Learning Resources

Abstract: Institutions are seeking to improve student experience to support recruitment and retention on campus, but making big impactful moves can be daunting in the midst of overwhelming deferred maintenance needs. Solving for a renewed focus on student wellbeing and resource-strapped environments, we'll share two case studies of transforming the campus experience through strategic investment in capital-constrained environments. This session will outline a path for converting the threats of deferred maintenance numbers into an opportunity to enhance the student experience on campus by providing a tool kit to guide institutions through the planning process.

Abstract: Institutions are seeking to improve student experience to support recruitment and retention on campus, but making big impactful moves can be daunting in the midst of overwhelming deferred maintenance needs. Solving for a renewed focus on student wellbeing and resource-strapped environments, we'll share two case studies of transforming the campus experience through strategic investment in capital-constrained environments. This session will outline a path for converting the threats of deferred maintenance numbers into an opportunity to enhance the student experience on campus by providing a tool kit to guide institutions through the planning process.

Abstract: Recruitment and retention are increasingly vital as student demographics evolve. New approaches to collaborative planning create keystone spaces on campus that can reinvigorate entire zones and benefit students, faculty, staff, and the bottom line. The University of St. Thomas's Schoenecker STEAM Center uniquely combines science and engineering spaces with liberal arts programs and other collaboration space while also enhancing use patterns, gathering points, and campus circulation. We'll share tools and lessons learned to help you navigate the complexities of co-locating disparate functions while accounting for funding capacity and time-of-day use, resulting in efficient, effective spaces that support changing campus demographics.

Abstract: Alvernia University can provide inspiration for planners who must undertake the difficult task of transforming their institution in turbulent times. In four years, Alvernia University has raised $25 million in external support, garnered a $400 thousand grant, and raised enrollment by more than six percent. This session will detail Alvernia University’s transformation strategy, which has radically changed how the university educates students and supports regional economic development. The Alvernia approach offers a proven model that institutions can adapt for their own transformation efforts, cutting plan development and implementation time.

Abstract: With the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events continuing to increase across the country, the need for resilience planning is more critical than ever before.

Numerous campuses across the California State University (CSU) system have direct experience with wildfires, extended drought, floods, extreme heat, public safety power shutoffs, hurricanes, and sea level rise. The CSU is currently working toward increasing resilience in response to catastrophic events through systemwide technical guidance resources on building and infrastructure design and retrofit. These extreme conditions further prompted the need for vulnerability assessments systemwide and coordinated climate resilience planning and investment activities.

Using the activities of CSU climate action and adaptation planning, 2022-2023 SCUP Fellow Tamara Wallace’s SCUP Fellows project sought to achieve three (3) primary objectives:

1. Review planning documents and policies that consider climate resiliency governance versus climate resiliency implementation.


2. Identify key stakeholders to develop a primer for addressing and incorporating campus-community implementation priorities.


3. Raise awareness with the broader higher education planning community to collect feedback and share model practices.

Abstract: After the 2017 earthquake in Mexico City, Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey’s campus underwent a transformative rebuilding process that emerged as a pedagogical prototype for the university system. This article explores the design strategies that prioritized civic engagement, resulting in buy-in, support, and representation from the community. It also describes the methodology behind blurring the boundaries between the university and its surroundings through lean principles in set-based design, strategies for resilient building, and insights into effective collaboration.

Abstract: With the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events continuing to increase across the country, the need for resilience planning is more critical than ever before.

Numerous campuses across the California State University (CSU) system have direct experience with wildfires, extended drought, floods, extreme heat, public safety power shutoffs, hurricanes, and sea level rise. The CSU is currently working toward increasing resilience in response to catastrophic events through systemwide technical guidance resources on building and infrastructure design and retrofit. These extreme conditions further prompted the need for vulnerability assessments systemwide and coordinated climate resilience planning and investment activities.

Using the activities of CSU climate action and adaptation planning, Wallace’s SCUP Fellows project sought to achieve three (3) primary objectives:

Review planning documents and policies that consider climate resiliency governance versus climate resiliency implementation.
Identify key stakeholders to develop a primer for addressing and incorporating campus-community implementation priorities.
Raise awareness with the broader higher education planning community to collect feedback and share model practices.
Join 2022-2023 SCUP Fellow Tamara Wallace as she shares her findings to help you and your team proactively plan for climate change to mitigate risks, prevent damage, and ensure continued learning from lived experiences.

Abstract: The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes
by Nathan D. Grawe
Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore: 2021
298 pages
ISBN: 978-1421440231

Does hope motivate action or complacency? Does crisis induce change or despair? Nathan D. Grawe readily acknowledges this tension in The Agile College, his follow-up book to his 2018 Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education. The latter propelled the inescapable discussion throughout higher education of the looming “demographic cliff.” The Agile College suggests how agile institutions might prevent demography from becoming destiny.