Planning campus space: Strategic planning round three

Over 100 students, faculty, and staff gathered to discuss the fate of the college over dinner in Seegers Great Room the evening of Feb. 23.

This event was the February community Strategic Planning meeting. Strategic Planning is a long-term planning process stemming from college and community identified goals, strengths, and weaknesses. The overall goal of Strategic Planning is to give the college a competitive advantage in an ever-changing world, and as every speaker at the event stressed, feedback from the entire community is incredibly important.

After warm welcomes from President Williams, Interim Provost and Vice President and Dean of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning Kathy Harring reminded everyone of the Strategic Plan’s two main goals: Strengthening Engaged Liberal Arts Learning and Scholarship, and Developing an Increasingly Vibrant Residential Life. She then broke down the two goals into four or five subgoals before reviewing the timeline of the project. The Strategic Planning Group, the 20 individual faculty, staff and students who oversee the whole process, hope to have a draft to present at the board of trustees meeting in April.

A major focus of the night was space, as Harring stated, referencing the results of a college-wide analysis system called SWOT, where individuals and groups alike provided a list of what they perceived to be the College’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

“Across almost all the 63 SWOT analyses we got from student, faculty, and staff groups, space was mentioned as an area that needed to be addressed,” said Harring.

To help identify and solve these problems of space, the Muhlenberg community was joined by four representatives from Wallace Roberts and Todd (WRT) Urban Design, Principal, Architect and Urban Designer Maarten Pesch, Senior Associate and Urban Designer Yogesh Saoji, Campus Planner and Landscape Architect Donna Zalecky and Dixi Wang.

WRT’s goal for the night was to locate upcoming problems they would need to fix. To do that, the room was divided up into four categories: Student Life, Residential Life and Space, Campus Setting and Academic Facilities and Space. Each table was topped with one of four different colored cards, a map of campus and a stack of paper with the same color header on the top. Each paper contained two major questions related to that specific table’s topic. At almost every table was one of the 19 members of the SPG.

Attendees were presented with the prompts and discussion ensued. After some time, each table went up to one of the large sheets of paper stuck around the room and recorded their findings. The four representatives from WRT floated between tables of the same category and read the pads of paper, which they summarized at the end.

The Campus Setting groups identified a lack of consistent wifi on campus as well as a shortage of parking spaces, and the distance to the nearest baseball/ softball field. They also mentioned the College’s mixture of old and new architecture.

The Academic Facility groups discussed the use of interdisciplinary and collaborative spaces, making note of how those spaces are the methods of future learning. They also suggested all-around upgrading of classrooms in general, and the line between having Muhlenberg space and a department’s own space. They also suggested more spaces for the Wescoe School and better room scheduling.

Wang discussed the need brought up by the Student Life and Space groups for more collaborative spaces around campus, similar to those in GQ, along with the suggestion for more whiteboards, colorful rooms and natural lighting.

Pesch brought up the idea from Residential Life and Space that not all dorms have air conditioning, which is something that is needed to draw in more prospective students. He also mentioned how the Multicultural Center should have a more central location on campus. Pesch shared the idea of moving more leisure spaces to the edge of campus so members of the surrounding community could use them, as well as the lack of parking and lack of access to study spaces.

Harring was overall impressed with the turnout.

“I was thrilled with the number of faculty, staff, and students who participated in the event and provided excellent feedback on campus spaces,” said Harring, “I learned a great deal from students about the things they would like to see in residence halls, as well as much needed study and social space. What was even more exciting was how students, faculty and staff at the individual tables were able to build on each other’s ideas. This is the value of community planning events.”

Justin Frankl, ‘18, wanted to do what he could.

“I wanted to attend the meeting to find out how I could make Muhlenberg a better place,” said Frankl.

The last community Strategic Planning event was held the beginning of November. The SWOT were collected at the end of September from over 60 different student organizations.

A finished copy of the Strategic plan is set to be presented at the Board of Trustees meeting in April.

Students can check out the Strategic Planning Website at muhlenberg.edu/ strategicplan/ or e-mail Capital Projects Manager David Rabold with any questions.

Photos courtesy of Haris Bhatti