How is COVID-19 Impacting the Physical Campus?

Through planning and design, Ayers Saint Gross helps institutions align their physical environment with their mission and vision. Our clients are making significant changes to the configuration and operations of their campuses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, we sent a survey to individuals in the academic, administrative, facilities, and student life departments of higher educational institutions across the United States about how back-to-campus strategy might impact forward-looking decisions about campus development. We received 71 responses from 53 institutions and are thankful to every participant for their insights.

How is COVID-19 Impacting the Physical Campus?

THE FIRST FEW MONTHS // JULY 2020

Key Themes

1 COVID-19 is accelerating classroom and workplace shifts that were already underway. Near-term investments in these areas can pay off in the long run.

2

3

Social distancing can inhibit experiential learning, community building, and research. View these as temporary shifts and prioritize operational changes.

Reopening impacts each campus and its community members differently. Focus on the unique institutional mission, and consider all perspectives when planning.

All campuses can reflect on resiliency in light of the insights outlined on the following pages. What is it that makes your institution distinctive? What aspects of this crisis threaten your ability to deliver on that offering? What creative opportunities exist to minimize those disruptions? How can you position yourself to be more resilient in the future?

These are questions that may not be answerable immediately, but they are critical.

We hope this summary provides a window into the experience of planning for the future of college and university campuses in this uncertain time.

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1

COVID-19 is accelerating classroom and workplace shifts that were already underway. Near-term investments in these areas can pay off in the long run.

Lecture Halls

Workplace

Online operations suggest that lecture courses are not

Our survey participants expect this crisis to create long-term

essential in-person activities. Our survey participants indicate

workplace shifts. A lasting shift in where work happens offers

that COVID-19 can accelerate a shift away from needing large

future efficiencies. Embracing remote work and investing

lecture spaces. Investments that allow online lecture courses

in the technologies that support it are near-term actions that

to be delivered successfully this fall could create a long-term

can drive long-term gains.

shift that frees up space for more essential in-person activities.

• Nearly three quarters of responding institutions believe all or most lecture courses could effectively remain online in the fall 2020 semester.

• Less than one fifth said shifting lecture-based content online had been one of their biggest challenges.

Large lecture halls require substantial investments of space and

• Most participants evaluate faculty and staff working remotely during social distancing as either good or excellent.

Think their team’s remote work is going well

72% Anticipate more online office hours this fall

increases in digital meetings and partial work-from-home schedules for faculty and staff.

• One fifth see more full-time work-from-home schedules going forward. Partial work-from-home models introduce new options for focused work that may not necessarily

programs, the efficacy of lecture-based teaching has been

require an on-campus private office.

• Most feel that all or most faculty office hours can

new spaces: a single 4,000 NASF, 260-seat lecture hall could

effectively remain online this fall. Facilitating office hours

open up space for four 25-seat active learning classrooms and an

in person has historically been a driver of private faculty

additional 800 NASF of informal study or maker space.

office assignments.

Ayers Saint Gross—2020 // How is COVID-19 Impacting the Physical Campus?

72%

• Over half of participating institutions see long-term

money. While their use varies across institutions and degree questioned for many years. Repurposing them can add dynamic

The Future of the Workplace Environment

53% See long-term increase in digital meetings

To capitalize on these opportunities, institutions need to find ways to reduce private office space. Office space is typically 25-30% of non-residential space on a university campus, and even slight shifts can transform the workplace experience and alter the demand for on-campus space.

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2

Social distancing can inhibit experiential learning, community building, and research. View these as temporary shifts and prioritize operational changes.

Campus Reopening As/if you plan to re-open your campus, which do you think will be the most important spaces to open first? Which will require the most physical change to reopen?

Spaces ordered by FICM Code

Teaching and Research Laboratories

Residence Halls and Dining

The experience of shifting to a fully online campus brought

After a mass move off campus, students have missed out on

into clear focus which in-person activities are of highest

the opportunity to live independently and interact with others.

value. The experience students have in teaching labs and

Unfortunately, for some students, leaving campus also means

studios are valued highly. For research-intensive institutions,

losing a safe place to live and the support and resources they

research laboratories are equally important and difficult to

need to thrive. Dining venues provide an essential service,

operate remotely.

but distancing erodes their role in community building.

• Nearly three quarters of responding institutions indicated

• Nearly half of participating institutions said residence

that ensuring student access to lab and studio content was a top three challenge in shifting to an online campus.

• Across the board, teaching labs and studios are one of the most important spaces for institutions to open first. Nearly

halls were a top three space to open first.

• Dining spaces were most frequently selected as requiring the most physical change to reopen.

• Half of participating institutions with on-campus housing felt

all said that some or no labs and studio courses would

residence halls can be made more resilient against threats

remain online this fall.

like COVID-19 through capacity and/or operational change.

• Research-intensive institutions report similar focus on

• Some respondents wondered how changes in residence

research laboratories: over a third left these labs open,

hall capacity might impact neighboring communities

and nearly half say research activity has been a top

as students would shift off campus.

three challenge of shifting online.

Housing plays a foundational role in experiential learning,

Hands-on learning and specialized research have

community building, and advancing justice, equity, diversity,

transformational impacts on students and society that

and inclusion. Dining facilities are a primary venue for

cannot always be replicated virtually.

out-of-classroom collaboration and relationship-building.

As the public health risk abates, we see great value in reprioritizing the student experience to support interactions.

Ayers Saint Gross—2020 // How is COVID-19 Impacting the Physical Campus?

