Learning Resources

Insights from SCUP’s Spring 2023 Trends in Higher Education Report

Trends that Impact Higher Education Planning

By: Nicholas Santilli, Society for College and University Planning | Randy Simon, Emory University

Join Nick Santilli and Randy Simon for a conversation that will highlight the SCUP Spring Trends Report.

Abstract: Join Nick Santilli and Randy Simon for a conversation that will highlight the SCUP Spring Trends Report. This document provides an overview of the important external forces that impact institutional operations—it’s an essential tool for strategic planning, scenario planning, and contingency planning.

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The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Align Strategic, Physical, and Capital Planning for the Next Generation of Students

By: Jacob Guter, MPA, RA, and Doug Kozma, BSLA, PLA

Michigan Technological University used active stakeholder engagement, frequent reviews, and vigorous discussion to develop its aspirational master plan.

From Volume 51 Number 3 | April–June 2023

Abstract: Profound technological changes are occurring today, and universities need to prepare our students to work and live in this new world. Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) is addressing the future of technology in society, academia, and the campus through our Tech Forward Strategic Plan, a bold enrollment and retention initiative, an aggressive capital campaign, and a dynamic hiring initiative. Our aspirational campus master plan, developed in partnership with SmithGroup, an integrated design firm, integrates and supports these initiatives and goals. Active stakeholder engagement, frequent reviews, and vigorous discussion allowed us to craft a campus master plan aligning strategic, physical, and capital planning that supports and drives the university’s 2035 Vision.

Institutions Mentioned: Michigan Technological University
Planning Types: Campus Planning
Tags: Campus Master Planning, Community Engagement, Engaging Stakeholders, Facilities Assessment, Facilities Design, Facilities Planning, Innovation Center, Laboratory Facility, Landscape / Open Space, Placemaking, Public-Private Partnerships (P3), Science / Engineering Facility, Space Assessment, Student Housing

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Trends Inside Higher Education | Spring 2023

By: Apryl Motley, CAE, SASM

Within the world of higher education, what are some of today’s key trends—and what are some implications for institutions of higher learning?

Abstract: We’ve organized Trends using STEEP: Social, Technology, Economic, Environmental, and Political. Each trend includes a brief trend summary, a footnoted source, and discussion questions to help you analyze and act on the trend.

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Book Review: The Agile College

How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes

By: Bryan C. Harvey, EdD

From Volume 51 Number 2 | January–March 2023

Abstract: The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes
by Nathan D. Grawe
Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore: 2021
298 pages
ISBN: 978-1421440231

Does hope motivate action or complacency? Does crisis induce change or despair? Nathan D. Grawe readily acknowledges this tension in The Agile College, his follow-up book to his 2018 Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education. The latter propelled the inescapable discussion throughout higher education of the looming “demographic cliff.” The Agile College suggests how agile institutions might prevent demography from becoming destiny.

Planning Types: Strategic Enrollment Management Planning
Tags: Change Management, COVID-19, Demographics, Disruptive Change, Recovery Planning, Resiliency, Shrinking Pool of Potential Students, Student Demographics, Student Recruitment, Student Retention, Trends External to Higher Ed

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Conference Recordings

Published
November 2, 2022

2022 Mid-Atlantic Regional Symposium | November

Reckoning with Entangled Histories

Higher Education and Slavery

By: Fanchon (Chon) Glover, College of William and Mary | Amber Hall, College of William and Mary | Samuel Hayes, College of William and Mary | Ben Carton, George Mason University | Wendi Manuel Scott, George Mason University | Cathy Pinskey, George Mason University | Dereck J. Rovaris, Sr., St. Mary's College of Maryland | Maurice Schlesinger, St. Mary's College of Maryland | Louis Nelson, University of Virginia | Alice Raucher, University of Virginia | Stephanie Wolfgang, Perkins&Will

In this symposium, four institutions will share their approaches to these complicated questions and how they’re continuing the conversation around the legacy of slavery on their campuses.

Abstract: American higher education institutions have a long, complex history with slavery that shouldn’t be ignored. Reckoning with these historical ties—from slave-owning namesakes to the enslaved laborers who constructed campus buildings—generates difficult questions for colleges and universities:

How do we honor those who were enslaved?
How do we recognize our role in the history of slavery as a means of learning from the past to guide our future?

