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…

On February 17, 2009, in the midst of economic turmoil and one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). This law is intended to: (1) promote job preservation and creation; (2) invest in infrastructure projects; (3) increase economic efficiency;…

In a recent vote, members of the EDUCAUSE community selected the "Top Teaching and Learning Challenges" for 2009. The overlap among these challenges testifies to an emerging consensus in the thinking about learning environments in higher education. On the other hand, the fact that they remain "challenges" hints at a larger…

The Learning Landscape is the total context for students' learning experiences and the diverse landscape of learning settings available today--from specialized to multipurpose, from formal to informal, and from physical to virtual. The goal of the Learning Landscape approach is to acknowledge this richness and maximize encounters among people,…

The Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education provides funding and priority recommendations for the Nebraska State College's, the University of Nebraska's and the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture at Curtis' capital construction requests, as outlined in Nebraska's Constitution and Statutes. The overarching principle used in this…

The dream--combining two nationally recognized Cincinnati Public Schools, the current School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) for grades 4-12 and Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment for grades K-3, into the new K-12 School for Creative and Performing Arts--has come true. This article discusses how Cincinnati made it to reality.…

Background: One way to address childhood obesity is to create outlets for children to engage in physical activity. Schools are well equipped to provide an active environment. However, some school boards and administrators are concerned about liability risks. This study describes the legal rules applicable to potential claims against public schools…

The education headlines have been filled with grim news about facility closings, teacher layoffs and program cutbacks. When the economic climate is gloomy, few areas of schools and universities are spared. In areas outside the classroom, such as safety and security, the cuts may be larger and come more quickly. When money is scarce, education…

This article explores how third space theory might be used within literacy classrooms as a means of better understanding student learning resistance and devising ways to overcome it. The author uses vignettes from an 11th-grade student's efforts to contest spatial use within his language arts class as springboards to further consider how third…

A high school is more than a building; it's a repository of memories for many community members. High schools built at the turn of the century are not only cultural and civic landmarks, they are also often architectural treasures. When these facilities become outdated, a renovation that preserves the building's aesthetics and character is usually…

Small, liberal arts colleges can be unlikely partners for international partnerships. With limited numbers of faculty members, a focus on teaching rather than research, educational facilities as opposed to research facilities, and undergraduate populations, they often are looked at skeptically by potential partners in countries with no liberal…

All buildings convey meaning--whether or not that was intended by architect and client--and it has little to do with questions of budget, architectural style, or self-expression. The architecture of a university's campus is an open book that most people have forgotten how to read. A campus is an edited statement of the institution's self-image.…

In this article the possibility of developing authentic project work in a sixth-grade classroom of a Venezuelan school is explored, by means of action research (AR) methodology. Two AR cycles with two different projects were carried out. Data were collected via teacher researcher, co-researcher and student journals, and also by means of audio and…

When Bill Elvey became APPA's new President at the association's conference in San Antonio in July, he was at home in more ways than one. A native Texan, he grew up in San Antonio and met his wife-to-be there--in the seventh grade. Last fall, after an absence of 31 years, he came back to Texas as director of facilities management at the University…

When October 2007 dawned, the only thing that Catherine Anne Bentley, Shae Kiernan, and Ashton Bonds had in common was that they were in the process of winding their way through various stages of their educations. By October 15, all three had lost their lives as a result of contracting Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an…