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Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
July 17, 2025

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Co-Locate and Consolidate to Create Connected Campuses

Grow in Place Rather Than Add More Space Where Students Will Succeed

By: Elliot Felix, MArch

You can share spaces, support services, staffing, and technology systems within your institution and with external partners. This reduces costs while improving outcomes such as retention, graduation, and career placement rates.

From Volume 53 Number 3 | April–June 2025

Abstract: Colleges and universities have a traditional way to meet new needs. When there is a new research initiative, degree program, or student support function, institutions add space. Despite good intentions, their siloed structures, poor strategic planning, and history of continuous expansion mean that institutions adapt by adding. The result: Campuses are overbuilt and underutilized. Instead of shared spaces and seamless, supportive experiences, we’re left with sprawling campuses and spiraling costs. With enrollments, research funding, and our climate all changing, it’s time for a new model and a new mantra: Grow in place rather than add more space.

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Conference Presentations

Published
May 20, 2025

Delivering a Renovated Learning Commons for an Engaged Academic Community

Abstract: Integrated planning is essential for delivering campus facilities that support institutional vision and create a strong student academic experience. Juniata College was at a crossroads related to vision and curriculum direction while it was launching a comprehensive campaign that prioritized a library renovation. This session will focus on one provost's vision for planning and designing a learning commons around a new curriculum and share post-occupancy data to define what worked. Come learn how the planning, funding, and design process behind this inclusive facility has dramatically increased library use by students, faculty, and outside groups.

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Conference Presentations

Published
April 2, 2025

Reimagining Safe and Affordable Student Housing for a Dense Urban Campus

Abstract: Campus housing is foundational for student retention and academic success, yet it's often beyond the means of many students. To address the growing crisis of student homelessness, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) developed an affordable, co-housing model that changes the conversation around equity and diversity. In this session, we'll explore the unique programmatic elements necessary for developing an equitable campus community. This case study will introduce a new model for vertically integrated co-housing solutions that you can apply on your campus when planning affordable housing projects that enhance student life and learning.

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Report

Published
July 3, 2024

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When City Parks Are Your Quad

Urban Campus Planning for Safety and Well-Being

By: Joel Pettigrew, MA, Higher Education Administrator and Strategist

This is a SCUP Fellow Research Project Final Report for the 2022–2023 program. This report explores how the urban campus can best support student development in a safe, yet open environment.
Abstract: How can the campus best support student development in a safe, yet open environment? On an urban campus, these concerns are intensified: There is much more localized activity for students to engage with in their city environment, and many more stakeholders influence how the institution can assert itself in that environment.

In this 2022-2023 SCUP Fellow research report, Joel Pettigrew reflects on how campus edge dynamics and student sense of security play out at several urban campuses. Pettigrew weaves together his operational understanding of campus life with a design understanding of how planners and architects approach the campus to explore how these “two languages” inform student security and well-being, and notes in conclusion that there are many research threads yet to follow.

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Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
May 24, 2024

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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.

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Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
March 7, 2023

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It Takes a (Virtual) Village

Harper College Accomplished Integrated Campus Planning During a Time of Profound Change

By: Avis Proctor, EdD; Maria Coons, EdD; Krisan Osterby, MLA, ITGA; Stephen Siegle, MArch, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

This large community college successfully embraced virtual communication platforms and moved forward with a viable 10-year plan during a global health crisis, economic turbulence, and technological change.

From Volume 51 Number 2 | January–March 2023

Abstract: Integrated planning during profound change requires extra flexibility and attention to user engagement while utilizing new modes of interaction. This article summarizes a successful virtual and comprehensive planning process, including consensus-building, and approval at Harper College. It reviews results and lessons learned by this large community college as it embraced virtual communication platforms and moved forward with a viable 10-year plan during a global health crisis, economic turbulence, and technological change. The authors share the remote process used to set goals, assess resources, define needs, explore options, and guide decision-making with numerous stakeholders.

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Partner Content

Published
October 1, 2022

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Use Evidence to Plan Facilities That Drive Student Success

By: Elliot Felix

In this article, the author draws upon research from his book How to Get the Most Out of College to highlight the evidence that campus planners and designers can use to help drive student success.
Abstract: Colleges and universities are in the midst of a transition from an access mindset to a success mindset, and campus facilities can play a role in this shift. Institutions don’t have to guess at how—a large body of research can and should inform how we plan, design, and operate our campuses. In this article, the author draws upon research from his book How to Get the Most Out of College to highlight the evidence that campus planners and designers can use to help drive student success.

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Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
June 8, 2022

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Seven Lessons in Inclusive Campus Design

Learn How the University of Kentucky Developed Its First DEI Facilities and Spaces Plan

By: Mary Anne Ocampo, MArch, MAUD | Mary S. Vosevich, MBA | Katrice Albert, PhD

Institutions are starting to grapple with histories of developing indigenous lands and the legacy of an able-bodied vernacular within campus design that continues to reinforce in-groups and out-groups.

From Volume 50 Number 3 | April–June 2022

Abstract: A global health crisis intersecting with a racial reckoning has led to a renewed commitment to reflect on complex histories and plan for more inclusive futures on many American campuses. Institutions, which benefitted from traditional hierarchies of power, are starting to grapple with histories of developing indigenous lands and the legacy of a western and able-bodied vernacular within campus design that continues to reinforce in-groups and out-groups. The authors are presently leading first-of-their-kind DEI planning initiatives; in this article they unpack how a public institution is meeting their past head-on to plan better futures.

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Conference Presentations

Published
October 5, 2021

2021 Southern Regional Conference | October 2021

Crossroads of Campus

Reactivating a Stagnant University Center

By: Sujit Chemburkar, University of North Carolina at Charlotte | Jesse Green, Hanbury | Kathryn Horne, University of North Carolina at Charlotte | Randy Knight, MHTN Architects, Inc

In this session, we'll share how we reactivated a stagnant and segmented university center in a long-neglected sector of campus into a new 'crossroads' destination that connects students, faculty, and staff.
Abstract: Healing an entire campus precinct requires vision, impeccable data, and team expertise. In this session, we'll share how we reactivated a stagnant and segmented university center in a long-neglected sector of campus into a new 'crossroads' destination that connects students, faculty, and staff. This modernized university center, which prioritizes wellbeing through its inclusive and accessible design, is the successful result of a phased approach and creative synthesizing of multiple stakeholder needs to deliver consensus. Come learn how to achieve your complex project goals and reactivate your campus as an inclusive, accessible, and connective resource for the entire campus community.

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Webinar Recordings

Published
September 21, 2021

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Libraries in Shaping the Future of Higher Education

Part Three: Libraries as Place in Institutional Transformation

By: Nicholas Santilli (Host), Society for College and University Planning | Lynn Priddy (Moderator), Claremont Lincoln University | Adriene I. Lim, University of Maryland College Park | Brian Smith, Boston College | Elliot Felix, brightspot strategy

In what ways will libraries continue to be the intellectual hubs where users interact with ideas in both physical and virtual environments to expand learning and facilitate the creation of new knowledge?
Abstract: In what ways will libraries continue to be the intellectual hubs where users interact with ideas in both physical and virtual environments to expand learning and facilitate the creation of new knowledge? The pandemic has illustrated the power of place and the need for the post-pandemic campus to integrate academic activities for lifelong learning and research.

This conversation will explore the place of the library to convene people for impactful connections, and the new emerging and transformational role of libraries as learning commons that shape the overall campus as a network for collaboration.

This is part three of a three-part webinar series.

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