SCUP Announces New Board of Directors Chair, Steve Wiesenthal, Principal at Studio Gang

Ann Arbor, MI—

The Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), is pleased to announce that the SCUP Board of Directors elected Steve Wiesenthal, FAIA, a principal at Studio Gang, as the new board chair. He serves a one-year term that began July 2021. He succeeds Lynn Akey, the vice president for Student Success, Analytics and Integrated Planning at Minnesota State University-Mankato.

Wiesenthal is a principal at the architecture and urban design practice Studio Gang’s San Francisco office, where he is leading a unified campus for the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and the renewal of Kresge College at the University of California Santa Cruz. Previously, Wiesenthal was a university architect for more than twenty-five years, leading the development of the built environment and campus-wide environmental sustainability programs at the University of Chicago, the University of California San Francisco, and the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

Reflecting on his year ahead, he said “We have a chance to seize the current global reset to address equitable access and structural racism, in-person and distributed learning, and the very nature of academic freedom and responsibility,” Wiesenthal said. “These are larger societal challenges and issues where we can help our constituents and use integrated planning to come together and solve problems in a profound way.”

“Steve’s focus on societal responsibility,” said Michael D. Moss, SCUP’s president, “coupled with his additional sense of urgency from the environmental crisis, will help us keep our leaders at the forefront of thought leadership as they plan for the future of their campuses.”

Wiesenthal added, “We can explore new ways of imagining the college and university experience not just for students, but for faculty and the communities that our campuses inhabit. We should all be looking for pathways toward increasing equity at multiple scales within colleges and universities. And if we could measurably model ways of addressing the climate crisis—given all the real estate that our colleges and universities occupy and the influence we have—that would be a great success as well.”

ABOUT SCUP
We believe that by uniting higher education leaders, we can meet the rapid pace of change and competition, advancing each institution as it shapes and defines its future. Through connection, learning, and expanded conversation, we help create integrated planning solutions that will unleash the promise and potential of higher education. www.scup.org

Contact: Kathleen Benton, Associate Director, Strategic Alliances
Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)