In this symposium, four institutions will share their approaches to these complicated questions and how they’re continuing the conversation around the legacy of slavery on their campuses.

Institutions Mentioned: College of William and Mary, George Mason University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, University of Virginia-Main Campus
Planning Types: Campus Planning, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Planning
Tags: Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Facilities Design, Facilities Planning, Historic Preservation, Landscape / Open Space, Placemaking, Racial Equity, SCUP 2022 Mid-Atlantic Symposium | November, Student Engagement

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Examining Naming Issues on Campus

By: Erin Johnson, MS, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

This is a SCUP Fellow Research Project Final Report for the 2020–2021 program. This report summarizes the specific cases of US institutions that addressed a problematic building or facility naming issue between 2014 and 2021 and what each of them chose to do when faced with this challenging decision.

Abstract: From 2015–2018, amidst a period of heightened activism on campuses and broader societal change, institutions of higher education renamed and de-named campus buildings with namesakes whose legacies were seen to conflict with institutional missions and community values and harmful to members of the campus and surrounding communities. In 2020, the push for addressing problematic namesakes grew exponentially, expanding beyond buildings and postsecondary education.

Effectively managing naming issues on campus and the expectations and interests of internal and external stakeholder groups is challenging, emotional, and time consuming work that has a lasting impact on the physical campus as well as institutional legacy. This research report summarizes the specific cases of US institutions that addressed a naming issue between 2014 and 2021 and what each of them chose to do when faced with this challenging decision.

Planning Types: Campus Planning, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Planning
Tags: Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Facilities Planning, Higher Ed Trends, Historic Preservation, Original Research, Placemaking, Racial Equity

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Campus Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse

Leverage These Tools to Achieve Your Planning and Sustainability Goals

By: Meaghan Finney, MS, and Michael Patrick, M.Arch, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP

By integrating historic buildings into your campus planning, their continued reuse can help solve some of the specific challenges facing university planners today.

From Volume 50 Number 4 | July–September 2022

Abstract: Historic campus buildings are often perceived as a burden, but by integrating them into your campus planning, their continued reuse can help solve some of the specific challenges facing university planners today, specifically in the context of sustainability. There are numerous case studies that demonstrate the successful adaptive reuse of varied campus buildings as well as an undeniable body of evidence showing the benefits of such an approach in working toward carbon neutrality. As long-term stewards of their built environments, colleges and universities are uniquely positioned to realize enduring savings from investing in the energy performance of existing buildings.

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The Little Campus That Could

Survey Results Inform Postsecondary Education in an Island Community

By: Valerie A. Barko, PhD

The Institutional Effectiveness Office at Kaua‘i Community College developed and administered community and workforce surveys to better understand current and future educational needs of residents and employers on Kaua‘i.

From Volume 50 Number 4 | July–September 2022

Abstract: In 2018, the Institutional Effectiveness Office at Kaua‘i Community College developed and administered community and workforce surveys to better understand current and future educational needs of residents and employers on Kaua‘i. These single island surveys highlighted the need for a comprehensive neighbor island survey to collectively advocate for additional online post-associate degree programs that best align with and support these geographically isolated communities. This project demonstrates how surveys can be used to inform decisions and integrated planning across multiple scales within a university system, especially in regards to distance education.

Institutions Mentioned: Kauaʻi Community College, University of Hawai‘i System Office
Planning Types: Institutional Effectiveness Planning, Strategic Enrollment Management Planning
Tags: Community College, Community Engagement, Online Learning, System of Colleges or Universities, Workforce Development

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Trends Outside Higher Education | Fall 2022

By: Apryl Motley, CAE, SASM

This edition focuses primarily on forces outside academe that may drive change in colleges and universities.

Abstract: We’ve organized Trends using STEEP: Social, Technology, Economic, Environmental, and Political. Each trend includes a brief trend summary, a footnoted source, and discussion questions to help you analyze and act on the trend.

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Book Review: The State Must Provide

Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal—and How to Set Them Right

By: Sigrid M. Davison, MS

From Volume 50 Number 3 | April–June 2022

Abstract: The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal—and How to Set Them Right
by Adam Harris
Ecco, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers: New York: 2021
259 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-06-297648-2

Planning Types: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Planning
Tags: Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Funding, Governmental Policies and Regulations, Higher Ed in Society, Racial Equity

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