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Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
April 16, 2026

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From Institutional Advancement to Termination

Leading the Memphis College of Art Closure

By: R. Eric Platt, PhD

The college’s closure demonstrates that integrated planning is not limited to growth and expansion. It also offers a practical framework for aligning people, resources, and obligations when an institution must contract and ultimately close.

From Volume 54 Number 3 | April–June 2026

Abstract: This article examines the leadership decisions and processes implemented by the Memphis College of Art (MCA), following the 2017 decision to close due to financial debt and declining enrollment. Rather than ceasing operations immediately, MCA leaders executed a three-year teach-out plan while liquidating assets, repaying debts, and laying off employees, all while ensuring a legally compliant dissolution. As many colleges face longevity pressures, this case offers a rare look at how closure can be managed transparently, strategically, and with commitment to student success through an integrated planning approach that aligns academic, financial, and facilities decisions during the institution’s final years.

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Conference Presentations,Conference Recordings

Published
June 18, 2025

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Architecture + Education Raises Awareness and Supports Community Collaboration

By: Kailey Elhaddad, Senior Architect, Buffalo Public Schools | Luke Johnson, Design Leader, CannonDesign | Beth Tauke, Associate Professor, University at Buffalo | Cheri Weatherston, Architect, CannonDesign

Community collaboration hasn't always been a priority in design education.
Abstract: Community collaboration hasn't always been a priority in design education. This session will showcase a program that leverages the public school system as a learning environment for professionals and graduate students in architecture to identify socioeconomic opportunities. The Architecture + Education Program provides institutions opportunities to work actively with the communities they serve, and raises awareness of design careers among public school kids to increase and diversify its talent pipeline. This unique program involves multiple generations, including design professionals alongside public school and university students and instructors. Join us to discover opportunities for innovative community programs in your own backyard.

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Tool

Published
May 13, 2025

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Campus Contingency Planner

By: Elliot Felix, Buro Happold | Nicholas Santilli, PhD, SCUP

This tool is a template for lightweight, rapid contingency planning. It guides you through a process that identifies the impacts of change, how decisions during contingency planning will be made, and the operational components of programs and offerings that will need to be adapted in response.
Abstract: Times of rapid change can interrupt operations and implementation efforts. Preventing this requires an ability to quickly adapt our programs and offerings to the changing landscape. Unfortunately, operational complexity and the disorienting nature of uncertainty become a hurdle to rapid response. Either we get overwhelmed trying to identify all that needs to change, or we respond haphazardly, missing crucial details. Contingency planning can help. It is a method for preparing for potential changes that identifies how operations and action plans need to shift in response. It can also be used to respond to changes after they happen. The Campus Contingency Planner is a template for lightweight, rapid contingency planning. It guides you through a process that identifies the impacts of change, how decisions during contingency planning will be made, and the operational components of programs and offerings that will need to be adapted in response. Whether you manage student-facing programs (like academic programs or student affairs activities), or direct services that are internally supportive (like space management or IT), the Campus Contingency Planner can help you respond to change with flexibility, minimizing disruption and moving your institution forward.

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Free

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Conference Presentations

Published
April 7, 2025

Architecture + Education Raises Awareness and Supports Community Collaboration

Abstract: Community collaboration hasn't always been a priority in design education. This session will showcase a program that leverages the public school system as a learning environment for professionals and graduate students in architecture to identify socioeconomic opportunities. The Architecture + Education Program provides institutions opportunities to work actively with the communities they serve, and raises awareness of design careers among public school kids to increase and diversify its talent pipeline. This unique program involves multiple generations, including design professionals alongside public school and university students and instructors. Join us to discover opportunities for innovative community programs in your own backyard.

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Non-Member Price:
$50

Conference Presentations

Published
March 5, 2024

Leveraging Performing Arts Programs to Enhance the Urban Condition

By: Stephen Brown-Fried, The New School | Jennifer Holmes, Pace University-New York | Ann Rolland, FXCollaborative | Austin Sakong, FXCollaborative

As the role of arts and culture in our cities evolves, institutions are responding by growing their performing arts programs to enhance connection and build community.
Abstract: As the role of arts and culture in our cities evolves, institutions are responding by growing their performing arts programs to enhance connection and build community. This session will explore how the planning, programming, and design of performing arts facilities at two institutions plays a vital role in reinvigorating and energizing the urban condition. Come learn how institutions can use the performing arts to enhance in-person eduction and advance arts and culture within an evolving technological paradigm.

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$50

Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
January 19, 2022

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Partnerships Promote Inclusion

A university and a secondary school collaborate to decrease dropout rates and increase college enrollment

By: Vibhavari Jani, MA, and Tim Murrell, EdD

Intentional planning and a competency-based, personalized learning model empowers graduate students from the architecture discipline to assist secondary students in becoming knowledge seekers and design professionals.

