HAVE IT YOUR WAY:
DIVERSE RESPONSES TO SOCIETAL CHANGE

The SCUP Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference will be held April 2–4, 2006, at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, VA (USA). The SCUP Mid-Atlantic Conference Planning Committee invites you to submit your proposal related to this year's theme "Have It Your Way: Diverse Responses to Societal Change."

Higher education is not immune to the changing forces of society. Today, provocative demographic, economic, political, environmental, and technological issues are striking at the heart of our institutional missions. Education is a world market and even the very nature of our understanding of human learning is being challenged. Take this opportunity to share with your colleagues your institution's responses to these transformative societal forces. As planners in higher education, are we proactive drivers or reactive spectators regarding these changes?

By sharing your experiences, initiatives, ideas and questions, we can find common ground amongst our institutional diversity. We can also explore our unique responses in providing education within the larger environment of higher education. The issues are global but our responses are uniquely local. The conference will be organized to maximize dialogue, allowing us all to "have it our way" in finding valuable insights to support our integrated academic, physical and financial planning efforts.

An excellent resource for specific topics that will be of interest to planners attending this conference can be found in Trends in Higher Education, available on the SCUP homepage. Some examples of these include:

• Student recruitment and retention, especially minority and foreign-enrolled.
• Access to higher education including the pressure on two-year and community colleges to absorb more students.
• Flexible education alternatives to satisfy the needs of students with families, continuing education, etc.
• Increases in on-line learning and its effect on traditional educational suppliers.
• Increasing costs of a college degree and its relationship to funding-raising priorities and strategies.
• Higher energy costs and impact on space utilization, capital expansion plans, commuting students, etc.
• Continuing decreases in federal and state funds for higher education accompanied by increased scrutiny and demands for performance measurement/assessment.
• Sustainable design and environmental awareness.
• Ever-increasing flexibility and integration of technology into every facet of higher education and the accompanying planning, funding and security needs.
• Opening of "branch" campuses around the world by major universities as well as increasing quantity and quality of global higher education competition.
• Integration of the latest information on human learning into pedagogy and instructional space design.

Responding to the Call

We invite proposals for 90-minute concurrent sessions and three-hour pre-conference workshops. The concurrent sessions are intended to be a time length that supports audience participation and discussion. Only proposals using SCUP's online submission form will be accepted. For complete call information, visit the regional conference home page. The deadline for receipt of proposals is Monday, October 24, 2005.

These sessions are historically the primary means of knowledge at the conference. They are 90 minutes in length, and the intent is to allow for audience participation and discussion throughout this time period. These sessions involve one to three presenters (no more than three) and may be presented as case studies, demonstrations, and panel discussions. All presenters are expected to register for the conference and pay the full conference registration fee.

Workshops are intensive three-hour sessions, offering participants an in-depth educational experience in a structured, yet highly interactive learning environment. Workshop proposals are sought from individuals or teams with proven experience on ALL topics related to higher education planning (need not be directly linked to the conference theme) and experience in presenting to higher education audiences. Workshop presenters are considered experts in the subject area and are expected to provide handout materials to attendees. Workshop enrollments are limited in size to facilitate interaction and discussion. All workshop presenters are expected to register for the conference and pay the full conference registration fee.

Evaluation of Proposals

Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of overall quality, timeliness, and relevance of topic and how well they present methodologies and results that are transferable and offer lessons learned. The selection criteria strongly favors proposals that include audience interaction, involve both institutional and private sector presenters, and demonstrate innovation, collaboration and multi-disciplinary approaches to higher education planning.

Accepted participants for this conference will be notified in mid-December.

Robert E. Nalls nalls@nallsarch.com Chair, SCUP's Mid-Atlantic Regional Council and North Atlantic Regional Representative to SCUP's Board of Directors Principal Nalls Architecture, Inc. 201 Sabine Avenue, Suite 200 Narberth, PA 19072 Phone: 610.667.9551 Fax: 610.667.9553