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Blog Post

Published
September 2, 2025

How Strategic Is Your Strategic Plan?

Identify Its Shortcomings and Ask Key Questions

By: Sarah L Collie, PhD, Associate Vice President for Organizational Excellence, University of Virginia

Today, strategic planning in colleges and universities is more crucial than ever. Yet many strategic plans in higher education lack a clear strategy, instead resembling a long-range plan.

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Conference Presentations,Conference Recordings

Published
June 17, 2025

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At the Edge: Connecting Campus and Community Through Transformative Reuse

By: Joe Banks, Director of Construction, Wesleyan University | Tom Davies, Executive Director of Planning, Design and Construction, Amherst College | Jason Forney, Principal, Bruner/Cott Architects

Every campus has underused edges it can leverage as important connections to community within and beyond its boundaries Transformative reuse provides an opportunity to deploy new programs, restore important historic structures, and foster community in different ways. In this session, we’ll discuss how Wesleyan University and Amherst College invested in an underused, historic campus-edge buildings to develop a nexus for creative community, a student run hub, and a think tank for the humanities.
Abstract: Every campus has underused edges it can leverage as important connections to community within and beyond its boundaries Transformative reuse provides an opportunity to deploy new programs, restore important historic structures, and foster community in different ways. In this session, we’ll discuss how Wesleyan University and Amherst College invested in an underused, historic campus-edge buildings to develop a nexus for creative community, a student run hub, and a think tank for the humanities. You will discover parallels and ways of employing similar strategies to create meaningful connections between the campus and community. Furthermore, we’ll demonstrate how the reuse of existing buildings offers design inspiration while avoiding the embodied carbon of building new.

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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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Conference Presentations

Published
October 23, 2024

Reimagining Clippinger: Adaptive Reuse of an OU Post-war Science Building

By: Stephen Bergmeier, Marvin E. and Ann Diley White Professor of Chemistry, Ohio University-Main Campus | Matt Garrett, Principal, Flad Architects | John Wroblewski, Architect/Science Planner, Flad Architects

Since Ohio University's (OU) Clippinger Laboratory was built in 1967 higher education has changed dramatically: scientific research, instruction, and the students themselves.
Abstract: Since Ohio University's (OU) Clippinger Laboratory was built in 1967 higher education has changed dramatically: scientific research, instruction, and the students themselves. Through several examples over the 10-year period of Clippinger's reimagining, this session will examine a process for rethinking a building's vision, developing space needs, and responding to changing times so that the building can continue to serve the College of Arts and Sciences into the future. Come learn a set of adaptive reuse tools to guide planning and design, including alignment of program and capacity, compliance with regulations, and achieving sustainability and environmental goals.

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Conference Presentations

Published
July 23, 2024

Harnessing the Disruptive Power of Collaborative Intelligence

By: Linda Baer, Principal | Paul Leblanc, President | Donald Norris, Founder and President Emeritus | George Siemens, Chief Data Scientist

This session will illustrate how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Intelligence (HI) combine to create Collaborative Intelligence (CI), which will transform and disrupt every process and practice it touches. Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is building on its track record of preparing students for the future by leveraging CI and a clean sheet design approach to create a revolutionary new instructional model.
Abstract: This session will illustrate how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Intelligence (HI) combine to create Collaborative Intelligence (CI), which will transform and disrupt every process and practice it touches. Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is building on its track record of preparing students for the future by leveraging CI and a clean sheet design approach to create a revolutionary new instructional model. To harness the power of CI, institutions must reinvent their approach for crafting and executing strategy to create a sense of urgency for change, engage many participants, provide transformation tools, and change culture.

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Conference Presentations

Published
July 23, 2024

Improving Campus Character and Performance Through Renovation and Adaptive Reuse

By: Ryan Jones, Partner | Kerry Phillips, Associate | John Scherding, Former University Architect and Director of Sustainability

Breathing new life into old buildings is one of the most sustainable available campus strategies and offers benefits beyond carbon reduction. Renovation and adaptive reuse support a triple bottom line of environmental, financial, and social wellbeing.
Abstract: Breathing new life into old buildings is one of the most sustainable available campus strategies and offers benefits beyond carbon reduction. Renovation and adaptive reuse support a triple bottom line of environmental, financial, and social wellbeing. This session will explore renovation at Trinity University from campus, design, and building perspectives, outlining strategies for enhancing the character and performance of buildings, districts, and the campus. Join us to gain a multi-dimensional understanding of the risks and rewards of renovation and adaptive reuse to help strategically guide comprehensive environmental, financial, and campus planning efforts for colleges and universities.

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Conference Presentations

Published
July 23, 2024

Reconnect, Reuse, Revitalize, Recruit: Addressing Aging Campus Facilities

By: Tom King, Director of Facilities, College of Engineering | Erin Mulrooney, Associate Dean for Administration | William Voulgaris, Principal

Institutions are constrained by housing modern programs within aging facilities.
Abstract: Institutions are constrained by housing modern programs within aging facilities. Cornell University's College of Engineering addressed these challenges while collecting programs and enhancing the user experience. This session will explore project goals that resolve pragmatic challenges of aging facilities and evolving programs with interventions that help support the future of academic programs and impact the overall cohesiveness of the larger campus. We'll identify opportunities to solve programmatic and utilitarian challenges within the confines of aging facilities while helping to improve the student experience, recruit researchers, and make connections between buildings and across the campus.

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Conference Presentations

Published
July 22, 2024

Renew, Revise, or Reject: Presidential Turnover and Strategic Planning Impacts

By: Sandra Patterson-Randles, Chancellor Emerita and Professor of English

Since the average presidential tenure is now fewer than six years, campuses need to design and implement circumspect planning which will prove stable even in the event of leadership changes. Using examples from eight institutions across the U.S., this session explores the challenges to campus strategic planning when new leadership arrives.
Abstract: Since the average presidential tenure is now fewer than six years, campuses need to design and implement circumspect planning which will prove stable even in the event of leadership changes. Using examples from eight institutions across the U.S., this session explores the challenges to campus strategic planning when new leadership arrives. Campus constituencies will be able to weather the uncertainties of a presidential transition through a detailed understanding of commonly experienced impacts on campus planning.

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Conference Presentations

Published
July 22, 2024

Institutional Transformation in Turbulent Times

By: Glynis Fitzgerald, President | Joseph (Tim) Gilmour, Principal/President Emeritus | Rodney Ridley, Vice President of Research, Economic Development, and Innovation

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.
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.

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Planning for Higher Education Journal

Published
May 29, 2024

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Stakeholder Engagement Paves the Journey from Learning to Employment

Future Nurses ‘See’ Their Success in a Revitalized Corporate Building

By: Rob Koran, EMBA, Michael Ufer, MArch, and Lindsey Feola, MArch

Planners for West Coast University connected with stakeholders to solicit input and gain consensus on decisions. The result is a technology-rich building and academic program that helps nursing students achieve their objectives

From Volume 52 Number 3 | April–June 2024

Abstract: Planners for West Coast University connected with stakeholders to solicit input and gain consensus on decisions. The result is a technology-rich building and academic program that helps nursing students achieve their objectives

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