Higher Ed


Solving the Puzzle of Residential Life

It can be easy to be lulled by the expediency of repairing buildings each summer as issues come up, when the overall condition of residential facilities should be considered. Replacing bathroom fixtures in Residence X because it will reduce water consumpt

Selection in the Standard

In order to make selection, service, and use more efficient, and easier, colleges and universities often adopt a standard classroom setup for AV, presentation, and projection systems. This means that a professor can go to any classroom or lecture hall and

Quiet Please

Everywhere you look throughout campuses there's a feeling of community and transparency, fostering an unending flow of ideas and information. Yet sometimes a little privacy goes a long way. In those sensitive rooms and spaces, four walls aren't

Keeping Watch

Industry observers say that safety directors with successful campus video analytics and surveillance programs selected appropriate applications, set up the cameras properly, held out realistic expectations and, perhaps most important, shifted the public s

Choosing CERT

Today, CERT's basic training program covers eight elements: disaster preparedness, fire safety, disaster medical operations (two parts), light search and rescue operations, CERT organization, disaster psychology, and terrorism and CERT. In addition t

You'd Better Shop Around

Purchasing cooperatives romise to lower cost, save time, and reduce redundancy for their members. While their popularity — and potential profitability — has caused their numbers to skyrocket in the last few years, buying co-ops may not always be

The Wireless Campus

The need to be constantly connected with WiFi offers other challenges besides where on campus access should be available — who should be allowed to use on-campus WiFi, how can schools retrofit older buildings not built with wireless in mind, and what

Brick by Brick

A 160-year-old landmark building at Roanoke College in Salem, VA, is enjoying a facelift, following the painstakingly careful renovation of an antebellum exterior wall that was bowing under its own weight.

Building Community in Residence Halls

The college residence hall is an artificial reality — perhaps America's biggest "reality show." Students who are strangers to each other are required to live together. Residence hall advisors are there to help them. But, RA burnout is

New Technology Rating System

STEP, as a complement to LEED, introduces ways of using technology to manage building systems, such as HVAC and lights, in order to make the building more energy-efficient during operation. Moreover, the existence of STEP stands to spur major end users of

The Play's the Thing

The designs of campus performance spaces and their interiors are important on various levels. First, there's the crucial need to have attractive, well-equipped facilities well suited for academics and productions. Then, there's also the prestige

Take It Outside

The appearance and features that make up an institution's exterior environment are almost as important as its indoor spaces. Well-designed and maintained outdoor spaces provide places for both interaction and learning and can have a significant impact on

Education Transformation

Higher-ed pedagogy is adjusting to a student-centered style of education, multiple learning modalities, and technology. Until very recently, faculty have been "digital immigrants," while today's students are "digital natives" who are a

PACT Mentoring Program

This holistic PACT model is fundamentally different than most programs as it provides one person as a "go-to" source, thereby eliminating the frustration that students experience when assistance is fragmented into segregated silos, such as singl

International Competition

Higher education is not immune to international competition. Not all that long ago, the United States was "the" place to go for a college education; foreign students were scrambling to attend U.S. colleges and universities. But that is changing

Integrated Campus Security

With students, faculty, staff, security officers, and campus police officers integrated into a campus security effort, well-integrated security technology will work faster, better, and more effectively.

What's Next

What does the future hold? College Planning & Management asks industry leaders what to expect in the upcoming year… and the answers may surprise you.

What Students Want

Here are four brand-new food service projects that demonstrate what can be accomplished when students are involved in the design process, as well as how the space benefits the entire campus community.

