Learning behaviors within the college union has long been critical to the mission of college student union facilities and those who work within them. The rising costs of construction and renovation have created pause as administrators seek data and answers to justify expenses for these facilities. This study aimed to develop an instrument to measure environmental factors and academic engagement and how they impact one another within student union facilities. Using Gifford's (2014) model for human-environment impacts in an educational setting, a 37-item original survey was developed to measure environment and academic engagement. The student union environmental factors survey was administered to students at a large research institution in the southeast. Responses from the sample (n=340) were subjected to exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factory analysis to explore the factors of environment and academic engagement. The results suggest that environment can be described as three separate factors: comfort and activity, visual appeal, and sound and solitude. Additionally, through the factor analysis, academic engagement was found to be better defined as learning behaviors. The results of this interdisciplinary study indicate three key findings: the exploration of theoretical frameworks from a variety of fields and disciplines is necessary for the advancement of research within higher education, purposeful instrument design can define specific environmental factors and learning behaviors within college student union facilities, and scholar practitioners must collect data that draws clear connections to learning behaviors within informal learning environments so they can be designed with a critical eye and intentionality. This instrument allows for facilities to evolve in ways to best promote learning behaviors, a core focus of college student unions since their inception. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]