Classroom (Lecture-Based) Classroom (Active Learning) Teaching Labs & Studios Research Labs Office Space Library Collaboration + Study Space Athletics Recreation Large Auditorium + Performance Space Dining Student Services Space Support + Facilities Space Student Health Care + Counseling Facilities Residential Facilities Campus Open Space Other 0

10

20

30

40

50

Percent Responding

Most important spaces to reopen first

Spaces that will require the most physical change to reopen

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3

Reopening impacts each campus and its community members differently. Focus on the unique institutional mission, and consider all perspectives when planning.

Community

Finances

Unique Value

Campus planners are concerned about

Finances are a near- and long-term

Where possible, institutions are aligning

their community and the experiences

concern for institutions potentially facing

near-term changes with their long-term

they are missing. These losses are

decreased enrollment, shock waves

vision, or they are making strategic,

especially significant for students,

from the overall economic decline, and

short-term operational changes. However,

faculty, and staff who depend on the

increased expenses as they implement

distancing protocols are more challenging

campus as a place to live and/or work

social distancing, intensive cleaning

for some institutions than others,

and for access to resources and services.

practices, and the infrastructure to

particularly when in-person experiences

support remote operations.

are part of their unique character.

• Over half of respondents think the

• Over a quarter of institutions who

• Most survey respondents added specific comments that students are missing out on interaction by not

financial impacts will be challenging

participated in our survey think this

being on campus.

and require cuts in other areas of

crisis could change fundamental tenets

their budgets, and an additional fifth

of their strategic plan, making it even

about the personal interactions they

are very concerned that financial

more difficult to navigate reopening

themselves are missing, even when

implications might threaten operations.

and prioritize investments.

• They also expressed concerns

they feel that work-from-home has been effective.

• Only 11% of respondents feel

impact on fully residential campuses.

can be identified to address COVID-19.

Having all students live together on

challenges and concerns related

Further underscoring anxiety and

campus is a distinctive offering that

to staff well-being and productivity.

uncertainty, an equal number chose

fuels experiential learning. Moving

not to answer this question at all.

some students off campus significantly

The physical campus environment helps

undermines their model.

build community between all stakeholders.

For institutions making cuts to fund

Planning and decision-making should

COVID-19 response, prioritizing investments

incorporate and value as diverse a range

with long-term value can lessen the pain.

of perspectives as possible.

How concerned are you about having adequate financial resources to address the impact of COVID-19 on facilities?* *unweighted

3% 11%

11%

55% 20%

• This particular crisis has had an acute

confident that financial resources

• Several comments referenced

Finances

Maintaining a focus on core strengths and distinctive offerings is especially important

55%

20%

11%

11% No response

Feel it will be challenging and cuts will need to be made elsewhere

Feel confident that resources can be identified

Are very concerned that the financial implications might threaten operations

3% Other

in times of uncertainty and fuels resiliency in overcoming challenges.

Ayers Saint Gross—2020 // How is COVID-19 Impacting the Physical Campus?

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CONCLUSION

Ayers Saint Gross Team

We see throughout the responses the uncertainty associated with COVID-19 and its

Ayers Saint Gross is an employee-owned design firm focused on mission-driven institutions.

ramifications over multiple time horizons: fall 2020, the months until a vaccine is developed, and over the next decade or more. Today, campus planners long for data to inform reopening.

What are best practices? What metrics should be used? How will this work? These are just some of the questions we all have for each other. Decisions with serious implications are being made simultaneously by institutions across the country, and this fall we will all learn the result. Precedent study is a common planning practice that is largely unavailable at this time. As campuses open their facilities and adjust their operations based on what works most effectively, precedents, case studies, and best practices will emerge. We plan to continue this research effort because we see a deeply rooted desire to inform decisions with lessons learned from others’ experiences. We invite you to engage in continued dialogue through future research and by contacting us directly.

Methodology Ayers Saint Gross has a longstanding commitment to gathering and sharing research with our college and university clients. This survey was born out of a desire to help our clients by gathering insights about how COVID-19 will impact college and university campuses. In June 2020 we sent a survey to individuals in the academic, administrative, facilities, and student life departments of higher educational institutions across the United States who have a relationship with Ayers Saint Gross. 71 responses were received from 53 institutions. 58% of institutions from which we received responses were public 4-year, 8% were public 2-year, and 34% were private. 57% had a Carnegie Classification of doctoral university with high or very high research activity. Unless noted or described in text as “respondents,” data was weighted by institution. The weighting methodology averaged responses received from the same institution to measure equally against

Ayers Saint Gross asg-architects.com Baltimore, MD Tempe, AZ Washington, DC

Jack Black is a principal, leading planning and architecture for higher education based in the Western region. He connects design opportunities to an institution’s strategic vision. jblack@asg-architects.com Sally Chinnis is an associate principal in the planning practice focused on campus strategies. She brings distinctive stories about mission and place together with analytics. schinnis@asg-architects.com Luanne Greene is the President of Ayers Saint Gross. Her collaborative vision for the firm centers on elevating design, integrating data, reducing carbon, and advancing equity. lgreene@asg-architects.com Katy Hunchar is the Director of Marketing and Business Development. She imagines new ways that we can shape the future of planning and design. khunchar@asg-architects.com Dori Landry is the Director of Client Relations. She makes connections throughout our collective network of relationships. dlandry@asg-architects.com Kevin Petersen is a principal, leading planning and architecture for higher education in the United States and internationally.

He focuses on near-term investments that drive long-term value creation. kpetersen@asg-architects.com Laura Wheaton is an associate in the planning team with extensive experience in engagement, including surveys. lwheaton@asg-architects.com

those from other institutions. For more details, please see: https://bit.ly/2Dkz37w

Ayers Saint Gross—2020 // How is COVID-19 Impacting the Physical Campus?

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