Don't Know Why I Have the Nicest Office in the Building
Oh, no! You won't be getting a printed SCUP–45 Preliminary Program in the mail this year. Instead, SCUP is going green and regularly updating this digital version (PDF), which you can download at any time. Check it out! You don't want to miss higher education's premier planning conference, and your one chance this year to assemble with nearly 1,500 of your peers and colleagues: July 10–14, Minneapolis.
SCUP Link - "I've no idea why I got possibly the nicest office in the building."
- I received the office vacated by my predecessor and have clung to it stubbornly.
- All the furniture is standard - we are not allowed to bring in our own chair, table etc.
- Due to remodeling, reorganizations, new construction, leases ending, the hiring or firing of bigwigs, and the facilities staff and/or president having prophetic dreams, I get moved into a new space every year or two.
- My department, like many others nationally, has steadily lost tenured and TT lines over the years, so all of us have gotten an outside office with a window upon hire.
- it's our departmental administrator who makes the decision, according to what we suspect is a sort of 1950s sense of who "counts" (senior men, junior men; then, far below, senior women, junior women; and last, adjuncts, also sorted by gender).
Having a window that actually opens seems to be the most frequently mentioned desirable amenity.
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring: - April 5–7, San Diego, CA - "Smart Planning in an Era of Uncertainty"
- April 7, Houston, TX - "Sustaining Higher Education in an Age of Challenge"
Labels: campus space, facilities planning, office space, space management
Survey About BIM, Space Planning, and Renovations
 Click here to take the survey.The purpose of this survey is to gauge the level of knowledge and use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the management of facilities at colleges and universities, with a particular focus on Space Planning and Renovations. SCUP is assisting graduate student research by asking you to complete this survey. Its results will be shared on SCUP's website. It should not take more than 10–15 minutes to complete the three-part instrument. The last part of the survey will provide you an opportunity to share comments. Click here to take the survey.
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring: Labels: BIM, building information modeling, renovations, space management, space planning, survey
Finding the Right Learning Space for Students Who Are Lost in Space
A good, refreshing read about planning learning spaces: Conceiving and creating a new learning space could be viewed as an opportunity, or a challenge, or perhaps both. This could be your chance to develop an innovative space to help students learn and to help faculty teach. On the other hand, this “opportunity” could become a mixture of competing interests and ineffective committees complemented by a seemingly endless sea of architects, consultants, contractors, and administrators, all with divergent points of view and visions. . . In the middle of this universe of constituents, you have the task of bringing a team together to create a learning space that is effective, sustainable, and scalable. Labels: facilities planning, learning space, learning space design, space management, space planning
"Academics Will Fight Over Money and Kill Over Space"
Scott Carlson has provided SCUP with a non-protected link to his recent article on space management. He leads in by writing about SCUPer Deborah L. Blythe, of Pennsylvania State University: She manages, assesses, and helps to distribute some 23 million square feet of classroom space, offices, meeting rooms, and laboratories on Penn State's 19 campuses. Now and then she grabs her digital camera, her keys to any room here on the flagship campus, and goes on a 'walkabout' to look at a space that might be underutilized or outdated. Department heads, protective of every closet and cranny, sometimes tremble to see her coming. Once, she says, a department took a room that had been stacked with chairs and garbage and arranged it to look lived-in, complete with nameplates of nonexistent people. The ruse didn't work. Labels: space management
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. Labels: space, space management
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 Labels: campus space, learning space, space, space management, space planning
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. Labels: assessment, change, culture, space, space management
Constructing the Interdisciplinary Ivory Tower: The Planning of Interdisciplinary Spaces on University Campuses
This article from Planning for Higher Education by Michael S. Harris and Karri Holley reports on an analysis of strategic and campus plans at 21 research institutions and the resulting lessons learned regarding planning and nurturing interdisciplinary space. The demand for interdisciplinary teaching and research suggests the need to understand how universities are undertaking and fostering interdisciplinarity. Through an examination of strategic and master plans at 21 research universities, this article explores how institutions plan and foster interdisciplinary engagement through the use of space on campus. The construction of such space acknowledges that the discrete functions of the university, frequently attributed to the disciplines and departments, are not generally conducive to interdisciplinary engagement. Physical space is a necessary component for successful interdisciplinary initiatives both functionally and symbolically.
Citation
Michael S. Harris and Karri Holley. 2008. Constructing the Interdisciplinary Ivory Tower: The Planning of Interdisciplinary Spaces on University Campuses. Planning for Higher Education. 36(3): 34–43.
Labels: interdisciplinary space, learning space design, space management
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