Learning Resources

Abstract: The Massachusetts Advisory Council on Education published a significant, two-volume study of continuing and part-time education. As its foreword suggests, the massive, 950-page document represents "the most thorough effort by any state so far to describe and rationalize, from a consumer's point of view, the extensive and continuing part-time postsecondary educational activities under way and provide the guidelines for innovative yet pragmatic public policy." The report is analyzed in this article by Curtis O. Baker, director of institutional research and planning, New York University, and Anthony D. Knerr, associate dean for budget administration, City University of New York.

Abstract: Change in higher education and in the society at large demands that university planners "take aim at a moving target," Fred E. Crossland, program officer in higher education for The Ford Foundation, told his SCUP-7 audience. That target may be even more elusive than imagined, in the view of a young faculty member, who holds that planners, whether their concern is academic, fiscal, or physical, will have to re-examine their professional self-image if they are to rebuild the university to meet the requirements of today. This article is excerpted from a SCUP-7 address, "University Planning: Some Interrelationships Between Self-Concept and Spatial Design," by David E. Whisnant, assistant professor of English at the University of Illinois.

Abstract: Heating fuel will be in short supply this winter. If our universal pessimism is correct, we may have to shut down some public places, such as schools and campus buildings. It is possible, of course, for us to avert a crisis if we cut down on the use of fuel. The ideas that follow were adapted by Larry Kramer, SCUP's editorial assistant, from an article in Schoolhouse (No. 13, November 1973), published by Educational Facilities Laboratories. Although intended for a readership of primary and secondary school administrators, the suggestions have equal import for physical plant administrators at colleges and universities. Not all of the suggestions will be usable in any one building, but there are more than enough to offer a number of alternative responses for any institution.

Abstract: The architects and planners of a new college or university enjoy a singular opportunity: the ability to start from scratch, unencumbered by existing buildings, entrenched administrative and faculty empires, or the traditions and prejudices normally encountered in an existing institution. Conversely, there are handicaps. Speed usually is mandatory. Classroom seats and/or dormitory beds must be provided immediately for initial enrollment levels. But specialized facilities must be planned with ultimate enrollments in mind. Even more than in existing institutions, change in the uses to which the new facilities will be put must be assumed. In perhaps the most sophisticated repsonse to these challenges to date, the planners of Stockton State College in New Jersey turned to the use of systems building, fast-track planning, and construction management to produce a 1,000-student, first phase campus in 20 months. More significantly, an elaborate set of phased or incremental plans was developed to permit orderly growth to an ultimate enrollment of 7,500. The resulting facilities described in this article emerged with a chameleon-like ability to change in function as, phase by phase, the new campus was developed.

Abstract: Colleges and universities, for years accustomed to planning in a condition of steady, sometimes rapid growth, now find themselves planning in a period of stable or declining enrollments. The result is a whole new set of problems and approaches for institutional planners. That new reality was a major focus of attention at SCUP's 8th Annual International Conference in Toronto, cropping up not only in a panel devoted to the subject but in other conference sessions. This article summarizes some of the discussion highlights.

Abstract: There is a new--or newly apparent--reality facing college and university planners: they must plan in an atmosphere of rapid, if not traumatic, change, in an era when even institutional objectives cannot be taken as fixed or sancrosant. That reality was underscored at SCUP's 7th Annual International Conference in Atlanta by Fred E. Crossland in an address titled "In Planning: Aim at a Moving Target" (see the volume 1, number 2 issue of Planning for Higher Education). A year later, at SCUP's 8th Annual International Conference in Toronto, another perspective was offered by J. Gordon Parr, deputy minister of colleges and universities of the Province of Ontario.

Abstract: The growing importance of interinstitutional cooperation is underscored by the proliferation of regional consortia of colleges and universities across the nation. Unique among them is The Association for Graduate Education and Research of North Texas (TAGER), which operated a microwave network interconnecting nine colleges and universities in the region, as well as the facilities of seven large corporations. The network permits the institutions to share their course offerings and to tap new student "markets" among corporate employees. This is the story of TAGER's origins and operations.

Abstract: Spurred by the pressure of higher education's current recession, many colleges and universities are looking to the conversion or renovation of existing buildings as an alternative to new construction. But perhaps none has taken a more comprehensive approach than Oberlin College in Ohio, which recently undertook a building-by-building survey of its entire physical plant, emerging with plans to recycle 17 campus structures of between 260,000 and 340,000 square feet of space at an estimated cost ranging from $5.8 to $7 million.

Abstract: Shifts in student lifestyles and the phenomenon of empty dormitory rooms notwithstanding, many colleges and universities still face the problem of providing adequate housing for their students or helping them find such housing. An interesting, if little-publicized, option--one to be exercised more by students than by institutions--is student-initiated housing, in which student groups lease, purchase, or even develop their own living quarters. To fill the information gap, Educational Facilities Laboratories will publish a report on the subject by Washington-based consultant Robert M. Feild. The report's highlights are summarized in this article.