Facilities

Mark J. O’Gorman’s presentation stuck out amid the normal conference fare. He wasn't in town to discuss "successes" or "best practices." His talk had the word “failure” in the title.

“Whatever scorecard you’re using to talk about sustainability…it’s not good enough,” O’Gorman said Tuesday at the Society for College and University Planning Annual Conference, meeting this week in Montreal. The full title of his session was "Reconciling a Sustainability Failure: Green Planning But No Green Building."

To facilitate more interactive teaching, one college considers a different type of classroom. The barriers to building it are instructive of sometimes conflicting trends in college planning.

Many community colleges attempt to build support for bond referendums during tough economic times, attempting to fund building expansions for growing enrollments.

In first major benchmark of Presidents Climate Commitment, charter signatories report on their current greenhouse gas emissions. Many miss the deadline.

New report card finds growth of green practices at colleges, but more so when it comes to their campuses -- building green and buying local foods -- than their endowments.

Colleges reserve spaces for hybrids or car-poolers to encourage environmentally friendlier commuting.

Consortium of research universities considers steps to support cross-departmental research by making changes at faculty and administrative levels.

Pratt Institute pursues a two-pronged approach to greening its campus and curriculum, hoping to produce graduates who design with the environment in mind.

Eight women who work in literature building at UC San Diego have had breast cancer since 2000. Two died. Walkout planned to demand action against "cluster" in facility university insists is safe.

Public and private colleges begin to benefit from recovery law, securing capital funds more easily or cheaply.