Learning Resources

Abstract: A university’s strategic plan sets out its intent to reach higher, innovative levels to be considered prominent, a market leader, or universally recognized for excellence. By engaging employees as “owners” they can actively manage the forces and operational processes during plan implementation, monitoring, and controlling. Working with data-based performance metrics aids employees—and even students— in decision-making to evaluate options that affect performance thereby influencing the outcome. This session provides insight into KSU’s approach on engagement across the university.

Abstract: University strategic planning is typically well structured with attention to both process and outcomes. However, plans are frequently not implemented in an equally process-driven manner. As a result, the product of planning efforts may not lead to the anticipated change or may even remain “on the shelf.” This article describes how Philadelphia University is using “action research” during strategic plan implementation in order to optimize campus commitment, facilitate organizational learning, and support the sustainability of change.

Abstract: Sustainable planning is a powerful tool in creating campus facilities that are environmentally, economically, and academically beneficial. As interconnected communities, college campuses provide an excellent model for sustainable intervention strategies. The University of British Columbia and the City University of New York’s Lehman College have both initiated “living building” projects in which engineering systems are designed to behave like thriving organisms. Clarkson University and Wentworth Institute of Technology are both planning student centers designed to tap into excess energy loads. Each of the projects presented in these case studies began with fundamental and smart planning.

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.