Agenda for Wednesday

This educational session demonstrates how a college or university can change its approach to campus planning and design by embracing a cultural shift towards sustainability, integrated academic experiences, and living laboratories. By emphasizing holistic thinking based in ecology and integrated site design, Western Technical College has worked to position itself as a premier academic institution in the midwest. As part of the presentation, attendees will learn, through case studies, how the college’s innovations will reduce operating costs and meet changing student demands.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Recognize the complex layers of transforming the “traditional” campus atmosphere into an integrated student experience, utilizing sustainable design strategies within the academic curriculum.
2. Increase the understanding of how holistic design can lead to long term ecological and financial resilience.
3. Identify specific academic areas that emerge from an ecological and integrated design approach.
4. Identify obstacles and issues that arise in this approach, and how to address them.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Student Senate (ASUN) passed an initiative in the spring of 2011 to apply for designation as a “bike friendly” campus. A student senator leading the project established a broad based committee consisting of students and administrators to evaluate the campus bike climate. The study resulted in integrating bike planning into existing institutional wellness, recreation, and campus planning processes. Using UNL as a case study, this session will discuss how students and administrators can work together to successfully incorporate student initiatives into the mainstream planning process.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Discover how to successfully integrate a student initiative into diverse administrative planning processes.
2. Discuss how student government initiatives can open opportunities for participation from larger student, faculty and staff populations.
3. Describe the steps for integrating student proposals into existing campus systems.
4. Connect student initiatives with community initiatives.

The award-winning Grinnell Science Project was developed to address barriers to success in science for students of color, women, and first-generation college students. Grinnell College’s Dr. Jim Swartz discusses the program that the college developed to respond to these barriers. He will be joined by Holabird & Root’s James Baird to discuss how these changes were translated into the design of Grinnell’s science complex, which has become a national model for science facilities.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify barriers to success for students of color, women, and first-generation college students.
2. Evaluate successful curricular and pedagogical changes that lead to achievement for traditionally underrepresented students in the sciences.
3. Discover how renovating or adding to facilities can support and promote changes in pedagogy and aid in building community.
4. Explore how specific spaces can create a more inclusive environment.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify sustainable concepts/strategies.
2. Review the requirements of the LEED documentation and certification process.
3. Analyze the evolution of sustainable design and construction on college campuses.
4. Strategize on how to best blend client expectations with LEED Requirements.

This session will present a case study of an innovative student-university partnership that leverages differential tuition to grow and maintain high-impact educational experiences for all students. The session will focus on lessons learned from a process that engaged students in planning, implementing, and overseeing a $12+ million dollar differential tuition program at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire that is integral to the university's strategic vision.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Recognize the benefits of a student partnership for tuition/pricing enhancements in a public institution.
2. Assess and identify likely obstacles to establishing or expanding differential tuition.
3. Evaluate tactics for eliminating or minimizing such obstacles.
4. Identify effective strategies for engaging students in integrated planning.

As the digital transformation of higher education gains speed, what is the value of the physical campus? An analysis of student essays is used to define those aspects of a campus that make it memorable. This session presents for the first time, data from a multi-year study on this topic. Many talk about this sort of thing; now have some data to back up the generalizations.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Describe those aspects of a campus that students find memorable.
2. Identify those parts of a campus that are challenged by digital transformation.
3. Compare your opinions to the study group.
4. Apply data-driven analysis to your campus.

Join us for lunch, regional updates, information about next year's conference, and a chance to win one of three valuable prizes: An iPad 2, a complimentary registration to the 2012 North Central Regional Conference, and two nights lodging at next year's conference hotel in Champaign-Urbana, IL.