends on effective cooperation among administrative, professional, and peer support systems. Wang, Gould, and King argue that a strong technical and organizational infrastructure, recognition and financial rewards for faculty, and an integrated approach to course design have allowed FHSU to create a collaborative course development process that provides faculty members with the support they need to design and administer high-quality online instruction.

Learning and Technology — “In That Order”

We've had many SCUP Links from Malcolm Brown over the years. This is another good one, where he reports on some in depth discussions with thoughtful students about the use of technology in learning: 

Over the past several years, I have been impressed by how fruitful it can be to solicit students' ideas when making plans for technology in support of learning. Judging from those experiences, I thought it might be worthwhile to construct a New Horizons column from a "geographically distributed" focus-group session, inviting students from a variety of institutions to suggest what educators should be thinking about as we plan our learning environments for the next two to four years. With the help of colleagues, I was able to enlist the help of fourteen students, all of whom responded with thoughtful contributions, summarized here.

In sum, the sentiments most often articulated were: (1) too much or unfettered technology is bad and directly hinders learning; and (2) the use of technology should not come at the expense of personal interaction both in and outside the classroom.

Perhaps the most succinct formulation of these ideas was: "I believe the most important thing to keep in mind about learning and technology is that they should be considered in that order" (CV).

College for $99 a Month?

Kevin Carey, policy director of Education Sector, writes in the Washington Monthly about some new twists on for-profit higher ed and foresees our industry getting hit like the music industry has. He says we're lucky, in that we have more regulatory protection.

[A]n ad caught her eye: a company called StraighterLine was offering online courses in subjects like accounting, statistics, and math. This was hardly unusual—hundreds of institutions are online hawking degrees. But one thing about StraighterLine stood out: it offered as many courses as she wanted for a flat rate of $99 a month. “It sounds like a scam,” Solvig thought—she’d run into a lot of shady companies and hard-sell tactics on the Internet. But for $99, why not take a risk?

***

Smith’s struggle to establish StraighterLine suggests that higher education still has some time before the Internet bomb explodes in its basement. The fuse was only a couple of years long for the music and travel industries; for newspapers it was ten. Colleges may have another decade or two, particularly given their regulatory protections.

Some Buildings Not Living Up to Green Label

Ah, yes, it's not all design and construction. Some say that the LEED certification plaques on buildings should be installed with removable screws. So, starting this year LEED certified buildings are required to provide five years of operating data to the USGBC:

The council’s own research suggests that a quarter of the new buildings that have been certified do not save as much energy as their designs predicted and that most do not track energy consumption once in use. And the program has been under attack from architects, engineers and energy experts who argue that because building performance is not tracked, the certification may be falling short in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions tied toglobal warming.

Do Universities Generate Agglomeration Spillovers? Evidence from Endowment Value Shocks

This research is quite a different model than we usually see, but it's of interest:

We find modest but statistically significant spillover effects of university activity. The estimates indicate that a 10% increase in higher education spending increases local non-education sector labor income by about 0.5%. As the implied elasticity is no larger than what previous work finds for agglomeration spillovers arising from local economic activity in general, university activity does not appear to make a place any more productive than other forms of economic activity. We do find, however, that the magnitude of the spillover is significantly larger for firms that are technologically closer to universities in terms of citing patents generated by universities in their own patents and sharing a labor market with higher education.

Density Talks: Should College Towns Listen?

This interesting article from Concentrate examines the city planning of Ann Arbor in the context of planning, related to density and other things, at other college towns, like Boulder, Charlottesville, and Detroit. Bottom line: 

"But there may still be lessons to be gleaned. Could Ann Arbor find enough cooperation to commit to several thousand more residents in downtown? Both Mosey and Egner point to a groundswell of cooperation among Detroit nonprofits, business leaders, and institutions, all willing to roll up their sleeves and work towards a common vision: walkable urban density."

Finding One's Way By Losing It

In Inside Higher Ed, David Shi, president of Furman University, argues once more that it's best to not look at the current financial and budget situation as only a crisis:

 "There is, in other words, great value in exploring the unforeseen -- and in remaking ourselves in the process. The financial crisis has led all colleges to initiate or renew focused reassessments of their mission, their structure, their vision, and their constraints. Such exercises on many campuses have become more participatory because of the seriousness of the situation. That is a good thing. "

Read on:

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/09/01/shi

Keeping Up With the Downturn: A Perspective from Accountants in Higher Ed

A very worthwhile look at the financial crisis from this perspective. It will help you better integrate your planning:

"For higher education institutions, the economic downturn, unlike any experienced for decades, has dramatically changed endowment investment holdings and credit arrangements. Severe declines in the stock market and turmoil in the credit markets require presidents, chief financial officers, controllers, planning and budgeting leaders, and governing boards to work together on near- and long-term financial solutions. This year's Higher Education Accounting Forum (HEAF) in Miami, April 26-28, provided new guidance to accounting and financial professionals looking to balance business as usual with recent epic events. Among the many meeting topics, the following were of special interest to attendees: international convergence, warning signs and responses to financial challenges, performance metrics, endowments, fair value guidance, and tax changes."

Read the rest here:

http://www.nacubo.org/Business_Officer_Magazine/Current_Issue/August_2009/Keeping_Up_With_the_Downturn.html

California Community Colleges Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The California Postsecondary Education Commission recently published an advisory report for the governor and legislature on the crunch where declining budge resources meet climbing demand for enrollment in community colleges: 

"The community colleges took an 8 percent budget cut for the 2009–10 school year. If the colleges cut enrollment proportionately, nearly 180,000 potential students could be turned away. The state is currently not providing any funding for enrollment growth. Three-quarters of districts already serve more students than they have space for. To catch up with growing enrollment demand, community colleges will need at least 3% enrollment growth funding annually until college opportunity is restored."

Read the full article here; http://www.cpec.ca.gov/PressRelease/Press2009_08_31_Mtg.pdf

A meeting agenda and reports may be viewed at www.cpec.ca.gov/agendas/agnd0909.asp. CPEC audio-streams its meetings atmedia.cpec.ca.gov/media.