When establishing institutional priorities, the institution should evaluate current needs and predict future needs. These needs should be driven by the institution's mission statement as well as what the students, faculty, and staff are requesting. These moves should be sustainable , and address the need without going back to apply a second fix. For example, my homeschool Utah Valley University has had a major problem with parking. This is an ongoing issue that has topped multiple student and faculty evaluations. However, after spending millions of dollars and years to time to construct this lot, the parking structure did little to fix the issue. Now, years later, they are needing to go back and create a new solution to an old problem. The new solution looks promising. The school is building a large parking lot in a across the freeway in a brown lot and constructing a skywalk for students to cross. Because this is a joint project, UVU was able to secure funding from UTA & UDOT to help pay for the project (Mckinnon, 2019). This project encompasses all of the criteria for smart growth as outlined by NACUBO (2007). It utilizes unused property, it creates sustainability for the environment and the community, it is a long term solution to a prevalent problem, and the cost not wholly burdened by the school.
Courtney Discussion:
In a time where the nation is still dealing with the Coronavirus Pandemic, institutions are reeling. Attempting growth at a time like this is quite precarious. However, it is a necessity that colleges and universities make adjustments to continue to make forward progress towards their goals. “Colleges and universities that adopt smart growth strategies as they seek to accommodate growth can realize significant benefits,” (National Association College and University Business Officers, 2007, p. 15). In the current state, institutions should place a freeze “on ordering new equipment” to focus on moving the student experience virtual (Barr & McClellan, 2018, p. 119). Moving the institution to a virtual format is beneficial at this time due to traveling restrictions and mandatory quarantine for exposed individuals. In the long term, these online offerings can lead the institution into creating new programming that can be used to bring in additional tuition revenue if it is marketed to students outside of the institution’s normal footprint. Though, it will take some time, the revenue from the new online courses can potentially offset the losses caused by the pandemic. As there is no end to the pandemic in sight, if institution want to bring students back to campus full time, they will have to invest in upgrading on-campus housing to ensure that students can be separated by 6 ft. There will need to be additional course sections for the heavily populated courses. This means more professors and additional custodial staff as classrooms and laboratories will need to be cleaned more frequently.
Barr, M. J., & McClellan, G. S. (2018). Budgets and Financial Management in Higher Education (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
National Association College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). (2007). Communities of opportunity: Smart growth strategies for colleges and universities. Retrieved from: file:///C:/Users/ramelm2/Downloads/81470500_FINAL_SmartGrowthReport_081707%20(1).pdf