Facing enrollment declines that date to the Great Recession and accelerated during the worst of the pandemic, community colleges are redoubling their focus on student-readiness to seem--and become--as welcoming as possible. These efforts include: (1) ramping up student equity, diversity, and inclusion; (2) becoming more trauma-informed and…

On October 20, 2023, Red Crow Community College ("Mikaisto") board of governors, elders, staff, and students made their grand entry into their long-awaited new campus. This marked a new era for adult education on the Kainai First Nation Blood Tribe, in Stand Off, Alberta, Canada. The college's former campus was located at St. Mary's…

Faculty, administration, and student veterans at a small midwestern community college collaborated to develop a Veterans Resource Center, a physical space in which veterans can congregate to build camaraderie and find resources specific to their needs as veterans. A needs analysis was first conducted to prioritize the needs of the student veteran…

Research suggests that the appearance of a college campus--both inside and out--is a significant criterion in college selection. As community colleges are finding it increasingly important to attract and retain students, placemaking is becoming an effective and efficient platform to support recruitment and retention. Placemaking is imagining and…

This paper identifies approaches, challenges, and best practices related to planning and designing today's academic library learning spaces. As part of the Project Information Literacy (PIL) Practitioner Series, qualitative data is presented from 49 interviews conducted with a sample of academic librarians, architects, and library consultants.…

The experiences and needs of college students who identify on the transgender spectrum (androgynous, gender nonconforming, genderqueer, transfeminine, transmaculine, transgender, etc.) have begun to be explored in recent years, but this work has largely been limited to four-year colleges and universities. Virtually no research has considered the…

While it is too early to measure changes in fall 2011 enrollments, overcrowding on campuses is likely to remain a problem, at least for the foreseeable future. For community colleges, many of which face steep budget cuts in the coming year, the challenge will be how to draw back spending without negatively affecting the student experience.…

This report explores classrooms and adjacent corridors which, when combined, form one of the central areas within the college campus. Additionally, this report questions why these areas do not reflect learning centered principles and flexibility in their physical design. This report incorporates research by those who have explored and in some…

The emerging and expanding green economy has the potential to create not just jobs, but career opportunities across the United States as green manufacturing, green products, and green services fuel demand for workers at all skill levels. Community colleges are leading the way in defining and addressing these opportunities. They are: developing…

After a 35-year building hiatus, the nine colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) needed a major facelift. Facilities on LACCD campuses were antiquated and had fallen into disrepair. For years, students voiced dismay, saying their campuses resembled high schools rather than colleges. Inadequate infrastructure drove many…

This article will discuss the renovation and redesign project that took place at Gadsden State Community College's Austin R. Meadows Library. The process will be explained along with lessons learned and things to avoid. In addition, a cost breakdown will be provided. (Contains 2 tables.)

When it comes to environmental savvy, Delta College (Michigan) is like a lot of small institutions of higher education: It has a passel of green efforts underway, which could fall under all sorts of headings. The IT organization at the 11,000-student community college campus has virtualized its server operations and is on track to roll out a…

This study aimed to construct the organizational innovation indicators of technical universities and institutes. This study held a group discussion and expert focus meeting and afterward, this study generalized seven facets of school organizational innovation: leadership innovation, administration innovation, student guidance and activity…

Lured by the recognition that comes with a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, many schools and universities have become aware of that certification process. But for years, the involvement was limited to a few trendsetters; according to the Green Building Council's database, only about…

This article reports several two-year institutions who are seeking out architects to create impressive new buildings as well as imaginative renovations of humdrum buildings from the 1960s and 1970s. Johnson County Community College, in Overland Park, Kansas, opened a limestone-sheathed museum, designed by Kyu Sung Woo Architects, that the "Kansas…