The University of Oregon campus is the workplace, study center, or home to some 24,000 students, faculty, and staff. The campus environment—in its built and natural forms—plays a central role in the lives and work of the University as well as in the broader Eugene and Oregon communities. University alumni report their desire to return to the campus as a key factor in maintaining their ongoing relationships with the University. The campus represents in its design the University’s history and mission, and it must support the daily needs of faculty, students, and staff for a usable and beautiful learning environment.
The University faces important challenges and opportunities in relation to the UO campus of the future. Enrollment growth to historically high levels and a recent spate of construction (completed and in progress, as well as planned) have pushed the campus population and built environments to new density levels. Declining state support for higher education, coupled with greater University fiscal autonomy and the initiation of a major multi-year Comprehensive Campaign of fund-raising will produce new possibilities for University growth and development. Meanwhile, surveys of college and university trends indicate that campus aesthetics and amenities are a primary consideration in attracting students, and the UO finds itself increasingly recruiting students in a national and international higher education “marketplace”.
There are additional challenges and opportunities: The west university neighborhood has seen several riots in recent years that have highlighted the homogenous and declining state of that neighborhood. The commercial areas adjacent to campus are small and lack some of the cultural and intellectual amenities characteristic of great college towns (for example, Eugene’s two largest general bookstores are not within walking distance of the University; the only comprehensive magazine vendor is downtown, out of walking range).
At the same time, the University of Oregon faculty has an extraordinary range of intellectual resources and experience that can be brought to these issues with the aim of putting forward ideas to help shape the future of campus development. The goal of such an effort should be to contribute to the campus and community-wide dialogue on campus planning in an effort to ensure the UO is a world-class campus in the 21st century, one where the built environment is a tribute to its human and historic uses, and where the natural environment is supported and recognized as part of our ecological place.
Recognizing this, the University Senate establishes a Ad Hoc Campus Vision Committee, with the following charges and responsibilities:
Committee Charge:
The Senate charge for the committee is elaborated under “Process” issues and “Assessment” issues below. Importantly, the committee should endeavor to coordinate its work with, and support, the efforts of the Campus Planning Committee, which is undertaking an update of the Long Range Campus Development Plan. The chairs of the Senate Campus Vision Committee should consult regularly with the chair of the Campus Planning Committee so that information flows both ways and so that the Campus Planning Committee benefits from the committee’s work.
It is not intended that the work of the Senate Campus Vision Committee will encompass detailed planning initiatives; rather the committee’s role is seen as one of evaluating the processes, and conceptual and philosophical principles, that would contribute to creating a visionary UO campus for the 21st century. In particular, the committee should consider ways in which the UO’s international reputation as a leader in environmental studies and sciences, and the sustainable business and planning disciplines, can be reflected in its planning and development processes, and in its built environment.
Process Issues:
1. The committee should evaluate the current status of the University long-range planning process, including how faculty are utilized in that process, the opportunities for campus and community input, the role of user-groups, and other aspects of the planning process the committee deems important.
2. The committee should address the University-city interface in terms of the planning and development process. This would include how the University interfaces with surrounding neighborhoods at its edges, as well as how issues in surrounding neighborhoods that relate to the University and the livability of the broader campus community are identified and brought into the planning process.
3. The committee should address the process by which commercial development is encouraged and regulated on campus and in the immediate campus community. This would include examination of the process by which vendors are awarded contracts for campus commerce, and it could include an assessment of what new processes may be necessary to encourage the maintenance or development of desirable services or amenities in the surrounding campus community.
4. The committee should address the role of design guidelines and architectural input in the mid- and longer-term UO plans for construction and the campus landscape.
Assessment Issues:
1. The committee should assess resources (historic, natural, architectural, etc.) on and adjacent to campus that should be preserved and maintained (e.g. the cemetery, open spaces, playing fields, historic buildings, etc.).
2. The committee should assess how commercial areas on and off campus relate to the quality of campus and city life. This would include an assessment of what desirable services or amenities are missing and what steps might be taken to encourage their development.
3. The committee should address the role of student housing on the campus in contributing to a ‘living and learning’ university environment, and evaluate the general principles that should inform the process of housing construction and renovation that will occur over the next decade. This would include assessment of the impacts of increased density resulting from housing and enrollment growth.
Reporting and Timetable:
The role of a research university is to push forward the level of knowledge in diverse fields. As such, in addition to reporting to the University Senate, one of the committee’s central goals should be to educate the University and broader Oregon communities about the key roles of cutting-edge design, innovative processes, and environmental planning in creating a model campus.
The committee should make at least a preliminary written report to the University Senate in the spring of 2004. In addition to written reports to the Senate and University community, the committee may undertake to publish its findings in scholarly journals or the trade press, and it should consider making visual presentations of its work in forums, a campus town-hall meeting, or similar venue.
The committee should identify any key issues in the above areas that it feels require attention in the near-term, and bring these to the attention of the Senate and Administration.
In terms of timetable, the committee should begin meeting in the spring of 2003, and continue to meet through the 2003-04 academic year. Depending on the committee’s progress and work-plan, the committee may decide to continue through the 2004-05 academic year.
The membership of the committee will be appointed by the University Senate President with the advice of the Senate Executive Committee.