Learning to view the world through a different lens can be most revealing. Maximizing our efforts to build safer facilities by problem seeking can be an invaluable tool to reduce risk, exposure to civil liability and, most importantly, to improve safety.
While campus mail services are designed to process incoming and outgoing mail, there are many ways in which this is accomplished. Since no single system is the best, the question then becomes: What makes for a department that successfully serves students,
We need a quality education system in order to grow the students who will become the talented scientists and engineers needed to keep us ahead of the curve. But in order to improve education, we too must invest in innovation.
Apps are perhaps best known from smartphones such as the iPhone, but they now exist on nearly every active digital device we use, from wristwatches to cars. Clearly, application software has been around a long time. But the new generation of apps is funda
Recognizing a paradigm shift, colleges and universities across the continent are undergoing revitalization to achieve an "interprofessional education," or IPE, learning model and are creating the new physical space to accommodate it. In the IPE
The most visually arresting, modern, and up-to-date design won't succeed if occupants can't hear over all of the bells and whistles. How can schools create cafeterias and other social spaces to shout about, not over?
When the headmaster of Cushing Academy, James Tracy, announced his school's plans to remove all the books from its library, the pronouncement did not go unnoticed. Not only the school community, but the public at large, had swift and strong reactions to t
With multiple projects on tight, firm deadlines, it was essential for the designers, construction managers, sub-contractors, and engineers to function as a seamless team working from the same playbook. The only way to achieve this cohesion for Lewis Unive
The level of difficulty in trouble shooting a noise problem varies greatly as well. Sometimes the problem is easy to solve in theory, but the solution is arduous to implement in the field. Other times the only item prohibiting a solution to the problem is
There are often occasions where one discipline can learn valuable concepts from another discipline. For example, campus leaders can learn a great deal about decision making under pressure from public safety and emergency professionals. Law enforcement off
Introduced into the House on April 22, HR 5116, America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, is an attempt to concentrate federal resources to establish revise, and extend specified STEM programs and engineering, research, and training programs according
In reviewing this year's Living on Campus survey, I was quite frankly surprised at the number of comments we received on student behavior -- ranging from alcohol use to lack of personal responsibility. This topic has come up before, but this year it seeme
Maintaining and upgrading your fire alarm systems can become a frustrating battle, especially if you have fire alarm systems equipment from different manufacturers installed in various buildings on your campus. You can implement a strategic plan to mainta
Tablets like the iPad are extremely useful to individual members of our society and are really cool devices. However, it seems they fall short of providing both the receiving and generation of content capabilities required in an educational environment.
Ask yourself, if you were constructing that same building today, would you install the systems you installed 50 years ago? Could they run mechanical and electrical systems at the highest efficiency, recapture waste heat and at the same time provide year-r
An innovative re-use of material destined for the landfill wooden bleachers is just one aspect of sustainable initiatives underway at Vermont's Johnson State College.
The LEED-Gold certified renovation of Oregon State University's (OSU) Kearney Hall demonstrates how to successfully balance history and sustainability within a modern learning environment designed so that the building itself becomes a teaching tool.
If you've never thought about the idea of green or sustainable or eco-friendly IT, you may be surprised to learn that green computing has a huge and growing following among IT directors generally and a number of K-12 school district IT directors.
The design and construction industry had a difficult year in 2009, to say the least. However, green building has been a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster year, and there is no sign of that changing in 2010. Eco-friendly school design is on the radar
As part of its campus-wide sustainability initiatives, Luther College brings vermicomposting to residence halls.
The annual energy bill to operate America's primary and secondary schools totals nearly $8 billion more than is spent on textbooks and computers combined. With rising operating costs and tighter budgets, a growing number of school districts ar