From Volume 50 Number 2 | January–March 2022

Abstract: American industries, professional organizations, individual companies, and higher education institutions continue to struggle to attract employees from underrepresented populations. Future-forward thinking is required to ensure a multicultural workforce. The authors, a design educator at a predominantly white, Midwestern university, and a high school principal at a multicultural urban school district, developed an intentional collaboration—partnerships between secondary and postsecondary institutions—to bridge the gap. In this article, they share strategies they developed for recruiting and retaining underrepresented students through intentional planning and design of competency-based, personalized learning models.

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Conference Recordings

Published
June 16, 2021

2021 Mid-Atlantic Symposium | June 2021

Integrating Place and Pedagogy to Foster Active Learning

What Works

By: Jeffrey Ashley, Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) | Alice Donlan, University of Maryland | Shannon Dowling, Ayers Saint Gross | Kate Drabinski, University of Maryland Baltimore County | Hilary Gossett, University of Maryland | Richard Minturn, University of Virginia | John Notis, University of Virginia | Wynne Stuart, University of Virginia | Nancy Sturm, NV5 | Steven Anderson, UMBC Division of Information Technology

Planners from four universities will explore how active learning environments are evolving on their campuses, leading to more engaging learning experiences and improving student outcomes.
Abstract: Over the past year the pandemic has brought many challenges to higher education as well as opportunities to shape future learning spaces. Planners from four universities will explore how active learning environments are evolving on their campuses, leading to more engaging learning experiences and improving student outcomes. Come join us for a lively discussion about how space optimization, thoughtful furniture selection, and strategic technology implementation all contribute to the design of “the perfect active learning classroom”.

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Non-Member Price:
$119

Webinar Recordings

Published
March 2, 2021

How to Create a Secondary-Postsecondary Partnership to Promote Diversity, Inclusion, and Underrepresented Populations in Higher Education

By: Dr. Ivan Banks, Alcorn State University | Vibhavari Jani, Kansas State University | Dr. Tim Murrell, Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Careers (TCALC)

This webinar will focus on how to develop a secondary-postsecondary partnership to intentionally promote diversity, inclusion, and recognition of under-represented populations through collaboration and integrated planning strategies. The presenters will share their goals and project planning for a competency-based, project-based learning model—with an emphasis on mentoring.
Abstract: Institutions of higher learning and professional firms report concerns about lack of diversity in the workplace. Intentional partnerships can help bridge this gap. This webinar will focus on how to develop a secondary-postsecondary partnership to intentionally promote diversity, inclusion, and recognition of under-represented populations through collaboration and integrated planning strategies.

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$69

Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
May 18, 2020

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Telling the Untold Stories

George Mason University Frames the Conversation Around Its Institutional Namesake and His Legacy

By: Cathy Pinskey and Stephanie Wolfgang

Through historical study, outreach, and education, undergraduate students at George Mason University began research that developed into the Enslaved Children of George Mason Project. The goal was to broaden the university narrative, encourage discussion about American ideals of equality and freedom, and transform a complex historical legacy and memorial into an inclusive campus place for reflection and dialogue.

From Volume 48 Number 3 | April–June 2020

Abstract: This article discusses the processes and outcomes of recent efforts at George Mason University (GMU) to acknowledge and celebrate the lives of those individuals enslaved by the institution’s namesake. In an era of intense debate surrounding the legacies of historical figures in the United States, GMU seeks to set the example for one approach to dealing with the conversations: community-fostering dialogue. We discuss the use of sculptural elements to create a new monument that sits in discourse with an existing statue of George Mason IV, highlighting how undergraduate student research efforts can be leveraged to address topics of value to today’s campus communities.

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Webinar Recordings

Published
April 10, 2020

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Voices from the Field: Episode #3

From Crisis to Collaboration and Creativity

By: Mike Martin, Associate Dean Science, Math, and Health, John Carroll University

Mike Martin, Associate Dean Science, Math, and Health at John Carroll University discusses how the administration addressed the first few weeks of the COVID-19 crisis and how they have creatively shifted gears with students and faculty toward what’s next.
Abstract: The past month has been trying for all of higher education. How do we transition our constituents from crisis to collaboration in order to meet the needs of the entire campus community? In this conversation, Mike Martin, Associate Dean Science, Math, and Health at John Carroll University discusses how the administration addressed the first few weeks of the COVID-19 crisis and how they have creatively shifted gears with students and faculty toward what’s next.

Member Price:
Free

Non-Member Price:
Free