Learning Resources

Public Higher Education in Today’s Climate Crisis

University–Community Engagement and Planning Strategies for Climate Resilience

By: Tamara Wallace, MA, Office of the Chancellor, California State University

This is a SCUP Fellow Research Project Final Report for the 2022–2023 program. This report uses the activities of California State University climate action and adaptation planning to discuss the impacts of extreme weather on university campuses and establish a primer for peer institutions to use as the basis for exploring adoptable model practices.

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:

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.

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Planning Takes Tragedy to Triumph

Removing a Campus Wall Raised Community Engagement and Neighborhood Support

By: Timothy Shippey, MArch, and José Ramón Tagle, MArch

After the 2017 earthquake in Mexico City, Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey underwent a transformative rebuilding process. Civic engagement was prioritized, resulting in buy-in, support, and representation from the community.

From Volume 52 Number 3 | April–June 2024

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.

Institutions Mentioned: Tecnológico de Monterrey
Planning Types: Campus Planning
Tags: Campus Master Planning, Community Engagement, Crisis and Disaster Management, Engaging Stakeholders, Facilities Design, Facilities Planning, Landscape / Open Space, Mixed-Use, Security, Town and Gown, Urban Campus

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Public Higher Education in Today’s Climate Crisis

By: Tamara Wallace, CSU Office of the Chancellor

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.

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.

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Overcoming a $90M Budget Overage in Vanderbilt University’s Residential Colleges

A Multifaceted Team Worked Collaboratively to Stem Overruns

By: David Bailey, BA, AIA, LEED AP, and Walt Massey, BA

The University, architects, engineers, strategic planning consultants, and contractor teams worked hand in hand to peel back the onion to stem the overruns.

From Volume 52 Number 1 | October–December 2023

Abstract: When Vanderbilt University began seeing signs that cost escalation, scope additions, campus requirements, and authentic Collegiate Gothic architecture for their proposed new residence halls were all pressuring the budget, a multifaceted team worked collaboratively and arduously to stem the overruns.

Institutions Mentioned: Vanderbilt University
Planning Types: Campus Planning
Tags: Academic Facility, Engaging Stakeholders, Facilities Design, Facilities Planning, Implementation, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Mixed-Use, Modifying the Plan, Project Management, Project Management / Delivery, Student Housing

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What Is Your Crisis ‘What If’?

Create a Sustainable Approach to Emergency Response Planning

By: Jessica A. Luedtke, PhD, and Mary M. Reinke, MBA, MS

The Medical College of Wisconsin planned strategically, engaged executive leadership, and operationalized an Administrative Response Team to navigate critical incidents impacting the university.

From Volume 51 Number 3 | April–June 2023

Institutions Mentioned: Medical College of Wisconsin
Planning Types: Continuity Planning
Tags: Building (or Writing) the Plan, Communication, Crisis and Disaster Management, External Collaboration / Partnerships, Leadership, Medical / Allied Health Education, Modifying the Plan, Recovery Planning, Response Planning, Risk Management, Scenario Planning, Security

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Book Review: The Agile College

How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes

By: Bryan C. Harvey, EdD

From Volume 51 Number 2 | January–March 2023

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.

Planning Types: Strategic Enrollment Management Planning
Tags: Change Management, COVID-19, Demographics, Disruptive Change, Recovery Planning, Resiliency, Shrinking Pool of Potential Students, Student Demographics, Student Recruitment, Student Retention, Trends External to Higher Ed

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Conference Recordings

Published
November 2, 2022

2022 Mid-Atlantic Regional Symposium | November

Reckoning with Entangled Histories

Higher Education and Slavery

By: Fanchon (Chon) Glover, College of William and Mary | Amber Hall, College of William and Mary | Samuel Hayes, College of William and Mary | Ben Carton, George Mason University | Wendi Manuel Scott, George Mason University | Cathy Pinskey, George Mason University | Dereck J. Rovaris, Sr., St. Mary's College of Maryland | Maurice Schlesinger, St. Mary's College of Maryland | Louis Nelson, University of Virginia | Alice Raucher, University of Virginia | Stephanie Wolfgang, Perkins&Will

In this symposium, four institutions will share their approaches to these complicated questions and how they’re continuing the conversation around the legacy of slavery on their campuses.

