Managing Campus Space

Colleges will need to carefully assess how they are using existing space, and also to question the procedures and policies they have for space use. (Colleges that don’t have such policies and procedures will need to create them.) In these times of economic uncertainly, it is critical for institutions to make sure they are utilizing their space efficiently while still supporting their education, research, and service missions and goals.

- SCUPer Ann K. Newman, guest blogger for the month of April 2009 in the Buildings & Grounds blog of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Her posts can be found here.

Half a Dozen Good Articles on Learning Spaces

The current issue of EDUCAUSE Review is titled "Learning Spaces" and it serves up some very nice knowledge from a number of writers and practitioners, including a number of SCUPers. Betcha can't not read at least one of these:

PAIR-Up - "To create sustainable learning spaces, we must Partner with others for Pedagogy-rich designs, Assess learning in the new spaces, Integrate ideas for Innovation, and Revisit design methodologies." By Linda Jorn, Aimee Whiteside, and Ann Hill Duin

Learning Spaces: Involving Faculty to Improve Pedagogy - "The interplay between focused analysis of the curriculum and pedagogical style, and the implications for the way classrooms are set up and equipped, can have major dividends for both students and faculty." By Joan K. Lippincott

Assessment: The Key to Creating Spaces That Promote Learning - "Without assessment of learning spaces, institutions may miss the important connections between context, institutional culture, students' specific needs, and pedagogical practices that yield optimal learning." By Sawyer Hunley and Molly Schaller

Signposts of the Revolution? What We Talk about When We Talk about Learning Spaces - "Innovative efforts to design new learning environments point to a path for the future; following this path requires using a common language to describe learning environments and their aspirations." By Phillip D. Long and Richard Holeton

Space Strategies for the New Learning Landscape - "Revisiting design methodologies and applying the Learning Landscape approach leads to campuses that are "networks" of places for learning, discovery, and discourse between students, faculty, staff, and the wider community." By Shirley Dugdale

Inversions - "On the basis of constructivist learning theory, networked information technology, and a new kind of student and faculty, the traditional educational layers are inverting—a process nowhere more evident than in learning spaces." By Malcolm Brown

Using Assessment to Bring About Cultural Change: The Value of Asessing Learning Spaces

This recent article is from Assessment UPdate: Progress, Trends, and Practices in Higher Education. Assessment UPdate is a commercial publication from Wiley Interscience but you may find that your institution has a subscription, in which case the website will recognize your IP address and permit you to have access. This article is in the May/une 2008 issue #3 of Volume 20:

In considering the issue of transforming higher education, people tend to think of the university in the abstract: the idea of providing education and what that means in these changing times. The authors suggest that the physical university should also be considered. At Ferris State University, educators have made a comprehensive effort to transform the university by creating a learning-centered culture focused on three central elements: (1) classrooms; (2) learning spaces outside the classroom; and (3) professional development. They undertook a multistage project to renovate learning spaces in a systematic fashion, combining the renovations with professional development efforts for faculty and administrators. They transformed the academic milieu both physically and intellectually with the primary purpose made of fostering a more learning-centered culture and environment. In this article, the author discusses the multistage renovation project and the role of assessment in creating a learner-centered environment.

Yale Purchases 136-acre Bayer Campus for Research

This article, "At Yale, A New Campus Just for Research," is from The New York Times by Karen W. Arenson, and may require registration for access:

Yale took what it hopes will be a giant step forward in that race with its announcement last month that it would buy the 136-acre campus of Bayer HealthCare, which straddles the line between West Haven and Orange, Conn., seven miles from downtown New Haven and the university’s main campus.

Additional information is available on the website of Yale's Office of Public Affairs. Also, we haven't found anything about this on the facilities website at Yale, but you may want to take a look at some of the major projects that are on there.