Learning Resources

Abstract: The challenge of planning a sustainable future is so great and the task so broad that moving our institutions of higher learning, let alone our society, toward sustainability requires an unprecedented coalition of leaders. Planners must use the best skills and knowledge of all members of the academy: faculty, students, staff, trustees, alumni, and administration. This article reviews and critiques the processes, circumstances, and leadership that enabled Northland College to make significant progress toward sustainability. An Environmental Council that supported strong linkages between student learning and sustainability was key to the progress. The council was an incubator of leadership from which students, faculty, and staff emerged as agents of change.

Abstract: This article discusses significant changes in a management model within a university with an extensive, distributed campus system and multiple community college partnerships. These changes created stronger linkages between branch campus faculty and their disciplinary counterparts on the main university campus. They were based on a model analogous to a faculty member holding a joint appointment between colleges of a university and include collaborative decision making, hiring decisions, and evaluation by faculty and administrators of the branch and main campuses. Also included in the article is a description of the working relationship between the university and one of its significant community college partners.

Abstract: Examines traditional assumptions underlying space management and proposes an alternative approach to projecting space use. Specifically, the author recommends making projections based on space per faculty rather than space per student, and then comparing these projections with the space allocation at peer institutions. Problems with traditional methods of space allocation are discussed, as is the process of implementing this approach and identifying comparable institutions.