Abstract: American higher education institutions have a long, complex history with slavery that shouldn’t be ignored. Reckoning with these historical ties—from slave-owning namesakes to the enslaved laborers who constructed campus buildings—generates difficult questions for colleges and universities:

How do we honor those who were enslaved?
How do we recognize our role in the history of slavery as a means of learning from the past to guide our future?

In this symposium, four institutions will share their approaches to these complicated questions and how they’re continuing the conversation around the legacy of slavery on their campuses.

Institutions Mentioned: College of William and Mary, George Mason University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, University of Virginia-Main Campus
Planning Types: Campus Planning, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Planning
Tags: Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Facilities Design, Facilities Planning, Historic Preservation, Landscape / Open Space, Placemaking, Racial Equity, SCUP 2022 Mid-Atlantic Symposium | November, Student Engagement

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Examining Naming Issues on Campus

By: Erin Johnson, MS, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

This is a SCUP Fellow Research Project Final Report for the 2020–2021 program. This report summarizes the specific cases of US institutions that addressed a problematic building or facility naming issue between 2014 and 2021 and what each of them chose to do when faced with this challenging decision.

Abstract: From 2015–2018, amidst a period of heightened activism on campuses and broader societal change, institutions of higher education renamed and de-named campus buildings with namesakes whose legacies were seen to conflict with institutional missions and community values and harmful to members of the campus and surrounding communities. In 2020, the push for addressing problematic namesakes grew exponentially, expanding beyond buildings and postsecondary education.

Effectively managing naming issues on campus and the expectations and interests of internal and external stakeholder groups is challenging, emotional, and time consuming work that has a lasting impact on the physical campus as well as institutional legacy. This research report summarizes the specific cases of US institutions that addressed a naming issue between 2014 and 2021 and what each of them chose to do when faced with this challenging decision.

Planning Types: Campus Planning, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Planning
Tags: Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Facilities Planning, Higher Ed Trends, Historic Preservation, Original Research, Placemaking, Racial Equity

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Campus Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse

Leverage These Tools to Achieve Your Planning and Sustainability Goals

By: Meaghan Finney, MS, and Michael Patrick, M.Arch, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP

By integrating historic buildings into your campus planning, their continued reuse can help solve some of the specific challenges facing university planners today.

From Volume 50 Number 4 | July–September 2022

Abstract: Historic campus buildings are often perceived as a burden, but by integrating them into your campus planning, their continued reuse can help solve some of the specific challenges facing university planners today, specifically in the context of sustainability. There are numerous case studies that demonstrate the successful adaptive reuse of varied campus buildings as well as an undeniable body of evidence showing the benefits of such an approach in working toward carbon neutrality. As long-term stewards of their built environments, colleges and universities are uniquely positioned to realize enduring savings from investing in the energy performance of existing buildings.

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A Practical Guide to Strategic Planning in Higher Education

Second Edition, with New and Updated Content

By: Karen E. Hinton, PhD

A resource for anyone engaged in college or university strategic planning, and an excellent primer for planning committees. This second edition also contains new strategies for using an institution’s strategic plan during times of institutional upheaval, and additional techniques for jump-starting various parts of the planning process.

Abstract: A Practical Guide to Strategic Planning in Higher Education is a resource for anyone engaged in college or university strategic planning; it is also an excellent primer for planning committees. Using clear definitions, practical tips, and examples drawn from actual situations, this short book acts as a manual for both experienced planners and those who are new to the process. This second edition also contains new strategies for using an institution’s strategic plan during times of institutional upheaval, and additional techniques for jump-starting various parts of the planning process.

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