Useful, Green, and Community-Minded

Conversion of use — adapting existing structures for unintentional occupancy — is a smart way for colleges to be green and save green. Reuse is more environmentally sustainable than new construction and significantly less expensive. Done right,

Community Colleges Must Lead the Way in Reshaping Higher Education

This is a critical time for the American community college. I've seen what can happen when an industry ignores the need for innovation and reform from within, and it's certain that higher education is headed down the same path if we do not respond. Now is

The Things I've Learned 2011

What I've learned is that there are some changes that I happily embrace and there are others that I simply need to force myself to accept as part of doing business or living life. Either way, I now know that, no matter what, change is going to happen

Total Cost of Ownership

Organizations have shifted into hyper-reactive, lesser-of-evils mode to survive using the same methods of "yesterday" in order to fulfill higher demands of today. Such is the impetus for the now familiar term: Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). No b

Ensuring Safety in a New Facility

Those of us in the fire and life safety field need to spend the summer preparing new fire and life safety plans for new buildings. Staff and faculty may move from one part of campus to another, but they will need to be trained on new fire and life safety

Getting Creative With Strategic Partnerships

In tough economic times, colleges and universities are finding creative revenue solutions. Colorado State University recently signed two corporate partnerships that go beyond traditional corporate sponsorships normally inked with universities (think spons

What's New in Washington and Around the Nation?

Fritz Edelstein compiles education news of note from the Department of Education, the Hill, and other sources.

Enhancing Light Quality, Reducing Energy Costs

The energy cost savings and performance contracting achieved by the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences allowed the University of Rhode Island to direct funds that would be spent normally on energy bills and maintenance costs into investments withi

When Is a Good Time?

People take little things for granted; a light will turn on when you hit the switch, a sink will drain after you pull the plug, and fields will be groomed and ready for action. Of course it takes a team of technicians to keep your campus up and running. T

Maintaining Security

Because they rely so much on technology, all college and university facilities directors, fire and life-safety managers, and police and security officers have the same nightmare: something bad happens and the technology fails to perform, allowing disaster

Choosing Metal

With its many attributes, including sustainability, long-term cost savings, durability, aesthetics, design flexibility, price, and more, metal makes an obvious option for higher education new construction or retrofit projects.

The Newest Trends in Digital Signage

What are the trends for 2011 in regard to digital signage, and how is this technology used for emergencies, wayfinding, entertainment, and more? This article will answer those questions and provide some insight into what may be coming in the next few year

The Future of Evidence-Based Design

Traditionally associated with healthcare architecture, evidence-based design (EBD) is making inroads into being part of the process for designing schools, office spaces, hotels, restaurants, museums, prisons, and even residences. In short, EBD is when dec

The Impact of Poverty on Education

There is no question that having a good education has a profound and positive impact on the individual student, the community, the labor market, the economy, and the country. Not having an adequate education increases unemployment rates and decreases earn

Employment and Job Openings Up in Higher Ed

According to the Higher Education Employment Report for the first quarter of 2011 from HigherEdJobs, "The number of jobs in higher education grew 3.3 percent during the first quarter of 2011." This is the fastest growth in higher-ed jobs since 2

Using Pattern Matching and Recognition

Over the past decade we have learned a great deal from the relatively small number of campus employees who properly detect our presence while conducting these types of assessments. Consistently, we find that the people who report us to security and police

Clean and Green at UNT

Replacing unsustainable energy sources with clean wind collection will reduce UNT's carbon emissions, as well as energy costs. Ultimately, the turbines will help UNT meet its goal of becoming a carbon-neutral institution by producing clean, renewable elec

Time for a Checkup

Now is a great time to perform a facilities checkup. This is not so much a full facility audit per se, but more of a systems or functions check. The intended outcome here is exactly the same as when a person goes to the doctor for a physical to make sure

Furnishings With Flexibility

As buildings age, budgets tighten, and tuitions rise, colleges and universities need to stretch their dollars through dual-purpose solutions that create environments to attract and retain students and faculty. The design of educational facilities is shift

Evaluating the Viability of Cloud Computing

Many in the higher education community already have cloud computing services in their portfolios, such as Blackboard, but which they don't think of as being in the cloud. Once that realization sets in, it'll be a natural next step to begin evalu

Appropriate in Any Climate

The need to get the most for the money means that administrators are often choosing building options other than "traditional" construction, including the use of precast, modular, and insulated concrete forms for a project's structure. The g

Student-Centered Dining Design

Today's campus dining design blends individual spaces to create a contemporary and fresh experience. The back kitchen area has been integrated with the front-of-house spaces, providing a graceful, flowing environment inviting to everyone. Dining and

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