Learning Resources

Abstract: Universities and colleges across the country are faced with growth in the campus population and the loss of surface parking lots for new buildings. The response of many institutions is to build new garages with the assumption that parking demand ratios will remain the same. Such an approach, however, can be extremely expensive—upwards of $2,000 per net new space annually. In many cases, a mix of parking and demand reduction programs—such as shuttles, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, and financial incentives not to drive—can accommodate growth at a lower cost per trip. A balanced approach will also tend to support other goals, from improving town-gown relations to maintaining debt capacity. Demand management strategies have been employed by institutions for many years. However, it is less common for a cost-benefit analysis to be undertaken comparing them with new parking construction. Using examples from universities in California and Colorado, this article demonstrates a methodology to inform basic decisions on the amount of parking required to cater to campus growth, which can be incorporated into campus master planning.

Abstract: A growing cadre of progressive K–12 educators believes that sustainability education has a central role in developing in students a sense of responsibility for the future. Leaders within the movement to educate for sustainability see an opportunity in the convergence of the large-scale systemic reform efforts sweeping our nation and the vision and goals of the emerging field of sustainability education. Transformations are appearing in classrooms that have adopted sustainability education as a context for systemic reform efforts, and the results of this are bound to affect the shape of higher education in years to come.

Abstract: Book review: Ecodemia: Campus Environmental Stewardship at the Truth of the 21st Century, by Julian Keniry. National Wildlife Federation, 1995. 222 pages. ISBN 0-9-45051-57-3

Abstract: An eight-year-old, rapidly growing institution serving the Denver metropolitan area will soon have the nation's largest installation heated by solar energy. To construct the North Campus of the Community College of Denver, state agencies and legislators have agreed to fund a project with 8 percent higher initial costs in anticipation of long-term savings. In this article, the author describes the evolution of this significant project.